Edgar J. Lesher (July 31, 1914 – May 19, 1998) was an American aircraft designer, pilot and a professor of aerospace engineering. Early life Ed Lesher was born in Detroit, Michigan. A self-described "airport bum", he took his first ride in an airplane at age 13, shortly after Charles Lindbergh's landmark flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, he was forced to delay college entrance due to the Great Depression. He eventually entered Ohio State University, where he earned a degree in mathematics. He remained at OSU, doing graduate studies of mathematics and physics. Transferring to the University of Michigan, he earned a master's degree in aeronautical engineering in 1940. Career After finishing graduate school, Lesher went to work at Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica, California. There, he worked as a stress analyst on the Douglas C-54 and Douglas A-20 programs. Preferring a university career, in 1941 he accepted a job at Texas A&M College. There, he taught ground school for the Civilian Pilot Training Program and earned his pilot's license. The next year, he returned to the University of Michigan as a faculty member in the aeronautical engineering department. In 1945, he took a leave of absence and worked at Stinson Aircraft Company in Wayne, Michigan. At Stinson, he worked on the Stinson L-5 Sentinel, Stinson L-13 and the Stinson 106 Skycoach. The Skycoach was a four-place aircraft with a pusher propeller, a configuration which captured Lesher's imagination. He returned to teaching at the University of Michigan after this. In 1952 he took another leave of absence and spent 15 months working at Convair in San Diego California. Again, he returned to the University of Michigan, where he assisted in wind tunnel projects and did structural consulting in addition to his teaching responsibilities. Beginning in 1962, he began working at the Willow Run Laboratories of the University of Michigan. In August 1958, he attended one of the early Experimental Aircraft Association fly-ins. The homebuilt aircraft he saw there inspired him to design one himself. Remembering the Skycoach, he began the design of an all-aluminum two-place, side-by-side, pusher propeller aircraft. Construction began in February 1959. In October 1961, after 5,000 hours of construction, he first flew his aircraft, the Lesher Nomad (N1066Z) at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Michigan. A novel design feature was his use of a Dodge Flexidyne Coupling in the drive train to dampen