Gary Flandro
Encyclopedia
Gary Flandro, PhD is an American
aerospace engineer who currently holds the Boling Chair of Excellence in Space Propulsion (Emeritus) at the University of Tennessee Space Institute
. He is also the Vice President and Chief Engineer at Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories (GTL). Flandro is an 11th generation pupil of Euler. The lineage is: Euler, Lagrange
, Fourier
, Dirichlet, Lipschitz
, Klein
, Lindemann
, Hilb, Bar, Liepmann, Marble, Flandro.
Dr. Flandro earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah
in 1957, his Master’s in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology
in 1960 and his Ph.D. from Caltech in 1967. He has worked at UTSI and held the Boling Chair of Excellence in Space Propulsion since 1991. Dr. Flandro has written or co-authored 95 conference papers, most recently traveling to Kyoto, Japan to present a paper titled “Understanding Oscillatory Behavior of Liquid Propellant Rockets and Jet Engine Thrust Augmentors," at the Seventh International Symposium on Special Topics in Chemical Propulsion. He has also written or co-authored 54 refereed papers, four books and two book chapters. He has recently been named a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Dr. Flandro was among 30 of the world’s recognized contributors to the fields of aeronautics or astronautics selected by AIAA and its Board of Directors to receive the title of Fellow at the Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala on May 13, 2008, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, in Washington D.C.
During the summer of 1964 at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Flandro was assigned the task of studying techniques for exploring the outer planets of the solar system. In this study he discovered the rare alignment of the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) and conceived the Planetary Grand Tour
multi-planet mission utilizing the gravity-assist technique to reduce the mission duration from forty years to less than ten years. This work was exploited by NASA
with the Voyager 1
and Voyager 2
missions. Flandro was recognized for this work first by the British Interplanetary Society (1970 Golovine Award), and later by NASA (1998 Exceptional Achievement Medal, with the citation: “for seminal contributions to the design and engineering of multi-outer-planet missions, including the Grand Tour opportunity for the epic Voyager explorations”). The ideas from this research have had major impact on subsequent solar system exploration; the Galileo (Jupiter satellite tour) mission and the Cassini (Saturn satellite tour) were made possible by the gravity assist method. Flandro (also in 1965) studied gravity assist trajectories to Pluto; these are the basis for the New Horizons mission launched in January 2006, which will arrive at Pluto in 2015.
Dr. Flandro’s work has supported decades of space flight and has led to successful missions to the outer planets. His research work with combustion instability in solid rocket motors has “practically solved a challenging issue that had plagued the field for many years,” said Dr. Vigor Yang Head, School of Aerospace Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology
. Flandro has coauthored several textbooks including: "Basic Aerodynamics: Incompressible Flow" with Dr. Howard McMahon and Robert L. Roach of Georgia Tech, and "Combustion Instability in Solid Propellant Rockets" with Edward W. Price of Georgia Tech. It is in regular use in Dr. Flandro's short courses at UTSI.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
aerospace engineer who currently holds the Boling Chair of Excellence in Space Propulsion (Emeritus) at the University of Tennessee Space Institute
University of Tennessee Space Institute
The University of Tennessee Space Institute, also known as UTSI, is a satellite campus of the University of Tennessee located near Tullahoma, Tennessee....
. He is also the Vice President and Chief Engineer at Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories (GTL). Flandro is an 11th generation pupil of Euler. The lineage is: Euler, Lagrange
Lagrange
La Grange literally means the barn in French. Lagrange may refer to:- People :* Charles Varlet de La Grange , French actor* Georges Lagrange , translator to and writer in Esperanto...
, Fourier
Joseph Fourier
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier was a French mathematician and physicist best known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series and their applications to problems of heat transfer and vibrations. The Fourier transform and Fourier's Law are also named in his honour...
, Dirichlet, Lipschitz
Rudolf Lipschitz
Rudolf Otto Sigismund Lipschitz was a German mathematician and professor at the University of Bonn from 1864. Peter Gustav Dirichlet was his teacher. He supervised the early work of Felix Klein....
, Klein
Felix Klein
Christian Felix Klein was a German mathematician, known for his work in group theory, function theory, non-Euclidean geometry, and on the connections between geometry and group theory...
, Lindemann
Ferdinand von Lindemann
Carl Louis Ferdinand von Lindemann was a German mathematician, noted for his proof, published in 1882, that π is a transcendental number, i.e., it is not a root of any polynomial with rational coefficients....
, Hilb, Bar, Liepmann, Marble, Flandro.
Dr. Flandro earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
in 1957, his Master’s in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
in 1960 and his Ph.D. from Caltech in 1967. He has worked at UTSI and held the Boling Chair of Excellence in Space Propulsion since 1991. Dr. Flandro has written or co-authored 95 conference papers, most recently traveling to Kyoto, Japan to present a paper titled “Understanding Oscillatory Behavior of Liquid Propellant Rockets and Jet Engine Thrust Augmentors," at the Seventh International Symposium on Special Topics in Chemical Propulsion. He has also written or co-authored 54 refereed papers, four books and two book chapters. He has recently been named a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Dr. Flandro was among 30 of the world’s recognized contributors to the fields of aeronautics or astronautics selected by AIAA and its Board of Directors to receive the title of Fellow at the Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala on May 13, 2008, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, in Washington D.C.
During the summer of 1964 at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Flandro was assigned the task of studying techniques for exploring the outer planets of the solar system. In this study he discovered the rare alignment of the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) and conceived the Planetary Grand Tour
Planetary Grand Tour
The Planetary Grand Tour was an ambitious plan to send unmanned probes to the planets of the outer solar system. Conceived by Gary Flandro of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the late 1960s, the Grand Tour would have exploited the alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, an event...
multi-planet mission utilizing the gravity-assist technique to reduce the mission duration from forty years to less than ten years. This work was exploited by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
with the Voyager 1
Voyager 1
The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA in 1977, to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Operating for as of today , the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. At a distance of as of...
and Voyager 2
Voyager 2
The Voyager 2 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977 to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space...
missions. Flandro was recognized for this work first by the British Interplanetary Society (1970 Golovine Award), and later by NASA (1998 Exceptional Achievement Medal, with the citation: “for seminal contributions to the design and engineering of multi-outer-planet missions, including the Grand Tour opportunity for the epic Voyager explorations”). The ideas from this research have had major impact on subsequent solar system exploration; the Galileo (Jupiter satellite tour) mission and the Cassini (Saturn satellite tour) were made possible by the gravity assist method. Flandro (also in 1965) studied gravity assist trajectories to Pluto; these are the basis for the New Horizons mission launched in January 2006, which will arrive at Pluto in 2015.
Dr. Flandro’s work has supported decades of space flight and has led to successful missions to the outer planets. His research work with combustion instability in solid rocket motors has “practically solved a challenging issue that had plagued the field for many years,” said Dr. Vigor Yang Head, School of Aerospace Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...
. Flandro has coauthored several textbooks including: "Basic Aerodynamics: Incompressible Flow" with Dr. Howard McMahon and Robert L. Roach of Georgia Tech, and "Combustion Instability in Solid Propellant Rockets" with Edward W. Price of Georgia Tech. It is in regular use in Dr. Flandro's short courses at UTSI.