NASA-Langley engineer joins First Flight Shrine

KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C.

What the Wright brothers did for heavier-than-air flight, Richard T. Whitcomb did for supersonic air travel.

The NASA researcher and aeronautics engineer was honored at the 104th anniversary of the first flight Monday at Wright Brothers National Memorial, where his portrait will join those of other aviation pioneers in the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine.

Being at the place where it all started should be an inspiration to those who follow in Whitcomb's footsteps, said Air Force Lt. Gen. James N. Soligan.

"For an airman coming back here," he said to the nearly filled auditorium, "it's like coming back to mecca."

Aviation enthusiasts and Wright history buffs were joined this year by the sixth-grade class from Cape Hatteras Secondary School of Coastal Studies and fifth-graders from the Dare County Wright Flight program, which rewards students with airplane flights for improving their schoolwork.

In detailing how military air power has contributed to the nation's freedom, Soligan said the Wright brothers' accomplishment "continues to motivate visionaries, leaders and, hopefully, our young people out in the audience."

Whitcomb's long career at what is now NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton proved him to be one of those visionaries.

In 1952, he discovered that by scaling down an airplane's fuselage to the shape of a soda bottle, it could go faster without additional power. The result was a principle known as the "area rule" that is still applied today.

"It's been said he battled the enemy - drag - and won," said Tom D. Crouch, senior curator in the Aeronautics Division of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.

That breakthrough was followed in the next decade by Whitcomb's development of the swept-back wing airfoil that helped increase fuel efficiency. Then in the 1970s, he invented winglets, devices that further improved aerodynamic performance of airliners and private jets.

Like the Wrights and other great inventors, Whitcomb had perseverance, said Dennis Bushnell, senior scientist at Langley, who worked with Whitcomb and observed his "Edisonian research."

Whitcomb is Langley's most distinguished alumnus, he said.

Whitcomb was unable to attend the ceremony for health reasons, said Bill Harris, president of the First Flight Society.

The First Flight Shrine was created in 1966 by the First Flight Society, the group that has organized the anniversary event since 1928. It is displayed in the flight room of the visitors center at the park.

When the audience went outside after the ceremony to see a flyover, they didn't have to endure the 38-degree temperature and 20-knot north wind for long. Not only did the scheduled moderator not make it - he had problems with his aircraft - but the showing of F-15E Strike Eagles from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base was canceled.

But flying in clear skies over the Wright monument were first a pair of F/A-18s, followed by a two-ship formation of CH-46 helicopters, a HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, and two passes of the C-54 Candy Bomber like the aircraft that participated in the Berlin Airlift.

When the Candy Bomber came back for a third sweep, its appearance was unexpected, even to the man who filled in as moderator.

"Oh my goodness!" exclaimed Bill Williams, the state Department of Transportation director of aviation as the plane rumbled past the pavilion. "A surprise. OK."

Cate Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com