Athanas P. (A.P.) Fontaine; Plane Designer

Athanas P. (A.P.) Fontaine, 83, a pioneer airplane designer who also was chairman and chief executive of the Bendix Corp. from 1965 to 1972. He was a graduate of New York University at a time when it was one of the few schools in the country to offer a degree in aeronautical engineering. After graduating he helped design the first lightweight passenger plane in the United States, the C-1, and went to Bendix in 1944. He left in 1946 at about the same time that he began to help begin the planning for the B-36 bomber, and then returned nearly 20 years later. He also established an aviation research center at the University of Michigan. In Birmingham, Mich., on Monday.