Victor Wilfred Pagé

Victor Wilfred Pagé (1885–1947) was an American technical writer, inventor, and early automotive and aviation pioneer. Records of his books show how widely he wrote on engines, motorcycles, tractors, storage batteries, and Ford cars, while later historical accounts describe him as a self-educated engineer whose work reached both mechanics and general readers.

He was born in 1885 and graduated from Classical High School in Providence in 1904. According to the Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame, he may have designed and built the first airplane to fly in Rhode Island, established an early airplane manufacturing facility in Providence in 1909, helped form the Rhode Island Aeronautical Society in 1911, and designed an early aluminum propeller now associated with the National Air and Space Museum.

Pagé is remembered above all for making technology readable. Titles such as Aviation Engines, The Model T Ford Car, and The Modern Gasoline Automobile show his gift for explaining how machines were built, operated, and repaired in a direct, useful way. During World War I he was also identified in his aviation publications as serving in the Aviation Section of the U.S. Signal Corps Reserve.