George Klein

George Johann Klein was a brilliant mechanical engineer who served with the National Research Council of Canada for four decades. Klein possessed an extraordinary ability to design elegant mechanical solutions for complex human and aerospace problems.

His most humane masterpiece was the motorized electric wheelchair, engineered in 1953 for paralyzed WWII veterans, incorporating drive packages, joystick controls, and independent wheel steering that restored mobility to thousands worldwide. Klein also invented the STEM retractable antenna used on NASA spacecraft and Apollo lunar modules, and the microsurgical stapler for blood vessels.