Peter Wright Sr., 90, a pioneer in helicopters

Peter Wright Sr., 90, of Bryn Mawr, a pioneer in the commercial helicopter industry and founder of Keystone Helicopters in Coatesville, died of renal failure Friday at Bryn Mawr Hospital.

A 1936 graduate of Abington High School, Mr. Wright did not have good enough grades for college.

For a year, he earned 291/2 cents an hour scraping toxic coolant out of transformers at the Westinghouse plant at 30th and Walnut Streets.

The next year, Mr. Wright's father moved to Pittsburgh and paid his tuition to Shadyside Academy, where he repeated his senior year to improve his grades. He was accepted by Yale University.

After two years, Mr. Wright lost his scholarship at Yale, so he joined the Navy in 1940.

After graduating from Pensacola Naval Flight School, Mr. Wright was a dive-bomber pilot on the aircraft carriers Ranger, Wasp and Yorktown.

In 1941, he resigned from the Navy to join Gen. Claire Chenault's Flying Tigers. Mr. Wright flew P-40s against the Japanese until the the Flying Tigers disbanded in 1942 and he left the Chinese military at the rank of major.

Mr. Wright returned to the United States and became a pilot for American Export Airlines, based at LaGuardia Airport. He flew Sikorsky VS-44 flying boats, Martin PBM Mariner flying boats, and C-54 transports. He also was a part-time production test pilot on General Motors-built FM Wildcat Navy fighters.

In 1944, Mr. Wright married Mary Roberts, and the couple raised four children in Bryn Mawr. She died in 2000.

Mr. Wright resigned in 1946 from American Export as a senior captain and joined Helicopter Air Transport in Camden as sales manager. Mr. Wright sold the first recorded helicopter geophysical oil exploration project for a major oil company in Louisiana. During this time, Helicopter Air Transport purchased some of the first commercial helicopters.

In 1953, Mr. Wright founded Keystone Helicopter Corp. in Coatesville, where he remained chief executive officer until retiring in 2000. The company was sold in 2005 to Sikorsky Aircraft, part of United Technologies Corp.

In 1996, Mr. Wright founded the American Helicopter Museum and Education Center in West Chester.

That same year, Mr. Wright was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross "for participating in aerial flight 7 Dec. 1941 to 18 July 1942, American Volunteer Group Chinese Air Force; and the Presidential Unit Citation given to Flying Tigers for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy South China and South East Asia 1941-1942."

He also was honored by the National Aeronautics Association in 1997 with the Elder Statesman of Aviation Award.

In addition to his wife of six years, Simone Fan Wright, Mr. Wright is survived by sons Peter Jr. and Timothy; daughters Mary and Kathleen; seven grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a brother.

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. today at Beaumont at Bryn Mawr, 601 N. Ithan Ave., Bryn Mawr. Burial is private.

Donations may be made to the American Helicopter Museum, 1220 American Blvd., West Chester, Pa. 19380.