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ALLEN F
.
1914-1995
D O N OVAN
BY ALEXANDER FLAX AND IVAN GETTING
ALLEN F. DONOVAN began his engineering career in 1936 by
working as a structures engineer at the Curtiss Aeroplane DiVi-
sion of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation in Buffalo, New York,
after receiving his master's degree in aeronautical engineer-
ing from the University of Michigan. His first task was
redesigning the wire bracing of the wings for the last procluc-
tion run of the Curtiss Hawk biplane fighter. Subsequently, he
worked on a number of Curtiss fighters, including the Curtiss
P-40 Warhawk, which saw extensive service in WorIc3 War lI
with more than 15,000 produced. During the war, he played a
key role in creating the Curtiss-Wright Research Laboratory,
where, as head of structural and flight research, he pioneered
in instrumented structural and flutter flight testing. Programs
he conducted on the Curtiss Helldiver dive bomber and the
Vought Corsair fighter made important contributions to these
airplanes' operational capabilities. Working for the Manhat-
tan Project, his structural design group ran structural and
altitude tests on the Nagasaki atomic bomb design and devel-
oped bomb releases used in the drops on Japan.
After WorIcl War IT, Curtiss-Wright donated its research lab-
oratory to Cornell University, which renamed it the Cornell
Aeronautical Laboratory and operated it as a nonprofit corpo-
ration with Donovan as head of the Aeromechanics
Department. Here he directed the design and, in May 1947,
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74
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
the flight test of the unmanned rocket-propelled STY-1, the
United States' first supersonic and transonic, aerodynamically
stabilized and controlled vehicle (five months before the X-1
airplane flew supersonically). In 1948 he and two associates
published a landmark paper on the stability and control of
supersonic aircraft. He also had a strong interest in helicopter
technology, and a group under his leadership developed,
built, and test flew the first fiberglass composite helicopter
blades. For the Army, he led the development of the Lacrosse
missile-a system designed to enable a soldier in the front
lines to guide a missile launched from approximately ten miles
behind him to a precise strike with a warhead that would pen-
etrate a heavily fortified target.
In 1955 he moved to Los Angeles to join the Guided Missile
Research Division of the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation (lat-
er a part of TRW), which had just been assigned the task of
performing the "System Engineering and Technical Direction"
for the Air Force Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Pro-
gram. As head of the Aeronautics Laboratory, he guided the
efforts on the rocket engines, the aerodynamics, the structur-
al design and dynamics, and on the reentry vehicles of the
Atlas, Titan, and Thor missiles. He also served as program
director of the Titan system in its initial phase. Studies he led
on the potential use of solid rockets for the ICBMs resulted in
the Minuteman missile concept. Early in 195S, he convinced
the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of
Defense to attempt the world's first lunar mission using the
Thor missile with two additional rocket stages. This program
of three launches, which was transferred to the newly created
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in
October 195S, resulted in Pioneer I, the first of a long series
of scientific space missions designated "Pioneer." The systems
did not achieve their ambitious objective of returning a pic-
ture of the back of the moon; but Pioneer I, the second
launch, did send back the first measurements of the earth's
radiation field out to SO,OOO miles.
In 196O, after the Air Force determined that its system engi-
neering for the future space and missile systems should be
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ALLEN F. DONOVAN
75
provided by a nonprofit organization created specifically for
that purpose, Donovan was elected by the founding board of
trustees to be the senior vice-president, technical, and second
in the line of command of The Aerospace Corporation, head-
quartered in E1 Segundo, California. Working with {van
Getting, Aerospace's president, he built the staff up to two
thousand engineers and scientists. In his eighteen years at
Aerospace, he guided the engineering efforts in the entire Air
Force space program and in some areas supporting NASA.
In the space launch vehicle field, this included the Atlas and
Titan II families as well as the Agena rendezvous vehicles sup-
plied to NASA and launched for NASA by the Air Force for
the Mercury and Gemini astronaut programs, the develop-
ment and use of the Titan III family of space launch vehicles,
and studies for the Air Force and NASA that were of major
importance in creating and defining the Space Shuttle Pro-
gram. He personally initiated and guided a critical
engineering effort for the Mercury space launch vehicle and
produced an empirical solution to the problem of combus-
tion instability in liquid rocket engines. For the Titan II
vehicles, he formulated, initiated, and guided a program that
produced both a theoretical analysis and its engineering ap-
plication that solved the so-called Pogo problem of
longitudinal oscillations of liquid rocket launch vehicles.
These concepts were later used to solve the "Pogo" problem of
Apollo's Saturn V launch vehicle's second stage and are in use
today in the space shuttle.
In the spacecraft field, his responsibilities included the Vela
nuclear detection satellites, the infrared launch surveillance
satellite systems, several generations of military communica-
tion satellite systems, the defense meteorological satellite
program, and a number of highly classified satellite programs
in the category referred to in arms control treaties as "nation-
al technical means of verification" managed and operated by
the National Reconnaissance Office for the President.
Al Donovan served on the Air Force Scientific Advisory
Board from 1948 ~ 1968 and was chairman of its Propulsion
Panel from 1959 to 1968. The Air Force awarded him the
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Civilian Exceptional Service Medal in 1968. In the micl-1950s
he served as principal adviser for the air vehicle in President
Eisenhower's pane! studies leacling to the development of the
U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. Between 1957 and
1978, he server! as a consultant and member of panels of the
President's Science Advisory Committee uncler five presidents.
In 1964 the University of Michigan conferrer! on him an
honorary doctor of science degree in aeronautical and astro-
nautical engineering. He was elected to membership in the
National Academy of Engineering in 1969 en cl served on a
number of committees, including the National Research
Council's Assembly of Engineering Ad Hoc Committee for
Review of the Space Shuttle Main Engine Development Pro-
gram (1978~. He became a member of the American Institute
of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1943, and was elected a
fellow in 1963 en c! an honorary fellow in 1983.
Born in Onondaga, New York, on April 22, 1914, Allen
Donovan earned his B.S.E. en cl M.S. degrees at the University
of Michigan. During his lifetime, he participated in activities
closely related to his scientific and engineering interests: in
sailplanes, as a free balloonist, and as an airplane pilot prior
to Florid War Il. As he matured, he turned to sailing en c! was
very proud of his 40-foot ketch. On retirement from active
work and in failing health, he and his wife, June, mover! to
Corona de! Mar where he died on March IT, 1995.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
service medal
