So long, Roy LoPresti

[Johnny_L.A]

From AOPA:

Roy LoPresti, an icon in the world of making airplanes go faster, died Wednesday in Vero Beach, Florida. He was 73. Doctors believe LoPresti experienced heart failure. LoPresti was already receiving medical care after he fell off a ladder a month ago and suffered a severe head injury. His son, David LoPresti, said he was recovering well and the heart problem was unrelated. David LoPresti added that the night before his father’s death, they were talking about future projects. As a pilot and aerospace engineer, LoPresti’s motto was, “Life is short, fly fast!” LoPresti’s company, LoPresti Speed Merchants, will continue its mission of making airplanes more efficient, David LoPresti said…

[Mooney252]

As a pilot and aerospace engineer, LoPresti’s motto was, “Life is short, fly fast!”

Johny – if I’d ever seen that motto attributed to LoPresti, I’d forgotten. “Nimis brevis vita est volare tarde” is the motto we’d used this year for Mooney Caravan (literally: “so short life is to fly slowly.”

LoPresti was president (and chief engineer) at Mooney Aircraft for years. There are a couple of good Roy LoPresti quotes on my Mooney website on the quotations page.

But the favorite is the compliment that Al Mooney made in Gordon Baxter’s 1985 biography of Mooney:
“Roy (LoPresti) and I are both design-engineers. There are lots of good aeronautical engineers, and a few good airplane designers. But very few of us are design-engineers. Roy is one of the best.”

A close friend provided the airplane that LoPresti used for one of his last speed mods – a new cowling that made most 201s about 5 knots faster, more efficient and quieter as well.