Courtland D. Perkins

Courtland Davis Perkins (December 27, 1912 – January 6, 2008) was an American aeronautical engineer, professor, and science administrator whose work focused on aircraft stability and control. He chaired the aeronautical engineering department at Princeton University, served as chief scientist and assistant secretary for research and development of the United States Air Force, and was president of the National Academy of Engineering from 1975 to 1983. With Robert Hage, he wrote the 1949 textbook Airplane Performance, Stability and Control.

Early life and education Perkins was born in Philadelphia on December 27, 1912. He graduated from Germantown Friends School in 1931 and from Swarthmore College with honors in mechanical engineering in 1935. Unable to find work in aeronautics during the Great Depression, he joined the American Radiator and Sanitary Corporation, becoming its Philadelphia branch engineer.

He joined the aeronautical engineering graduate program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1939 and earned a master's degree in 1941.

He helped Theodore von Kármán establish NATO's Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development and chaired the group from 1963 to 1967. Perkins also served as the second president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Space Science Board, the Defense Science Board, and NASA's Space Program Advisory Committee. From 1986 to 1989, he served on a senior review panel of the Central Intelligence Agency.

National Academy of Engineering Perkins was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1969 for "leadership in the fields of airplane stability and control and airplane dynamics". He served as president of the academy from 1975 to 1983. During his two terms, the academy elected its first foreign associates and approximately doubled its membership. He was also vice chair of the National Research Council and chair of its Assembly of Engineering.

Honors and awards First NATO von Kármán Medal Legion of Honour (1977) Honorary doctorates in engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Lehigh University, and Swarthmore College Honorary doctorate from Princeton University (2001), the first awarded by the university to a member of its engineering faculty Daniel Guggenheim Medal (2004), for contributions to aeronautical research and teaching in stability and control and for professional leadership Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society

Personal life Perkins married Jean Enfield in 1941, and they had two children, William and Anne. After Jean Perkins died in 1980, he married Nancy Wilson. Perkins died on January 6, 2008, at the age of 95.

Selected works