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Isaac M. Laddon

American aircraft designer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ6076729
Source-derived summary

Isaac Machlin Laddon (25 December 1894 – 14 January 1976) was an American aeronautical engineer and designer.

Biography

Laddon was born in Garfield, New Jersey.

He was educated at McGill University in Montreal from 1915. He joined the U.S. Air Service Experimental and Engineering Test Center at McCook Field, Ohio in 1917, and within two years had become the chief designer for all large aircraft development. He held numerous patents in the aviation industry.

He joined Consolidated Aircraft Company as chief engineer in 1927. His designs included the Admiral Flying Boat of 1928, the first in a series of famous Consolidated seaplanes that evolved into the highly regarded PBY Catalina, of which a total of 3,282 were built. His B-24 Liberator had both the largest production run of any World War II bomber, and is still listed as the most-produced multi-engined aircraft of any type in history. He was also responsible for designing the streamlined Convair airliners used by commercial airlines throughout the world.

He died in San Diego.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Isaac M. Laddon” is american aircraft designer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Isaac, Laddon and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1894, 1976, 1915, 1917—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1894-12-25. For this dossier, Isaac, Laddon and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american aircraft designer” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6076729. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1894, 1976, 1915 and 1917.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Isaac M. Laddon”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Isaac M. Laddon primary sources, Isaac M. Laddon archive and Isaac research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Isaac M. Laddon”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Isaac M. Laddon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.