Lawrence D. Bell devoted forty-four years to the aircraft industry. From a barefoot boy in Mentone, Indiana, the town of his birth, he became chairman of the board of one of the nation's foremost aircraft firms, Bell Aircraft Corporation. This firm produced such significant aviation contributions as the nation's first jet propelled airplane, the world's first commercial helicopter, the world's fastest and highest flying airplane, the Bell X-1A, and the first jet vertical take-off and landing plane.