Public Domain Aeronautical Software (PDAS)
Birth
1 February 1935, Muncie, Indiana. U.S. Citizen
Education
- 1952-1953 Massachusetts Inst. of Technology
- 1953-1958 University of Texas, B.S. 1956
- 1958-1960 Univ. of Washington (part-time)
- 1966-1970 Stanford University (part-time) M.S. 1970
- (and numerous short courses at various institutions)
Membership in Professional Societies
Member of AIAA, AAAS, ACM, IEEE and EAA
Work Experience
- 1953 - United States Air Force, Kelly Field. Electronics technician
- 1954-1958 - Teaching Assistant, University of Texas Department of Physics.
- 1955 - Douglas Aircraft, El Segundo, CA. Electrical engineering staff.
- 1956 - Douglas Aircraft, Santa Monica, CA. Propulsion staff.
- 1957 - NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory. Supersonic Free Flight Wind Tunnel.
- 1958-1962 - Boeing Airplane Co. - Aerodynamicist, preliminary design group. Worked on
conceptual design of the supersonic transport and the proposal for the tactical fighter aircraft
known as TFX (later F-111). Fortran programmer since 1959.
- 1960-1961 - Univ. of Washington - Night school instructor, Algebra, Calculus.
- 1963-1994 - NASA Ames Research Center - Research Scientist, Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel.
Wind tunnel testing with emphasis on in-house NASA research and the development of
computational aerodynamics procedures as well as automated conceptual airplane design.
Projects include the supersonic transport, advanced technology transport, proposed delta wing
for the X-15, WingBody computer program, ACSYNT program for aircraft synthesis, PanAir
panel aerodynamics program, oblique wing research airplane and the all-wing oblique
supersonic transport. Supervised the specification and installation of a computer graphics
laboratory to support conceptual aeronautical vehicle design (1971-1975). Served on several
source evaluation boards including that of the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Facility.
- 1995-present - Public Domain Aeronautical Software - Sole proprietor. Development of a
collection of aeronautical computer programs for use on modern personal computers. Creation
of an extensive worldwide web site at http://www.pdas.com and execution of an on-line order
placement capability.
- 1996-present - Nielsen Engineering and Research, Santa Clara CA. (Part time and
occasional) Design of wind tunnel models for clients. Test planning and customer
representative during tests at the Lockheed Martin High Speed Wind Tunnel in Dallas TX, the
North American Trisonic Tunnel in El Segundo CA,
the Calspan 8-foot Transonic tunnel in Buffalo NY,
and the Propulsion Wind Tunnel 4T in Tullahoma TN.
Public Domain Aeronautical Software (PDAS)
Last updated: 8 January 2009 by
Ralph Carmichael ralph@pdas.com