National Academies Press: OpenBook

Memorial Tributes: Volume 3 (1989)

Chapter: Jerome Clarke Hunsaker

« Previous: Herbert E. Hudson, Jr.
Suggested Citation:"Jerome Clarke Hunsaker." National Academy of Engineering. 1989. Memorial Tributes: Volume 3. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1384.
×
Page 218
Suggested Citation:"Jerome Clarke Hunsaker." National Academy of Engineering. 1989. Memorial Tributes: Volume 3. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1384.
×
Page 219
Suggested Citation:"Jerome Clarke Hunsaker." National Academy of Engineering. 1989. Memorial Tributes: Volume 3. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1384.
×
Page 220
Suggested Citation:"Jerome Clarke Hunsaker." National Academy of Engineering. 1989. Memorial Tributes: Volume 3. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1384.
×
Page 221
Suggested Citation:"Jerome Clarke Hunsaker." National Academy of Engineering. 1989. Memorial Tributes: Volume 3. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1384.
×
Page 222
Suggested Citation:"Jerome Clarke Hunsaker." National Academy of Engineering. 1989. Memorial Tributes: Volume 3. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1384.
×
Page 223

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

JEROME CLARKE HUNSAKER 1886-1984 BY ARTHUR E. RAYMOND JEROME CLARKE HUNSAKER who became widely known, ad- mired, and influential as a result of his lifelong contributions to the field of aviation, died at his Boston home on Septem- ber 10, 1984, at the age of ninety-eight. Jerry will long be remembered as a gentle, friendly man, as well as a superb teacher, engineer, and administrator. He was modest, ur- bane, clear-headed, and at experienced ease with almost all the important phases of his field, which encompassed re- search and the design, manufacture, and operation of air- planes, seaplanes, and rigid and nonrigid airships. He was born in Creston, Iowa, in 1886 and was educated in the public schools of Detroit and Saginaw. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at the head of his class in 190S, five years after the Wright brothers' first flight, which oc- curred when he was at the impressionable age of seventeen. After a year of sea duty, he was ordered to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where his interest in aero- nautics became a passion, and he began a study of wind tun- nels as a means of obtaining the basic data needed for suc- cessfu} flight. He then journeyed to Paris and, with the help of his wife, the former Alice Avery, and Eiffel's assistants, he translated Eiffel's pioneering work in the testing of airplane models. When he returned to MIT in 1914, Jerome Hunsaker con- 219

220 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES structe(1 a forty-mile-per-hour tunnel anti inaugurated the institute's first graduate course in aeronautical engineering. In 1916 he was awarded a D.Sc. for wind tunnel research on aeroclynamical stability. During his life, his interest in and knowledge about wincl tunnels grew and broadened! to cover other research tools. He was appointed by the president as chairman of the Na- tional Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), with its many laboratories; he remained there for sixteen years. His final major achievement, which was attained in 1967, was the supervision and construction of the Navy Supersonic Labo- ratory at MIT to study aircraft and missile designs involving speeds as high as two thousand miles per hour (a long way from his original forty-mile-per-hour tunnel). In 1916 the Navy placed him in charge of the Aircraft Di- vision of its Bureau of Construction and Repair, and he was soon responsible for the design, construction, and procure- ment of all naval aircraft. In 1918 Jerome Hunsaker was as- signed responsibility for two special engineering projects— to built! a Zeppelin and to built! a flying boat to cross the Atlantic. The latter became known as the NC (Navy Curtiss) project, and four units were built. Three units began flights from NewfoundIanc! in May 1919; two were wrecked near the Azores, but the NC-4, under Commander A. C. React, continued on to Lisbon and Plymouth, the first crossing of the AtIantic by an aircraft of any type. The Zeppelin project resulted in the completion of the Shenandoah, the first rigid dirigible to employ helium as a lifting gas. In 1921 Dr. Hunsaker was transferred to the newly orga- nizec! Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, where he hac! an oppor- tunity to realize practical results from the great accumulation of research and experimental data that had been obtained (luring the war. In 1923 he was detailed as assistant naval attache at London, Paris, The Hague, Rome, and Berlin, re- maining on duty until 1926, when he resigned to join the research staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories In New York as

JEROME CLARKE HUNSAKER . 221 assistant vice-president. While there, he developer! wire and radio communication services for civil aviation. In ~ 928 Dr. Hunsaker became vice-president of the Gooclyear-Zeppelin Corporation, which had been formed to build the Akron anct Macon airships for the navy. Following the completion of the airships, he returned to MIT as head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and, later, the Department of Aeronautical Engineering. He retained the latter position until his retirement in 1952 at the age of sixty- eight, but held the title of lecturer for another five years. Until he was well into his eighties, he maintained an office at MIT, to which he walked from his home on Beacon Hill—a distance of nearly two miles. His years at NACA, forerunner of NASA, were particu- larly important because of the stancting and scope of that organization. NACA was an unparalleled asset to the country with its laboratories (Langley, Ames, anct Lewis), experienced stab, and broact research program that became the original core of NASA, essential to the completion of the Apollo Pro- gram on schedule. Dr. Hunsaker was elected to the National Academy of Sci- ences (NAS) in 1935 ant! was very active in academy affairs. In 1967 he was also elected to the National Academy of En- gineering (NAE). Because his election came so near the end of his most energetic years, however, his interest in ant! activ- ities with NAE never matched his involvement in NAS. Jerome Hunsaker was the first president of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, which later merged with the American Rocket Society to become the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AlAA). In fact, Hunsaker teamed with Lester Gardner to become a major force in its formation in 1932. He became an honorary fellow of that organization ant! also of the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Imperial College of Science anti Technology of Great Britain. He was also an honorary member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Me-

222 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES chanical Engineers of Great Britain. In addition to his mem- berships in NAS and NAE, he was a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, and the American Philosophical So- c~ety. His list of awards is long and impressive: Navy Cross (19191; Franklin Medal (19421; Mecial for Merit (19461; Honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (19481; I.egion of Honor (19491; Wright Tro- phy ~ ~ 95 ~ ); Godfrey 1~. Cabot Trophy ~ ~ 9531; Langley Meclal (1955~; Elder Statesman of Aviation, National Aeronautic Association (19551; Water-based Aviation Award, Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences (1957~; NACA Distinguished Ser- vice Award (19571; GoIct Medal of the Royal Aeronautical Society (19571; U.S. Navy Award for Distinguished Public Service (19581; and the Julius Adams Stratton Prize (1967~. He found time among his other activities to publish more than 130 papers—only a few of them jointly and to super- vise NACAs yearly annual reports (nos. thirty-three through forty-two). The section on aeronautics in the original Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers of 1916 bears his name. A partial summary of his papers shows the breadth of his interests. The list begins with several papers on wind tunnels, but then moves on to such other subject matter as gas-tight airplane fabric, casein glue use in laminated construction, duralumin aluminum alloys, venturi airspeed meters, spruce airplane compression struts, similitude theory of aerial pro- pellers, airplane rubber shock absorbers, airplane radiators, cavitation research, and a number of papers on static and dynamic stability. There were many papers written on cliri- gibles, including the blimp type that was used for patrols. Others dealt with biplanes, triplanes, dihedral wings, safety, communications, and, of course, the education ant] training of engineers, including curriculum surveys. As time went on, his subjects broadened even further into titles such as "Forty Years of Aeronautical Research" and "A

JEROME CLARKE HUNSAKER 223 Half Century of Aeronautical Development," as well as a number of biographical memoirs. His last memoir, written in 1967, is a biographical memoir and tribute to Hugh Dryden, his longtime right hand at NACA. In acIdition to his professional life as a scientist, Hunsaker showed a keen interest and competence in business and pub- lic affairs. He was a director of Shell Oil Company, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, McGraw-Hill Publishing Com- pany, ]:nc., and TracerIab, Inc. He was also a regent of the Smithsonian Institution and a life trustee of the Boston Mu- seum of Science. Countless numbers of his MIT students in mechanical and aeronautical engineering from 1933 to 1952 have macle their mark in the world. Most fee! a tremendous debt of gratitude to Terry Hunsaker as their teacher, mentor, and friend.

Next: Tamaki Ipponmatsu »
Memorial Tributes: Volume 3 Get This Book
×
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF
  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!