An MIT Instrumentation Lab engineer checks Apollo Command Module onboard guidance computer programs in a special simulator that can run complete missions to test program accuracy. (Charles Stark Draper Historical Collection, MIT Museum; Courtesy The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory)
INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION President Maclaurin stated that he believes (MIT) should lead in the study of Aërial Navigation in the United States.
A complete Centennial Symposium agenda with times, locations, and speaker’s and panelists’ names for the three-day event is available at:
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, JULY 1909
http://aeroastro.mit.edu/aeroastro100. Registration is required for all events. There is a nominal fee to attend the Symposium and a separate fee for the Banquet. To determine fees and to register, visit:
With the above statement, MIT President Richard Maclaurin set the stage for what, in 1914, would become class 13.72 Aeronautics. That same year, an aeronautics master's degree course was approved. In 1926, Aeronautics became Course 16 in the Mechanical Engineering Department. In 1939, Course 16 became a department unto itself.
http://aeroastro.mit.edu/aeroastro100 Questions? Please email us at: aa100@mit.edu
The MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department gratefully acknowledges our Centennial Celebration sponsors. They include:
MIT’s first aeronautics class, from the 1913-1914 MIT course catalogue.
THE BOEING COMPANY
NORTHROP GRUMMAN
DRAPER LABORATORIES
OPUS DESIGN
LOCKHEED MARTIN
SPACEX
1914
1938
1953
1959
1960
1964
1969
1988
2014
MIT offers the first course in aeronautical engineering, 13.72, Aeronautics for Naval Constructors.
Wright Bros. Wind Tunnel dedicated, the first MIT large-scale facility for advanced research in aerodynamics.
Doc Draper flies from Massachusetts to Los Angeles in a B-29 guided by his Space Inertial Reference Equipment — the first long-distance inertially navigated aircraft flight.
Department of Aeronautical Engineering becomes Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
NASA selects the Instrumentation Lab to design and build the Apollo navigation and guidance systems.
AeroAstro’s Sheila Widnall becomes MIT’s first woman professor of engineering. She later becomes an MIT Institute Professor and Secretary of the Air Force.
Buzz Aldrin is the first of five Course 16 grads who travel to the moon.
MIT students, faculty, and alumni set the world record for human-powered flight with the aircraft they designed and built: Daedalus 88.
AeroAstro-designed proposed commercial aircraft design undergoes extensive testing for NASA. The “D-8” could use 70% less fuel than current planes while reducing noise and emissions.
CENTENNIAL SYMPOSIUM OCTOBER 22 – 24, 2014 YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED