Remembering Jack Norris

Dean Sigler Basic Science Research Program, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Jack Norris, an aviation and space pioneer, died on December 21, 2021.  Holder of more than 50 aerospace patents, many conceived during his time with NASA, he was a constantly inventive presence in the aviation world. The Experimental Aircraft Association shares a short autobiographical sketch with an incredible number of highlights.  As a youth, Jack was twice the Senior Overall National Model Aircraft Champion in 1946 and 1948. Later, he created Boeing’s flight controls, which allowed safe flights for over four billion of us.  107 of his maneuvering rocket control valves flew on Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, and are now in the Smithsonian. He was the Technical Director for the Voyager, Burt Rutan’s airplane that carried Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager on their non-stop around-the-world flight in 1986.  This followed a long career that included acting as a consultant on nuclear power, nuclear submarines, and work for the U. S. Air Force on acceptance testing for craft as diverse …

Al Bowers and the Bell-Shaped Curve

Dean Sigler Basic Science Research Program, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Al Bowers has promoted a different kind of lift distribution curve for wings in his talks at the Experimental Soaring Association’s Western workshop, held every Labor Day weekend at Mountain Valley Airport in Tehachapi, California.  Most aerodynamics textbooks model the elliptical lift distribution as an ideal to be achieved in wing design.   R. J. Mitchell, designer of the classic Spitfire fighter, incorporated an elliptical planform, which serendipitously allowed room for the Browning machine guns in the capacious inboard sections.  What could be wrong with that when the finest sailplanes exploit that same theory in their slender spans? Albion Bowers is retiring Chief Scientist at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base.  His experiments with an alternative way of spreading the lift across a wing have inspired several large models of how a wing with a bell-shaped lift distribution curve might appear – and perform.  Two years ago, he and Erich Chase, a well-known builder of high-end boats, brought …