August Raspet

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Dr. August "Gus" Raspet (24 August 1913 – 27 April 1960) 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.[1] 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

August "Gus" Raspet was born in Irwin, Pennsylvania on 24 August 1913. He had earned his B.S. in Physics by 1935 when he accepted a Civil Service Position as Junior Physicist. Around October 1938, he began his graduate studies at the University of Maryland while still working as a Junior Physicist. He was granted his M.S. in Physics in 1940 and would earn his Ph.D. in 1942, also at the University of Maryland. His dissertation covered instruments for measuring magnetic fields in the Earth. The same year as his graduation, he accepted a position as a Research Physicist for the Gould Aeronautical Division of Pratt Read and Co., located in Deep River, Connecticut. He resigned from this position a year later when he accepted another job as Research Physicist of Specialties, Inc. in Syosset, New York. During his stead at Specialties, Inc. he became the Director of Research of the Soaring Society of America (The August, 1960 edition of which is entirely dedicated to Raspet) for the glider phase of Project Thunderstorm. By 1947, Raspet became President and Director of Research at the Aerophysic Institute, Inc. for their study of air flow over an extended ridge. This project was funded by the 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). To this day, the Flight Research Laboratory at MSU is named for him.[2]

On 27 April 1960, Dr. Raspet was involved in a plane crash during a demonstration of a Piper Cub with boundary layer modifications at Starkville, Mississippi's Bryan Field Airport.[3] He died at the scene and was survived by his wife and three children.[4]

Contributions

Raspet's most extensive work in aeronautics was in boundary layer control. Through several experiments involving laminar friction curve and high-lift boundaries, Dr. Raspet made several breakthroughs regarding sailplanes that would later factor into the technology that would allow the development of personal aircraft.

List of Notable Published Scholarly Articles[2]

  • "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 Leanoardo di 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" - Experiment, October, 1956
  • "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 and later published in Soaring, in November 1959

The Dr. August Raspet Memorial Award

Because of Raspet's contribution to aeronautical science, a prestigious award has been named in his memory. The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), beginning in 1960, has awarded yearly the Dr. August Raspet Memorial Award to a person who has made significant advancements in the field of light aircraft design. According to the EAA Airventure site, "The first recipient of the award was John Thorp, Lockheed engineer on the Little Dipper and Big Dipper, and designer of the Thorp Aviation Sky Skooter. Since then the list of people honored reads like a Who's Who of aircraft design." [5]

List of Recipients

References

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External links

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