August Raspet

August Raspet (24 August 1913 – 27 April 1960) was an American aerodynamicist and researcher. He was one of the most influential contributors to the science of aeronautics, dealing primarily with efficiency in flight, aerodynamics and wing design structures. His contributions to the field of flight science are many, having published over forty scholarly articles on subjects ranging from human muscle-powered flight to sailplane performance analysis as it relates to airplanes. An avid bird watcher, Raspet developed his dedication to the idea of flight from a young age and would use ideas generated from observing avian flight in his experiments and research throughout his career.

Biography Raspet was born in Irwin, Pennsylvania on 24 August 1913. He received a BS degree in Physics in 1935 and began working in the Civil Service as a junior physicist. In 1938 he began graduate studies at the University of Maryland while still working in the Civil Service. He received an MS degree in Physics in 1940 and PhD in 1942. His PhD dissertation covered instruments for measuring Earth's magnetic fields. In 1942 he began as a research physicist for the Gould Aeronautical Division of Pratt Read and Co. in Deep River, Connecticut. In 1943 he became a research physicist at Specialties, Inc. in Syosset, New York. While at Specialties, Inc. he became the Director of Research of the Soaring Society of America (The August 1960 edition of its monthly magazine is entirely dedicated to Raspet) for the glider phase of Project Thunderstorm. In 1947 Raspet became President and Director of Research at the Aerophysic Institute, Inc. for their study of airflow over an extended ridge, funded by the US Office of Naval Research. In 1949 Raspet became the Sailplane Projects Leader for the Engineering Station at Mississippi State College. From 1953 until his untimely death in 1960, he served as Head of the Aerophysics Department at Mississippi State College (now Mississippi State University). The Flight Research Laboratory at MSU is named for him.

On 27 April 1960, Raspet was involved in a plane crash during a demonstration of a Piper Cub with boundary layer modifications at Starkville, Mississippi's George M. Bryan Airport. He died at the scene and was survived by his wife and three children.

Contributions Raspet's most extensive work in aeronautics was in boundary layer control. Through several experiments involving laminar friction curve and high-lift boundaries, he made several breakthroughs regarding sailplanes that would later be incorporated in light aircraft.

Notable articles "More Audio Watts from a Single Type 10: An Audio System Adapted Modulater Use" – QST, March 1935 (co-author) "Prone Pilots" – Air Progress, 1940 "Dynamic Balancing of Small Rotors by Means of the Cathode-ray Oscillograph" – Dumont Oscillographer, April–May 1941. (prize paper, co-author) "Slope Soaring" – Soaring – July–August 1943 "Comments on Richard C. DuPont's Paper" – Soaring, July–August 1943 "Glider-Tug Performance Studies" – Soaring, November–December 1944 "The Angle of Attack Indicator" – Soaring, May–June 1946 "Determination of the Flight Path of Airplanes, 1946" – Proceedings of Flight Path Conference, US Navy, 1946 "Sailplane Performance Evaluation" – Soaring May–June 1947 "The Ultimate Performance Sailplane" – Institute of Aeronautical Sciences, July 1948 "The Sailplane as a Meteorological Probe" – Transactions: American Geophysics Union, October 1948 "The Air Flow Over an Extended Ridge" – OSTIV, Pub. 1, 1948 "Measurements of the Drag Coefficient of Soaring Bird" – Aeronautical Engineering Review, December 1950 "Flight Characteristics of the Flat Top TG-4A" – Soaring, January–February 1950 "Die Segelflugprojeckte des Miss. State College" – Thermik, March 1950 "To Paul Tuntland (In Memoriam)" – Soaring, September–October 1950 "Aerodynamics of the Sailplane Tiny Mite" – Soaring, November–December 1950 "Performance Measurements of a Soaring Bird" – Aeronautical Engineering Review, Vol. 9, No. 12, December 1950 "Problems of Cosmical Aerodynamics, a Review of Proceedings for CADA" – Aeronautical Engineering Review, 1951 "The Sailplane in Aerodynamic Research" – Research Reviews, February 1952 "Peravia Barograph" – Soaring, March–April 1951 (co-author) "Unsolved – The Problem of Leonardo da Vinci, Human Muscle-Powered Flight" – Journal of the Miss. Academy of Science, Vol. V, 1951–1953, as well as Soaring, May–June 1952 "The Role of the Sailplane in Aerodynamic Research" – Soaring, May–June 1951 "Boundary Layer Studies on a Sailplane" – Aeronautical Engineering Review, Vol. II, No. 6, June 1052 "Systematic Improvement of the Drag Polar of the Sailplane RJ-5" – Soaring, September–October 1951 "The Sailplane in Research, Training and Sport Flying" – Soaring, January–February 1953 "Leisteungssteigerung von Segelflugzeugen durch die Berucksichtigung der Grenzschichtforschung (Increase in Performance of Sailplanes by Use of Boundary Layer Research), Translated by Nils Hirth and Edited by Wolf Hirth" – Handbook Des Segelfliegens, 1953 "More Power or Less Drag" – Flight, April 1953 "Bathtub Aerodynamics" – Soaring, May 1953 & March–April 1954 (co-author) "Control of the Boundary Layer on Sailplanes" – OSTIV, Pub. II "Flight Measurements of Trailing-Edge Suction on a Sailplane" – Aeronautical Engineering Review, Vol. 13, No. 1, January 1954 "Private and Utility Airplane of the Future" – Aviation Age, January 1954 "Flight Research on a Personal Type Airplane" – Research Reviews, April 1954 "Application of Sailplane Performance Analysis to Airplanes" – Aeronautical Engineering Review, August 1954 "Low Drag Sailplane, Tiny Mite, Modifications, 1954" – Journal of Aeronautical Society of India, Vol. 7, No. 3 & Soaring, November–December 1954 (co-author) "Sailplane as a Tool for Boundary Layer Research" – Fifty Years of Boundary Layer Research, 1955 "Delay of the Stall by Suction Through Distributed Perforations" – Aeronautical Engineering Review, August 1956 (co-author) "Flight Measured Aerodynamics of Wittman's Tailwind" – Experimenter, October 1956, Experimental Aircraft Association "Basic Research and Mississippi's Industrialization" – Paper presented at the Mississippi Academy of Science Meeting, Mississippi State University, 24 April 1959 "Some Thoughts on New Approaches to Soaring" – Presented at the Soaring Society of America technical Symposium, Los Angeles, California on 12 September 1959; published in Soaring November 1959

List of Recipients

1960 – John Thorp 1961 – Steve Wittman 1962 – Ray Stits 1963 – Alexander Lippisch 1964 – Richard Schreder 1965 – (no recipient) 1966 – Edgar J. Lesher 1967 – (no recipient) 1968 – Peter M. Bowers 1969 – Curtis Pitts 1970 – Ladislao Pazmany 1971 – Jim Bede 1972 – Bernard Pietenpol 1973 – Robert Bushby 1974 – Paul Poberezny 1975 – M.B. "Molt" Taylor 1976 – Burt Rutan 1977 – Lou Stolp 1978 – Chris Heintz 1979 – John Monnett 1980 – Dick VanGrunsven 1981 – Atonio "Tony" Bingelis 1982 – Dick Wagner 1983 – Mike Smith 1984 – B.J. Schramm 1985 – Tom Hamilton 1986 – Mark D. Brown 1987 – Lance Neibauer 1988 – Homer Kolb 1989 – Jim Griswold 1990 – John Roncz 1991 – Dan Denney 1992 – Alan and Dale Klapmeier 1993 – CAFE Foundation 1994 – Paul Fiduccia 1995 – Ivan Shaw 1996 – Stoddard-Hamilton GlaStar Design Team 1997 – Jim Rahm and Al Joniec 1998 – Dan Wilson 1999 – RotorWay International 2000 – Rotary Air Force 2001 – Harry Riblett 2002 – Randy Schlitter 2003 – Pete Buck 2004 – Phil Lockwood 2005 – Chuck Bilbe and Jim Younkin 2006 – Gordon Pratt and Ricardo Price / Chelton Flight Systems 2007 – Greg Toman 2008 – Randall Fishman 2009 – Rodney Stiff 2010 – Ken Krueger 2011 – James Wiebe 2012 – Michael Coates 2013 – BRP Rotax Engines 2014 – Troy Woodland 2015 – John and Jeremy Monnett 2016 – Paulo H. Iscold 2017 – Craig Catto 2018 – Greg Cole 2019 – Marcus Leng 2020 – (no recipient, AirVenture canceled) 2021 – Jim Rust 2022 – Garmin 2023 – Ivo Boscarol and Pipistrel 2024 – Mike Blyth and Sling Aircraft 2025 – Alberto Porto and Porto Aviation Group