Born on July 12, 1895, in Milton, Massachusetts, Richard Buckminster Fuller was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Navy in 1917 during World War I. After a three-month training course at Annapolis, Maryland, he received training as an aviator.
Fuller served as a commander of crash boats at the Navy Flying School at Newport News, Virginia, and was discharged in 1919 as a lieutenant (junior grade) at the end of the war.
It was during his naval service that he developed his first two practical inventions: a seaplane rescue mast and a jet stilt for vertical takeoff aircraft. He later invented geodesic domes.
Fuller died at age 87 in Los Angeles on July 1, 1983. Fuller often stated that he got the idea for his book, "Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth," from his experiences as a naval officer, comparing a planet traveling through space to a ship at sea.
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