{{short description|American aircraft designer and entrepreneur}} {{For|the unrelated historian|Clarence Taylor}} {{Use American English|date=January 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2026}} thumb | right | alt=Clarence Gilbert Taylor | Clarence Gilbert Taylor '''Clarence Gilbert Taylor''' (September 8, 1898 – March 29, 1988) was an early American aviation entrepreneur and co-founder of the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Corporation (later named the Piper Aircraft Corporation) in Rochester, New York. He was the designer of the Taylor Cub aircraft, which led to the creation of the Piper Cub, one of the most popular airplanes in history.<ref name= "Piper">{{cite news |last=Goyer |first=Robert |url=https://www.flyingmag.com/aircraft/pistons/piper-cub-aviations-holy-relic |title=Piper Cub: Aviation's Holy Relic |work=Flying |date=August 3, 2012 |access-date=November 28, 2018 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>
==Biography== Gilbert was born on September 8, 1898, in Rochester, New York to Arthur and Clara (née Makin) Taylor, who had immigrated to the United States from Nottingham, England, in 1889.<ref name= "inventor">{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/12/obituaries/c-gilbert-taylor-89-inventor-of-small-plane.html |title=C. Gilbert Taylor, 89, Inventor of Small Plane |work=The New York Times |date=April 12, 1988 |access-date=November 28, 2018}}</ref> He was one of six children including his brother Gordon A. Taylor (January 15, 1902 – April 24, 1928). Gilbert co-founded the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Corporation with Gordon in 1927. A year later, Gordon was killed, along with an early sales agent for the brothers' aircraft, during a demonstration flight for a prototype of their Taylor Chummy airplane at Ford Airport in Dearborn, Michigan.
After his brother's death, Gilbert moved the company to Bradford, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1936.<ref name="Bednarek">{{cite book |last=Bednarek |first=Janet R. Daly; Bednarek, Michael H. |title=Dreams of Flight: General Aviation in the United States |publisher=Texas A&M University Press p. 58 |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-5854-4257-7}}</ref> During his time in Bradford, the company was renamed to the Taylor Aircraft Company after investor William T. Piper bought the assets of the company in 1930. Piper kept Gilbert on as president, but after clashes between the two, Piper bought Gilbert out and he left to start Taylorcraft Aviation in 1935. Two years later, Piper renamed the company to what is now known as Piper Aircraft. It went on to build more than 20,000 Taylor-designed Piper Cubs, the most-produced fabric-covered aircraft of all time.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://pioneersofflight.si.edu/content/c-g-taylor ''C. G. Taylor - Pioneers of Flight''] from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Gilbert}} Category:American businesspeople in aviation Category:American aviation pioneers Category:1898 births Category:1988 deaths Category:Businesspeople from Rochester, New York Category:Aviators from Pennsylvania Category:American aircraft designers Category:20th-century American businesspeople Category:20th-century American designers Category:American people of English descent