Duane (Mac) Torrance McRuer October 25, 1922 - January 24, 2007 A Tribute to Mac by Herm Rediess Aerospace Control and Guidance Systems Committee Meeting 99 Boulder, Co February 27 March 2, 2007
Duane T. McRuer, Mac, an entrepreneur, scholar, humanitarian, conservationist, educator, author, and engineer who was instrumental in the development of aircraft flight control technology and the understanding of how people control vehicles of all types. Mentor and technical advisor to many of us in the aerospace business. My personal friend as he was to many others. Born October 25, 1925 in Bakersfield, California Died of prostate cancer January 24, 2007 at his home in Manhattan Beach, California. Survived by his wife Betty and daughter Lara.
Professional Associations 1957-2007 - Member SAE Control Systems Committee (now ACGSC) Attended 1956 meeting at the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics organized by Leo Chatler that lead to formation of the ACGSC Former Chairman Former Subcommittee D Chairman Member PAB First STI representative and presenter of many important papers National Academies Elected to the National Academy of Engineers in 1988 Lead or participated in several National Research Council Studies Member of the National Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board Former Chairman Honorary Fellow, AIAA Fellow SAE Fellow IEEE Fellow California Council for Science and Technology
Brief Professional Biography Served as a Navy Lieutenant, JG, in WW II, developing anti-submarine technology 1945 BS, 1948 - MSEE degree from CalTech 1948 - Joined Northrop Aircraft, quickly became Chief of Flight Controls Led flight control development of many aircraft, including the Northrop flying wing, F-89 and others Among the first to introduce artificial stability augmentation to aircraft - necessary for high-speed flight Coined the term Stability Augmentation System (SAS) when working on the flying wing (originally stability derivative augmentation system, but would not fit in the drawing box) First yaw damper SAS on the flying wing (as I recall) Leader of mathematical analysis of automatic and manual flight control Authored series of reference books sponsored by the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, which later evolved to become the popular text Aircraft Dynamics and Automatic Control co-authored with Dunstan Graham and Irv Ashkenas Co-authored Analysis of Nonlinear Control Systems with Dunstan Graham Held four patents in flight control
Brief Professional Biography (continued) 1957 - Co-founded Systems Technology, Inc. (STI) with Irv Ashkenas President and Technical Director until 1993, remained as Chairman of the Board Worked directly or as consultant on many of the AF and Navy fighter aircraft and many commercial transports Broadest knowledge of flight dynamics, pilot-in-the-loop,and automatic flight controls Principal contributor to theory of human operator control of vehicles (land, sea, under-sea and air) and mathematical modeling of man-machine systems STI documented the stability and control characteristics of many highperformance aircraft for NASA Dryden Pioneer in Pilot Induced Oscillations (PIO) phenomenon First to understand and analyze X-15 later-directional PIO at high angle-of-attack Analyzed PIOs on many aerospace vehicles, including the Space Shuttle After downturn in aerospace after the Apollo, broadened STI interests to vehicles, including cars, trucks, trailers, airships, submarines and tanks STI researched and developed a remotely piloted, free-flying Pterodactyl for Smithsonian Institute Served on the NASA Advisory Council and Chaired several Advisory Committees and Subcommittees Advisor on the Space Shuttle Flight Readiness Review Board
Professional Honors and Awards 1992 - AIAA Minta Martin Lectureship 1992-93 - Jerome Clarke Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics at MIT 1983 - CalTech Distinguished Alumnus Award NASA Distinguished Public Service Award AIAA Mechanics and Control of Flight Award Levy Medal of the Franklin Institute Award Human Factors and Ergonomics Society A.C. Williams Award National Sierra Club s Olvier Kehrlein Award. May be others
1962 - Joined Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club. Authored then edited several versions of the Leadership Reference Book 1975 - took up mountain climbing at the age of 50 1985 - Completed the 297 mountains on the Sierra Club Sierra Peaks list 1997 - visited or climbed the highest points in all 50 states, except Mount McKinley 1997 - Awarded the National Sierra Club s Olvier Kehrlein Award for Outings Leadership Conservationist and mountaineer 1998 - Awarded Sierra Club Angeles Charter s Lifelong Service Award