Soar with the Birds

What an inspiring summer's outing is the Bird Museum in Sagle - a 16,000-foot hangar stuffed with aircraft, inventions, and memorabilia of all kinds.

After a gorgeous 11-mile drive off Highway 95, its gentle curves thickly lined with trees and mountain views, we arrived at the sprawling well-maintained property and parked under a tree (don't park next to the hangar; those antique planes are fully operational).

My first thought was, "Wow; this looks like a class act."

It is, and no wonder. This flyboy, biomedical engineer and Hall of Fame inventor with three doctoral degrees and more than a dozen patents (most of them for life-saving devices or improvements) met Orville Wright. And Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager, a few astronauts and dozens of famous inventors, actors, and VIPs, not to mention two presidents (Bush and Obama) who honored him with national medals.

Yet Forrest Bird, M.D., Ph.D., and Sc.D., is so humble, he didn't have much to say about himself - other than answering that his favorite plane in the hangar is the little Avion which hangs from the ceiling, "because it's just fun; not really fast, but smooth." The 93-year-old sitting quietly by the door was quick to credit others when I complimented the museum's organization and quality.

I had to find outside sources about him for this column. Far, far more about other inventors appear on BirdAviationMuseum.com and its links. Even the section within the museum dedicated to Dr. Bird is the least visible, tucked upstairs. Just don't miss it.

Forrest Bird was the son of a World War I pilot and learned to fly at 14; he didn't stop until reaching age 91. After getting an aeronautical degree, Forrest joined the Army Air Corps shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

At first, the Axis could outfly us. They had an advantage: a device allowing pilots to breathe at higher altitudes. Bird got his hands on one and thought, "I can make this." So he did, melding two strawberry shortcake tins together (that prototype is still on display, along with his "G suit" design). Better, he improved upon it. The army put it to use and now you see them - those cylinder-shaped things military pilots still wear at high altitudes - all over the world.

After the war he went to medical school and turned invention into a career. Ever see those photos of row upon row of giant iron lungs in special hospitals? Polio victims and other people with respiratory problems were stuck living inside them. Museum volunteer Rich Faletto showed us how theirs works and how cumbersome it is. When unreliable units broke down, nurses had to hand pump the air inside.

In 1954 Dr. Bird invented the first portable version, the Bird Universal Medical Respirator, setting patients free from their iron cells. "The Bird" and newer "T-Bird" ventilator series are still relatively low-cost and mass produced worldwide.

In 1970 he invented the BABYBird - those rectangular baby incubators which revolutionized neonatal care for newborns with breathing problems. His is portable, and almost immediately reduced that infant mortality rate from 70 percent to 10.

But if breathing apparati aren't your thing, there's an original Les Paul guitar downstairs, along with an early Apple computer, Barbie dolls, a typewriter, iron and wire-maker from 1869.

"Your brain is a vault," Dr. Bird advised children at a school visit. "It's your money machine. The more you put into it, the more people will pay for it. It's that simple. That knowledge is something no one can take away from you."

Another thing Bird knows, or at least respects, is women. Two museum sections are dedicated to them, including my favorite WASPS (World War II's unofficial women's air corps). Then there's his wife, Sandpoint's own Dr. Pamela Riddle Bird, impressive in her own right. A nationally recognized commercialization expert, she directed one of the largest publicly funded innovation centers in the U.S. and has counseled thousands of inventors and entrepreneurs. Her company, Innovative Product Technologies, was highlighted in the Wall Street Journal as one of the top innovation corporations.

We wouldn't have known it. Approaching the museum we were warmly and casually greeted by a lovely woman taking her well-groomed dog for a walk. We later realized from a photo, unobtrusively hanging near the restrooms, she was Pamela Bird. She told us about a forested path, "with a lovely view of the lake" beginning behind the hangar complex. "It's a beautiful walk after your tour. You're most welcome to take it."

The Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center's summer hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. From U.S. 95 take Sagle Road (across from Conoco) about 11 miles to 325 Bird Ranch Road in Sagle (208) 255-4321.

Sholeh Patrick, J. D. is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at [email protected].