William Rees Sears (March 1, 1913 – October 12, 2002) was an aeronautical engineer and educator who worked at
Caltech
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
,
Northrop Aircraft
Northrop Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer from its formation in 1939 until its 1994 merger with Grumman to form Northrop Grumman. The company is known for its development of the flying wing design, most successfully the B-2 Spiri ...
,
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
(as the J. L. Given Professor of Engineering), and the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
.
He was an editor of the ''
Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences'' from 1955 to 1963
and the founding Editor of the ''
Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics
''Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on fluid mechanics. It is published once a year by Annual Reviews and the editors are Parviz Moin and Howard Stone.
As of 2022, ''Journal Citation Repor ...
'' in 1969.
Career
William R. Sears was born in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of William and Gertrude Sears.
[Obituaries William R. Sears]
Retrieved 6 September 2011. He earned his BS degree from the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
in 1934. Following this, he enrolled at
Caltech
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
to study under
Theodore von Kármán
Theodore von Kármán ( hu, ( szőllőskislaki) Kármán Tódor ; born Tivadar Mihály Kármán; 11 May 18816 May 1963) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, aerospace engineer, and physicist who was active primarily in the fields of aeronaut ...
, director of the
Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory
The Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT), was a research institute created in 1926, at first specializing in aeronautics research. In 1930, Hungarian scientist Theodore von Kármán accepted the dire ...
(GALCIT). There he met von Kármán's secretary, Mabel Rhodes and they were soon married. Sears was awarded his PhD in 1938, writing a thesis concerning airfoils in non-steady motion, a work that laid the foundations for future developments in that field.
[Sears, William Rees, ''Stories From a 20th-Century Life'', Parabolic Press, Stanford California, 1994.]
In 1937, Sears was appointed instructor in aeronautics at Caltech, and in 1940, he was promoted to assistant professor. Several of his colleagues in these years included
Qian Xuesen
Qian Xuesen, or Hsue-Shen Tsien (; 11 December 1911 – 31 October 2009), was a Chinese mathematician, cyberneticist, aerospace engineer, and physicist who made significant contributions to the field of aerodynamics and established engineer ...
and
Frank Malina
Frank Joseph Malina (October 2, 1912 — November 9, 1981) was an American aeronautical engineer and painter, especially known for becoming both a pioneer in the art world and the realm of scientific engineering.
Early life
Malina was born in B ...
.
Through von Kármán's friendship with
Jack Northrop, Sears became involved in consulting on aerodynamic problems at
Northrop Aircraft
Northrop Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer from its formation in 1939 until its 1994 merger with Grumman to form Northrop Grumman. The company is known for its development of the flying wing design, most successfully the B-2 Spiri ...
In 1941, Sears accepted Jack Northrop's offer to be chief of aerodynamics and flight testing.
When Sears was a junior faculty member at Caltech, he was asked to direct the Civilian Pilot Training Program, a federal program that offered young people the possibility of earning a private pilot's license and receiving preparation for possible military flying in the event that the United States entered the war. Sears not only administered the program but took the opportunity to get his own pilot's license.
At Northrop, Sears headed the team that designed the
Northrop N-1M, which later led to the
Northrop N9M
The Northrop N-9M was an approximately one-third scale, span all-wing aircraft used for the development of the full size, wingspan Northrop XB-35 and YB-35 flying wing long-range, heavy bomber. First flown in 1942, the N-9M (M for Model) was ...
,
Northrop XB-35 and
Northrop YB-49
The Northrop YB-49 was an American prototype jet-powered heavy bomber developed by Northrop Corporation shortly after World War II for service with the United States Air Force. The YB-49 featured a flying wing design and was a turbojet-powered ...
flying wing aircraft. He also led the team that developed the
Northrop P-61 Black Widow
The Northrop P-61 Black Widow is a twin-engine United States Army Air Forces fighter aircraft of World War II. It was the first operational U.S. warplane designed as a night fighter, and the first aircraft designed specifically as a night figh ...
. At the end of World War II, he accompanied group of aeronautical experts led by Von Kármán to Germany to investigate the German progress in aerodynamics research.
Sears chose to return to academic life in 1946. He joined the faculty of
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
as the founder and first director of its Graduate School of Aeronautical Engineering. Within a few years, the Cornell Graduate School of Aeronautical Engineering was ranked among the world's best. He and his many students pioneered research in wing theory, unsteady flow, magnetohydrodynamics, and designed a sophisticated wind tunnel design to study transonic flight. He remained very close to von Kármán, who was a frequent visitor to the Cornell aero school. In 1962, Sears was named the J. L. Given Professor of Engineering, and in 1963, he stepped down as director of the aero school after 17 years. A year earlier he had founded and became director of Cornell's Center of Applied Mathematics.
Although his work at Northrop offered him little opportunity to fly, his move to Cornell provided more opportunity. In more than 50 years as a private pilot, he logged 8,000 hours before retiring from flying in 1990. He owned several aircraft over the years, including a
Mooney M-18 Mite, a
Beech A35 Bonanza, a
Piper Comanche
The Piper PA-24 Comanche is an American four-seat or six-seat, low-wing, all-metal, light aircraft of semimonocoque construction with tricycle retractable landing gear. Piper Aircraft designed and developed the Comanche, which first flew on Ma ...
and finally a
Piper Twin Comanche.
In 1974, after 28 years at Cornell, Sears joined the faculty of the department of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
. Four years later, he was named emeritus professor but remained an active faculty member and completed much of his important analytical and experimental work on adaptive-wall wind tunnels during these years.
Honors and awards
Sears was a member of the
National Academy of Sciences, the
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...
, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
, and Mexico's Academia Nacional de Ingeniería. He was an honorary fellow of the
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of ...
. During his lifetime, he received many honors and awards, including the
Guggenheim Medal The Daniel Guggenheim Medal is an American engineering award, established by Daniel Guggenheim, Daniel and Harry Guggenheim. The medal is considered to be one of the greatest honors that can be presented for a lifetime of work in aeronautics. Recipi ...
and in 1974 the
Ludwig-Prandtl-Ring
The Ludwig Prandtl Ring is the highest award of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics), awarded "for outstanding contribution in the field of aerospace engineering". The award is named ...
from the
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt
German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (DGLR; german: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt - Lilienthal-Oberth e.V.) is a German aerospace society. It was founded in 1912 under the name of ''Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für ...
(German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics) for "outstanding contribution in the field of aerospace engineering." In 1988, Caltech gave him its Distinguished Alumni Award. He was also named an outstanding alumnus of the University of Minnesota and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Arizona.
Sears was also an accomplished musician, first as a percussionist. He worked his way through college as a drummer in dance bands and, after moving to California, was tympanist with the
Pasadena Symphony for several seasons. Later, at Cornell, he became an expert recorder player with a university group interested in medieval music. He played with the Collegium Musicum at the University of Arizona for 20 years.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sears, William R.
University of Minnesota alumni
American aerospace engineers
1913 births
2002 deaths
Cornell University College of Engineering faculty
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
Ludwig-Prandtl-Ring recipients
ASME Medal recipients
20th-century American engineers
Annual Reviews (publisher) editors