Ernest G. McCauley

McCauley was born August 9, 1889, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Harry Gilbert McCauley and Norma H. Corby. He attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and worked as the chief draftsman for a farm equipment manufacturer in New York. He married and worked as chief tool designer for the Corona Typewriter Company of Groton, New York.

In 1917, McCauley began his career at the government's Propeller Research Department of the Airplane Design Section, Aviation Section of the Signal Corps based at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. There, he worked on the first aircraft hydraulic wheel brakes and hydraulic flight controls. Together they developed the synchronizing reversible pitch propellers (1922) and hydro-controllable Propeller. He jointly developed military propellers improvements with the chief engineer of the Propeller Research Department, Frank W. Caldwell. McCauley owns 55 patents and with Caldwell holds multiple joint patents on propeller innovations. The hydro-controllable propeller was the first to use engine oil for pitch adjustments, and he sold this patent to Hamilton Standard Propeller Corporation in 1929, joining Hamilton to further improve propellers. In 1938, Ernest G. McCauley founded the McCauley Aviation Corporation, which reincorporated into McCauley Steel Propeller Company in 1939.

McCauley, who suffered from poor hearing, was featured in a Sonotone hearing aid advertisement; he used a hearing aid to improve his work innovating and manufacturing propellers.

About 1912, McCauley married Ruth "Rose" Dewitt (1896–1952). They had six children: Dr Milton E McCauley (1912–1969); Norma H McCauley Corby (1913–1992); Ward D McCauley (1922–1980); Mabel Adams and two step-daughters, Phyllis Godfrey and Joyce Frohock. McCauley divorced Ruth in 1938 and filed suit against Dr John DeForest Smith for alienation of affections. On January 9, 1953, he married Rose M. Harkness in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.