News
Memorial Resolution on the Death of Courtland D. Perkins
June 25, 2008
Courtland D. Perkins, Professor Emeritus in the department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, died on January 6, 2008 at the age of 95, and with his passing this department, the entire University, and the world of aerospace technology lost one of its most gifted and effective scholars and institutional leaders. No memorial resolution format can satisfactorily encompass the depth and breadth of this fine man’s gigantic impact on the evolution of the aeronautical engineering profession and its practices. Nor can it adequately highlight his dominant role in the development of that portion of the Princeton School of Engineering and Applied Science that now comprises a full panorama of undergraduate and graduate education, basic research, and pragmatic applications in the contemporary aerospace sciences. Nonetheless, we should endeavor to recall a few vignettes of his remarkable performances on several institutional stages. A native of Philadelphia, Court completed his undergraduate education at Swarthmore College in 1935, supplemented by a Master’s degree from M.I.T. in 1941. As World War II enveloped our country he positioned himself in the Flight Technology Unit of the U.S. Army’s Wright-Patterson Stability and Control Center, and by the War’s end, he was already a recognized authority in the fundamentals of that portion of the burgeoning science of aeronautics. With the portfolio of basic understanding and pragmatic insights thus acquired, in 1945 he was appointed by the founding chairman, Daniel Sayre, to join our fledgling Aeronautical Engineering Department, and so distinguished himself in his scholarly work and administrative savoir faire that he succeeded Sayre as its chairman in 1951. Somewhere in that brief period he had also found time to compose and publish the seminal textbook: “Airplane Performance, Stability and Control”, co-authored with Robert Hage, which immediately became the standard text in the field, and remains widely utilized and celebrated to this day. The ensuing 27-year era of his inspiring departmental oversight began with the construction and utilization of a variety of experimental facilities on our Forrestal Campus that were rarely found at other academic institutions, including an assortment of wind tunnels, rocket test stands, towing tracks, chemical and electrical propulsion research laboratories, and most remarkably, a fully operational airfield, hangar, and flight research laboratory with a number of test aircraft that were available for undergraduate flight instruction and experience, as well as for faculty and graduate student research projects. Himself an avid pilot, Court was famous for rigging control surfaces and instrumentation devices on some of the test aircraft in the Department’s Forrestal hangar, to obtain ad hoc flight data that were inaccessible by more conventional means. His masterful history entitled “Development of Airplane Stability and Control Technology”, presented in his 1969 Von Karman lecture, doubtless benefited from these Princeton facilities and his personal experiments, as well as his having in some way been involved in every major commercial and military aircraft development program up to that time. The early portion of this epoch was also marked by the appointment of an outstanding cadre of internationally renowned faculty of the stature of Luigi Crocco, Martin Summerfield, Lester Lees, Wallace Hayes, and Seymour Bogdonoff, among many others who, along with the aforementioned research facilities, in turn attracted a succession of brilliant students who were destined to become leaders in the Aerospace industry. Our graduates James and John McDonnell, Norman Augustine, Philip Condit, and Renso Caporali all eventually ascended to become CEO or Chairman of their respective McDonnell-Douglas, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, and Grumman aerospace firms. A similarly impressive list of graduates left Princeton to lead many academic departments here and abroad or to populate major government or philanthropic directorates, and a succession of Astronauts have further distinguished this Princeton family. With reference to Court’s own public leadership roles, this space allows little more than passing acknowledgment of the constellation of government, commercial, and agency positions he held over his incredibly productive career: Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force and its Assistant Secretary for Research and Development; Chief Engineer for the U.S. Army; member of the Space Sciences Board of NASA; Chairman of the NATO Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development; President of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and President of the National Academy of Engineering, among many others. At the close of his departmental chairmanship, Court agreed to serve one year as Associate Dean of the School, to help with its ongoing development efforts. In recognition of his lifetime of service to this university and to his professional world, Princeton awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2001, the first ever presented to a member of our engineering faculty. In 2004 he received the Daniel Guggenheim Medal, widely recognized as the highest honor in aviation. In closing this less-than-adequate professional review, however, we feel most compelled to testify to the incomparable charm, affability, and humble confidence with which Court pursued and dispatched his panoply of responsibilities. No student, faculty member, staff person, or outside professional colleague ever entered Court’s office to present a report, a problem, an idea, or any other need, however complex, egregious, or preposterous it might appear, that was not greeted with a hearty smile, a personal anecdote or two, a touch of urbane wisdom, and a reliable promise for responsible action. And this sunny and positive disposition so permeated the entire establishment over which he presided, that learning and teaching and creating in his department became fun, and it was a very happy place to be and to flourish. There is no doubt that this personal radiance not only enhanced his own credibility and effectiveness, but it enabled and inspired many others to propagate their own talents and interests much more productively. Ave et Vale, dear Court. We shall miss you immensely, but your memory here is secure. Irvin Glassman Sau-Hai (Harvey) Lam Robert G. Jahn, Chair