Inventor, Industrialist. Born in Moline, Illinois, he was noted as a pioneer for his developments in the automobile and aircraft industry. In the early 1900s, he designed his own car, the Bendix Motor Buggy and his Bendix mechanical starters and brakes were the auto industry’s standard by the 1930s. During World War II, he developed products to aid the war effort such as radio direction finders for ships, cooling systems and pressure carburetors for airplanes. His company the Bendix Aviation Corporation also funded transcontinental air races and helped to produce a four-passenger helicopter. He died unexpectedly at age 63 of a coronary thrombosis in New York City. In 1991, he was posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. (bio by: John “J-Cat” Griffith)  Family links:  Parents:  Jann Bendix (1849 – ____)  Alma Mathilda Danielson Bendix (1860 – ____)