Robert Thomas Jones (engineer)
Robert Thomas Jones | |
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| Born | 28 May 1910  |
| Died | 11 August 1999 (aged 89) Los Altos Hills |
| Occupation | , engineer |
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Robert T. Jones, (May 28, 1910 – August 11, 1999), was an American aerodynamicist and aeronautical engineer for NACA and later NASA.[1] He was known at NASA as "one of the premier aeronautical engineers of the twentieth century".[2]
Early experience
Jones grew up in the American Midwest farming community of
Marie Meyer Flying Circus. There he took flying lessons in return for doing engineering maintenance, as he described it, "carrying gas and patching wing tips".[1]
In 1929, engineer Walter Barling left the
Pobjoy Special air racer, but because of the depression the company was forced to shut down.[3]
With the help of his local congressman, Jones found work as an elevator operator in the
Catholic University.[1]
Research
In 1934, President Roosevelt's public works program offered short-term positions for scientific aides at NACA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Jones obtained one of the positions, with recommendations from Zahm, Munk, and Lewis. At the end of the first nine month position, he was rehired through temporary reappointments. A permanent appointment at the initial civil-service level for an Engineer seemed impossible because it required a Bachelor's degree. However, the next higher professional grade did not state that requirement. In 1936 Jones was promoted directly to second level engineer. [1]
In January 1945, Jones developed a theory of the
Theodore von Karman. Jones's theory was not truly accepted until that summer when Von Karman's team of investigators found that German experts had been working on swept-wing designs for several years. Jones's thin-wing design ultimately proved superior to thick airfoils developed by Alexander Lippisch in Germany.[4][5]
In 1946 Jones was given the IAS Sylvanus Albert Reed Award, and transferred to
Ames. The genius of Bob Jones seemed, in part, to lie in his remarkable ability to extract the essence of a problem and express it in understandable and useful terms. His approach to problems was always of a fundamental character and often yielded results of broad significance. In addition, Jones's wife Doris, an accomplished mathematician, also joined the Ames staff.[6]
Later, still at Ames, Jones promoted the
Switchblade.[10]
Jones spent much of his time at Langley working in the Stability Research Division which pioneered many concepts that were incorporated into U.S. aircraft. As a self-trained aerodynamicist and mathematician, Jones built up a national reputation through his perceptive and original work at Langley and Ames.[1]
Awards
- 1946 Sylvanus Albert Reed Award (Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences)[1]
- 1955 Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics[11]
- 1971 Honorary PhD-Science, University of Colorado[1]
- 1973 Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences[11]
- 1973 Member, National Academy of Engineering[1]
- 1975 W. Rupert Turnbull Lecture, Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute[12]
- 1978 Ludwig-Prandtl-Ring, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Luft- und Raumfahrt[1]
- 1979 Honorary Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics[11]
- 1981 Langley Gold Medal, Smithsonian Institution[13][1]
- 1981 National Academy of Sciences[1]
- 1981 President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service[14]
- 1986 Fluid Dynamics Prize, (American Physical Society)[1]
- 1990 National Academy of Sciences[15]
- 1998 NASA Superstars of Modern Aeronautics[16]
Bibliography
- Properties of Low-Aspect-Ratio Pointed Wings at Speeds Below and Above the Speed of Sound. NACA Report Nº 835, 1946
- The Minimum Drag of Thin Wings in Frictionless Flow, Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, Feb. 1951
- Theoretical Determination of the Minimum Drag of Airfoils at Supersonic Speeds, Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, Dec. 1952
- Possibilities of Efficient High Speed Transport Airplanes, Proceedings of the Conference on High-Speed Aeronautics, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Jan. 1955
- Aerodynamic Design for Supersonic Speed, Advances in Aeronautical Sciences, Vol.1, Pergammon Press, 1959
- With Cohen, D., High Speed Wing Theory, Princeton University Press, 1960
- New Design Goals and a New Shape for the SST, Astronautics and Aeronautics, Dec. 1972
- With Graham, A., and Boltz, F., An Experimental Investigation of an Oblique Wing and Body Combination at Mach Numbers Between .6 and 1.4, NASA TM X-62207, Dec. 1972
- With Graham, A., and Boltz, F., An Experimental Investigation of Three Oblique Wing and Body Combinations at Mach Numbers Between .6 and 1.4, NASA TM X-62256, April 1973
- With Graham, A., and Summers, J., Wind Tunnel Test of an F-8 Airplane Model Equipped with an Oblique Wing, NASA TM X-62273, June 1973
- With Nisbet, J., Transonic Transport Wings -- Oblique or Swept? Astronautics and Aeronautics, Jan. 1974
- With Smith, R., and Summers, J., Transonic Wind Tunnel Tests of an F-8 Airplane Model Equipped with 12 and 14-percent Thick Oblique Wings, NASA TM X-62478, Oct. 1975
- With Smith, R., and Summers, J., Transonic Longitudinal and Lateral Control Characteristics of an F-8 Airplane Model Equipped with an Oblique Wing, NASA TM X-73103, March 1976
- The Oblique Wing — Aircraft Design for Transonic and Low Supersonic Speeds, Acta Astronautica, Vol. 4, Pergammon Press, 1977
- With Nisbet, J., Aeroelastic Stability and Control of an Oblique Wing, The Aeronautical Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Aug. 1986
- The Flying Wing Supersonic Transport, Aeronautical Journal, March 1991.
- Wing Theory, Princeton University Press, 1990.
References
- ^ ISSN 0066-4189. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ^ Merlin, Peter (March 3, 2005). "NASA Celebrates 90 Years Of Aeronautics Excellence". www.nasa.gov. NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ^ "Nicholas-Beazley Pobjoy Special Replica - N6119G". EAA Aviation Museum. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ^ Von Karman, Aerodynamics: Selected Topics in the Light of their Historical Development, 1954
- ^ Richard Hallion, Lippisch, Gluhareff and Jones: The Emergence of the Delta Planform, Aerospace Historian, March 1979.
- ^ Hartman, Edwin Phelps (1970). Adventures in Research: A History of Ames Research Center, 1940-1965. NASA SP-4302. Washington, DC: NASA History Series.
- ^ Gipson, Lillian (24 February 2015). "'Thinking Obliquely' Tells Story of NASA's Scissors Wing Airplane". NASA. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ^ A Summary Of A Half-Century of Oblique Wing Research Archived 2007-06-14 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ ECN-17954 Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Warwick, Graham (12 September 2005). "Strange shapes". Flight Global. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ^ a b c Allen, Bob (Aug 10, 2015). "Robert T. Jones". NASA. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ^ "The W. Rupert Turnbull Lecture Conférence de W. Rupert Turnbull" (PDF). Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ^ "Langley Gold Medal". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
- ^ "Jones receives President's award". NASA Activities. No. May. The Administration. 1981. p. 7.
- ^ "J. C. Hunsaker Award in Aeronautical Engineering". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
- ^ "Superstars of Modern Aeronautics" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
External links
- Papers of Robert T. Jones in the Stanford University Libraries archives.
- NASA Ames Award Winners
- Superstar presentation
- Simple sweep theory
- The math of Sweep Theory and Oblique wings
- Oblique Flying Wings: An Introduction and White Paper Desktop Aeronautics, Inc. June 2005
- Walter G. Vincenti, "Robert Thomas Jones", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2005)
- Introduction to Collected Works of Robert T. Jones (1976), by William R. Sears
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