George Henry Prudden, Jr. (1893 ? January 20, 1964) was an American aircraft engineer. He was instrumental in designing the first all metal aircraft in America. He was president of the Early Birds of Aviation in 1961.

For two years Ford stood as the only significant builder of metal commercial
airplanes in the United States, but starting in 1927 other manufacturers
entered the field.

George H.
Prudden came out with a smaller version of the Ford trimotor. Prudden had
worked as Stout's chief engineer during design of the first metal transports,
a position he briefly retained when Stout's company became part of the Ford
Motor Company. When Prudden was fired in September
1925, he moved to San Diego and founded a company to develop his own
trimotor. The Prudden transport followed the general outline of the Ford
trimotor, including the corrugated covering. In November 1927, soon after
the new trimotor's first flight tests, Prudden announced the start of produc-
tion at an improbable rate of two planes per week. In fact, Prudden built
only one trimotor in 1927 and had no sales until February 1928, when a
sightseeing company bought one plane for aerial tours of Yosemite National
Park.
In November 1928, Prudden left the company at the height of the depression and the company was renamed to the Solar Aircraft Company. The company Prudden founded is still active as Solar Turbines Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc..
Later, Pruden developed the Prudden-Whitehead monoplane with the Atlanta Aircraft Corporation. While in Atlanta, Prudden helped develop Candler Field, Atlanta.
In 1932, Prudden worked for Lockheed Aircraft where he helped engineer the Lockheed Vega and Lockheed Orion aircraft.
In World War II, Prudden managed the Ryan Aeronautical factory in San Diego, California.







Above Ryan corp. group photo, left to right A.j. Edwards, F.W. Hemingway, George H. Prudden, standing in front of the Prudden TM-1 tri-motor airliner.

Regards Duggy