Guide to the Charles “Chuck” Tiffany Collection

Biography of Charles F. “Chuck” Tiffany

Charles F. "Chuck" Tiffany was born in 1929 and raised in Aitkin, Minnesota. After graduating from Aitkin High School in 1947 he attended Macalester College and the University of Minnesota where he received degrees in Civil Engineering and Mathematics. In 1952 he joined the Boeing Aircraft Company in Seattle as a stress analyst.

His career with Boeing (28 years) and the U.S.A.F. (8 years) progressed to Executive Vice-President of the Boeing Military Airplane Company. After retiring from Boeing in 1988, he was a private consultant on aircraft and aerospace vehicle structures for the U.S.A.F., D.O.D., NASA, FAA, National Academy of Engineering (N.A.E.), National Research Council, and all of industry.

Tiffany's area of expertise was airframe and propulsion structural design and damage tolerance. He led the development of new structural standards and specifications for improving aircraft safety and durability. He was a Member of the N.A.E. and was a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (A.I.A.A.). He received numerous awards and honors throughout his lifetime, including the Von Karman Memorial Award, the A.I.A.A. Structures, Material and Dynamics Award, the American Society of Mechanical Engineer's "The Spirit of St. Louis Medal," the John W. Lincoln Award, and the FAA Gold Medal. His work was captured in numerous technical papers and reports, including most recently, "Aging of U.S. Air Force Aircraft" and "Threats to Aircraft Structural Safety, Including a Compendium of Selected Structural Accidents/Incidents."

Charles Tiffany died October 12, 2014, in Tucson, AZ.

Scope and Content

The collection contains reports and papers produced by Mr. Tiffany during the course of his career as a leading engineer in the field of aircraft structural integrity. Also included are numerous awards, medals, and citations, and three scrapbooks with letters of commendation, photographs, news clippings, programs, and other materials related to his work. Researchers may find evidence of Tiffany's widespread influence on numerous aeronautic and aerospace projects in both the private sector and government.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Use

Copyright restrictions may apply. Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.

Restrictions on Access

Electronic files in this collection are not accessible until the files are fully processed. Requests to prioritize processing of electronic records in this collection can be submitted for consideration.

Oversize Loc 85, File 7 contains the AIAA Fellow Award.

Subject Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Persons:

Organizations/Corporations:

Places:

Material Types:

Preferred Citation

[Description of Item, Date, Box #, Folder #], MS-510, Charles "Chuck" Tiffany Collection, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.

Acquisition Information

The Charles "Chuck" Tiffany Collection was donated to Wright State University Special Collections and Archives by Mark A. Tiffany of Rancho Palos Verde, California on July 21, 2015.

Processing Information

Processed by Jocelyn Robinson, 2016.

Three scrapbooks were disassembled, pages were sleeved and placed in binder boxes in original order. Citations and plaques were removed from frames and boxed together, with the exception of the AIAA Fellow Award, which is housed in Oversize Loc 85.

Accruals

No further accruals are expected.

Other Finding Aid

The finding aid is available on the Special Collections & Archives, Wright State University Libraries web site at
https://wright.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/resources/708.

Collection Inventory