entrepreneurs. His father Albert and uncles Lewis and George Doman were the first to provide electricity for Elbridge, in 1890. Doman's elder half-brother, Carl T. Doman, designed air cooled Franklin engines for Franklin automobiles and for aircraft – including for the pioneering Sikorsky VS-300 helicopter. In his teens, Doman built a series of six motorized "go carts", and in 1936, at the age of 15, he built a Soapbox Derby racer, the first to be aerodynamically streamlined. He won the regional Soapbox Derby race held in Syracuse and placed well in the national championship race in Akron, Ohio. (2)(4) Doman also attempted to build an airplane, completing much of the fuselage, but was never able to obtain an engine for it. In 1938, Doman enrolled at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) College of Engineering, where he majored in aeronautical engineering. While at Michigan, Doman joined and later became president of the flying club. Another member of the flying club, Joan Hamilton, Doman's future bride, was the only female member of the club. Hamilton obtained her private's pilot license and later during World War II she was invited by the famous aviatrix Jackie Cochran to join the WASPs (Women Air Force Service Pilots), but she declined the offer. First employments Doman graduated from Michigan in June 1942, just six months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. After his graduation, he went to work for the Ranger Aircraft Engine Division of Fairchild Aviation in Long Island, New York. Doman had prior experience working with engine technologies while employed during summer vacations at the Franklin Engine Company (where his brother Carl worked). At Ranger, Doman gained experience in using strain gauges to analyze the vibratory loads on the rotating parts of engines. Carl Doman, who knew Igor Sikorsky due to the Franklin engine's use in the Sikorsky VS-300, invited Doman to attend a Society of Automotive Engineers meeting in New York. At this event, with Sikorsky as a featured speaker, Doman became interested in the vibratory loads in helicopter rotors. As a new and unrefined invention at that time, helicopters were suffering from rotor blades with a very short fatigue life. In fact, not long after Doman met Sikorsky, a Sikorsky YR-4 had a blade fracture during a delivery flight to the Army, which stimulated Doman's interest all the more. In August 1943, Doman married Joan Hamilton and they immediately moved to