Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 183
WESLEY A. KUHRT
1 91 7-1 988
BY ANTHONY I. DEMARIA
WESLEY A. KUHRT (fondly known as "Wes"), a long-term
pioneer in the nation's aerospace industry, died October
19, 198S, in a car accident in Bloomfield, Connecticut, at
age seventy.
He retired from United Technologies Corporation (UTC)
in 1982 as senior vice-president-technology after forty-two
years with the company. He continued to serve the com-
pany during his retirement as a consultant and a represen-
tative to the board of directors of WestIand, a British
manufacturer of helicopters. UTC became part owner of
WestIand in 1986.
Mr. Kuhrt held a number of increasingly responsible po-
sitions with UTC. He served as director of research of
UTC's Research Center from 1964 to 1967; president and
executive vice-president of Sikorsky Aircraft from 1968 to
1974 and from 1967 to 196S, respectively; and vice-presi-
dent-technology with UTC from 1974 to 1979. His techni-
cal leadership role was vital ire keeping UTC at the cutting
edge of aerospace technology as well as in fields that were
new to the corporation.
For almost two generations, he played an instrumental
role in creating, formulating, and administrating research
programs in gas turbine engines, rocket propulsion, nuclear
propulsion, space nuclear power, high-power lasers, boron
183
OCR for page 184
84
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
filaments, composite materials, propellant chemistry, and
fluid mechanics. In 1984 the UTC board of directors and
senior management honored him by naming a new optics
facility in West Palm Beach, Florida, the Wesley A. Kuhrt
Optics and Applied Technology Laboratory.
Mr. Kuhrt was born in 1917 in New Haven, Connecticut,
and grew up in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. He entered
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1935 and
graduated with a B.S. and M.S. in aeronautical engineering
in 1939 and 1940, respectively. He joined Pratt & Whitney
Aircraft Division in 1940 and in early 1941 transferred to
United Aircraft Research Laboratories (now United Tech-
nologies Research Center).
Due to diabetes, he was not able to join the armed ser-
vices during World War IT. He married Elaine Mae Jensen
in 1946. They had three sons and two daughters. Mr.
Kuhrt was a religious man and attended several different
churches throughout his life. About 1978 he and his wife
started a church in their home in Avon, Connecticut, along
with four other couples. From this beginning the Valley
Community Baptist Church in Avon was built, and between
four and five hundreci people now attend weekly services.
He enjoyed building things with his hands and had an
extensive too} collection. He and his wife also enjoyed
vacationing in Hawaii during the winter and the Adirondacks
during the summer, and he played tennis and enjoyed golf.
He was a devoted family man.
Mr. Kuhrt served in various capacities at the Research
Laboratories, becoming chief of research activities in 195S,
assistant director of research in 1963, and director of research
in 1964 with overall responsibility for the direction and
management of Unitecl Aircraft's central research organization.
Under his leadership from 1958 to 1967, when he left to
become executive vice-president of Sikorsky Aircraft, the
Research Laboratories underwent dynamic program content
growth and facilities expansion. The staff increased by
approximately 30 percent, the floor space quadrupled, and
OCR for page 185
WESLEY A. KUHRT
185
program emphasis shifted from a sole focus on mechanical
engineering and aerodynamics to solid state physics, plasma
physics, lasers, electromagnetics, microelectronics, material
sciences, and advanced computing.
At Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, he made original contributions
to the technology of air-cooled reciprocating aircraft engines,
particularly with regard to supercharger systems, cooling
requirements, and the interrelated thermodynamic effects
of cooling and power output. During his early years at the
Research Laboratories, he continued to make original con-
tributions in the field of ejector cooling and other sophisticated
concepts for advanced high-power reciprocating engines,
including the use of cooling fans for the B-35, B-36, and P-
47N aircraft and for helicopter engine installations.
He was instrumental in formulating and administering
early gas turbine research programs at the Research Labo-
ratories and in transferring this technology to Pratt & Whitney
Aircraft Division. He was subsequently responsible for ad-
vanced research programs on axial-flow compressors, turbines,
afterburners, and other axial-flow jet engine components
that, in part, formed the basis for Pratt & Whitney's successful
development of the twin-spool J-57 jet engine. He also
helped establish the Research Laboratories gas dynamics
laboratory, which has continued to serve the corporation
since 1947.
Mr. Kuhrt was responsible for the administration of ramjet
programs at United Aircraft Corporation (now United
Technologies Corporation) and made original contributions
to the design and evaluation of these propulsion systems.
He also organized the original studies of nuclear engine
cycles for aircraft propulsion. He also made significant
contributions to studies of boron hydride fuels and to Air
Force programs evaluating the feasibility of liquid-hydrogen
fuel cycles that took advantage of the unique thermodynamic
properties of hydrogen for optimizing propulsion system
weight and specific power output. These efforts stimulated
his invention in 1957 of a related cycle for a regeneratively
OCR for page 186
186
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
cooled liquid hydrogen-oxygen rocket engine in which gas-
eous hydrogen generated by the nozzle cooling process is
used to drive the propellant pumps. This pioneering con-
cept formed the basis for the design of the Pratt & Whitney
Aircraft RI'l0 rocket engine, which has proven to be uniquely
successful on the Centaur space vehicle.
He also was instrumental in establishing and implementing
the Research Laboratories' program on gas-core nuclear
rockets. In the mid-1960s he established programs at the
Research Laboratories for investigating high-power lasers,
boron filaments, and composite materials.
Based on the original laser activity carried out by the
Research Laboratories, the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division
entered the design and development of high-power gas dynamic
lasers and electro-optics system. The United Technologies
Optical Systems organization, now under the Hamilton
Standard Division of UTC, is the result of this early electro-
optics system effort.
At Sikorsky he applied advanced technology in helicopter
designs to improve the basic performance of these aircraft.
These design techniques improved helicopter maintainability
and reliability with a significant reduction in cost of ownership.
Based on this effort, the Sikorsky UTTAS helicopter won
for the company multibillion dollar contracts under the
Army/Navy helicopter program. Under his guidance a new
level of aerodynamic performance was made possible with
the use of titanium spar and composite blade structure.
Mr. Kuhrt served on the board of trustees of Barrington
College, Barrington, Rhode Island, and Northern Energy
Corporation of Boston, Massachusetts. He was a member
of the EPCOT Energy Advisory Committee; board of governors
of the National Space Club; and the Subcommittee on
Technology Policy (Research and Policy Committee) of the
Committee for Economic Development, Washington, D.C.
He also was a member of the American Helicopter Society,
American Association for Advancement of Science, Army
Aviation Association of America, National Space Club, Na-
OCR for page 187
WESLEY A. KUHRT
187
tional Aeronautic Association, Navy League of the United
States, and American Defense Preparedness Association. For
his many technical contributions, he was named a fellow of
the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and
in 1980 elected a member of the National Academy of En-
· ~
glneerlng.
OCR for page 188
Representative terms from entire chapter:
aircraft division
