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VK1DSN > SPACE 30.12.07 23:16l 97 Lines 4192 Bytes #999 (0) @ VKNET
BID : 33718_VK1DSN
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Subj: Supersonic Flight Pioneer
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Sent: 071216/1617Z @:VK1DSN.ACT.AUS.OC #:33718 [Canberra,QF44lo] FBB7.00i
From: VK1DSN@VK1DSN.ACT.AUS.OC
To : SPACE@VKNET
Dec. 12, 2007
J.D. Harrington
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-5241
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov
Kathy Barnstorff
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
757-864-9886/344-8511
kathy.barnstorff@nasa.gov
Bill Harris
First Flight Society, Kitty Hawk, N.C.
252-261-6159
kittyhawker@embarqmail.com
RELEASE: 07-277
SUPERSONIC FLIGHT PIONEER WELCOMED INTO FIRST FLIGHT SHRINE
HAMPTON, Va. - Aeronautics engineer Richard T. Whitcomb, whose NASA research
made supersonic flight possible, will join other aerospace pioneers when he is
inducted into the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine at the Wright Brothers
National Memorial visitor's center in Kitty Hawk, N.C., on Dec. 17.
The First Flight Society will include Whitcomb's portrait with pioneers such as
Orville and Wilbur Wright, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, John Glenn, Neil
Armstrong and other aviation visionaries.
The portrait gallery recognizes men and women who have made the most
significant contributions to flight science and technology.
Whitcomb may not be a household name like others in the gallery, but aviation
historians say his role in aeronautics research is virtually unmatched.
"Dick Whitcomb's intellectual fingerprints are on virtually every commercial
aircraft flying today," said Tom Crouch, noted aviation historian at the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
Whitcomb spent his career at what is now NASA's Langley Research Center in
Hampton, Va. Born in Evanston, Ill., in 1921 he graduated from Worcester
Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts in 1943. After college, he joined the
Transonic Aerodynamics Branch of NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical
Laboratory. Whitcomb retired from NASA Langley in 1980.
In 1952, the aeronautics engineer discovered and experimentally verified a
revolutionary aircraft design principle that became known as the "area rule."
Whitcomb discovered if he narrowed the fuselage of an airplane so it was shaped
more like an old-fashioned soda bottle, he could reduce drag and increase the
speed of a transonic aircraft without the need to add additional power. The
area rule has been applied to almost every U.S. supersonic aircraft design
since.
The achievement earned him the prestigious 1954 Collier Trophy for the most
important aeronautical advance of the year.
If the area rule was Whitcomb's major accomplishment of the 1950s, his
supercritical wing revolutionized the design of jet liners in the 1960s. The
key was the development of a swept-back wing airfoil that delayed the onset of
increased drag, and enhanced the fuel efficiency of aircraft flying close to
the speed of sound.
In the 1970s, Whitcomb came up with winglets, which are wingtip devices that
reduce another type of drag and further improve aerodynamic efficiency. Many
airliners and private jets currently sport wingtips that are angled up for
better fuel performance.
"The First Flight Society is proud to honor Richard Whitcomb, a man who
literally changed the shape of the airplane and altered the course of the
history of flight in the process," said Bill Harris, president of the First
Flight Society.
In addition to the First Flight Society Shrine award and the Collier Trophy,
Whitcomb is the recipient of the Air Force Exceptional Service Medal, the NACA
Distinguished Service Medal and the NASA Scientific Achievement Medal.
For more information about NASA's aeronautics research programs,
visit:
http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov
-end-
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