Editing David Gordon Wilson

{{Short description|UK-American engineer (1928–2019)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2019}}
{{other people|David Wilson}}
[[File:David Gordon Wilson.jpg|thumb|David Gordon Wilson outside his home workshop, 2005]]

'''David Gordon Wilson''' (11 February 1928 – 2 May 2019)<ref name = "Globe">{{cite web
| url = https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2019/05/07/david-gordon-wilson-mit-professor-and-father-modern-day-recumbent-bicycles-dies/mJMiTTVyZEk67JykP8sq6I/story.html
| title = David Gordon Wilson, MIT professor and father of modern recumbent bicycles, dies at 91
| author = Bryan Marquard
| date = May 7, 2019
| publisher = [[Boston Globe]]
| access-date = May 8, 2019}}</ref> was a British-born engineer who served as a professor of engineering at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) in the United States.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://meche.mit.edu/people/index.html?id=98 | title = MIT MechE - David Gordon Wilson | access-date  = 5 September 2010  }}</ref>

Born in [[Warwickshire]], England, Wilson went to the US on a post-doctoral fellowship in 1955. He returned to Britain in 1957 to work in the gas-turbine industry. He taught engineering in Nigeria from 1958 to 1960. He started a branch of a US company in London and in 1961 was moved to the US. In 1966 he joined the MIT faculty and taught engineering design, wrote two textbooks on his specialty gas-turbine design with co-authors and also pursued a long-standing interest into [[human-powered transport]], coauthoring ''Bicycling Science''. He is credited, along with [[Chester Kyle]], with starting the modern [[recumbent bicycle]] movement in the US. Wilson was a board member of the [[International Human Powered Vehicle Association]] from 1977 through 1993, its president in 1984, and was editor and frequent author of its journal [http://ihpva.org/hparchive.htm Human Power] from 1984 through 2001.<ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.recumbents.com/wisil/misc/eliasohn/dgwilson/David_Gordon_Wilson.htm
| title = Remembering David Gordon Wilson
| author = Michael Eliasohn
| publisher = recumbents.com
| access-date = March 27, 2024}}</ref>

In 1980, Wilson and Richard Forrestall developed a [[recumbent bicycle]], the [[Avatar 2000]]. In 1982, Tim Gartside (Australia) rode a fully faired version as the Avatar Bluebell (UK) in a US event to a world record of 51.9&nbsp;mph for 200 metres with a flying start.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Wilson|last2=Forrestall|last3=Henden|title=Evolution of Recumbent Bicycles and the Design of the Avatar Bluebell|date=1984|url=http://papers.sae.org/840021|access-date=22 January 2017|journal=SAE International Congress and Exposition Technical Paper 840021|series=SAE Technical Paper Series |volume=1 |doi=10.4271/840021 }}</ref>

Wilson held more than 60 patents; in 1982, he told the ''[[The Boston Globe|Boston Globe]]'', "It’s a bit of a pain that all I’m known for is the bike. I’m very keen on some of the other things I do."<ref name="Globe" /> He was also active in environmental causes, proposing a forerunner to the [[carbon tax]] in 1973, and leading a group that called for a [[smoking ban]] in public places.<ref name="Globe" /><ref>{{cite news|last1=Berdik|first1=Chris|title=The unsung inventor of the carbon tax|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/08/09/the-unsung-inventor-carbon-tax/f1xFyWmaXf2XzW3nVxrNJK/story.html|access-date=11 August 2014|work=[[The Boston Globe]]|date=10 August 2014}}</ref>

In 2001, Wilson and Bruce co-founded Wilson TurboPower to commercialise two energy technologies developed at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT)—the Wilson Heat Exchanger, for which the company received $500,000 in funding from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative in 2008,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://xconomy.com/boston/2008/05/20/wilson-turbopower-boosted-by-500k/|title=Xconomy: Wilson TurboPower Boosted by 500K|last=Buderi|first=Robert|date=2008-05-20|website=Xconomy|language=en|access-date=2019-05-18}}</ref> and the Wilson Microturbine, which was described as a "high-performance 300 kW microturbine [that] will dramatically improve energy economics by producing over 50% electrical efficiency."<ref>{{cite web|title=Wilson TurboPower, Inc. (copy @ Wayback Machine)|url=http://www.wilsonturbopower.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070101011757/http://www.wilsonturbopower.com/|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 January 2007|access-date=18 September 2014}}</ref> In 2010, the company changed its name and its focus, becoming the Wilson Solarpower Corporation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=26993089|title=Wilson Solarpower Corporation: Private Company Information - Bloomberg|website=www.bloomberg.com|access-date=2019-05-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/mass-high-tech/2010/07/wilson-turbopower-changes-name-appoints.html|title=Wilson TurboPower changes name, appoints law vet as CEO|last=Alspach|first=Kyle|date=July 15, 2010|website=Boston Business Journal|access-date=2019-05-18}}</ref>

Wilson lived in [[Winchester, Massachusetts]] with his second wife, Ellen.

==Notable publications==
* {{cite book | title=Bicycling Science | url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262538404/bicycling-science/ | last1=Wilson|first1= David Gordon | last2=Schmidt | first2= Theodor | edition=4th paperback | date= May 2020 | publisher=The [[MIT Press]] | location=Cambridge, MA |display-authors=etal}}
* {{cite book | title=The Design of High-Efficiency Turbomachinery and Gas Turbines | last1=Wilson|first1= David Gordon | last2=Korakianitis|first2= Theodosios | edition=2nd paperback | date=September 2014 | publisher=Prentice Hall | isbn=978-0-13-312000-4 }}
* {{cite book | title=Gas-Turbine Regenerators | last1=Beck | first1=Douglas  | last2=Wilson | first2=David Gordon | edition=hardcover | date= January 1996 | publisher=Springer | isbn=978-0-412-98331-3 }}

==Memoirs==

* {{cite book |title= Born, Blessed and Blitzed in Britain, but Battered by MIT | last=Wilson | first= David Gordon | edition=paperback | date=April 2018 | publisher=Omni Publishing Co | location=West Wareham, MA | isbn=978-1-928-75800-6 }}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927200816/http://www.nrel.gov/technologytransfer/entrepreneurs/pdfs/wilson_turbopower.pdf Wilson Turbogenerator at NREL] (copy at Wayback Machine)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, David Gordon}}
[[Category:1928 births]]
[[Category:2019 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Warwickshire]]
[[Category:English emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:MIT School of Engineering faculty]]
[[Category:Cycle designers]]
[[Category:Cycling writers]]
[[Category:Sustainable transport pioneers]]