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Guide to the John W. Edwards Papers,
1965-2011
PP12.01
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Title: John W. Edwards Papers
Date (inclusive): 1965-2011
Collection Number: PP12.01
Creator:
Edwards, J.W.
Edwards, John W., 1939-2011
Edwards, John W., 1939-2011
Extent:
Number of containers: 23
Volume: 27.35 cubic feet of physical records, and 16.6 gigabytes of digital records
Volume: 27.35 cubic feet of physical records, and 16.6 gigabytes of digital records
Repository:
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center,
History Office
4800 Lilly Drive
Edwards, California 93523
Abstract: This collection consists of physical and digital records, which include research notes and data, project documentation, presentations,
publications, administrative files, correspondence, educational materials, and visual media produced or collected by Dr. John
W. Edwards, an aerospace engineer who worked for the National Air and Space Administration (NASA) from 1965 to 2010. The bulk
of the collection documents Edwards' career at NASA as a research engineer, from his research in flight control systems at
Dryden Flight Research Center from 1965 to 1980, to his work in computational aeroelasticity and unsteady aerodynamics at
Langley Research Center from 1980 to 2010.
Language:
English
Access to portions of the collection is restricted.
Copyright does not apply to United States government records. For non-government
material, researcher must contact the original creator.
NASA Dryden History Office, Dryden Flight Research Center. Edwards, California. PP12.01, John W. Edwards Papers, 1965-2011,
[Container number]: [Folder number]. [Identification of item]. [Date, if available].
NASA DFRC. PP12.01, [Container number]: [Folder number]. [Identification of item]. [Date, if available].
Removed or Separated Material
Most published materials not authored by Edwards were separated from the collection. These include sets of publications that
Edwards grouped by author or topic, as well as NASA Technical Memos and Technical Reports. Operational administrative documents,
such as human resources and administrative forms, work orders, itemized travel budgets and bills, and receipts were separated.
Personal medical documentation were also separated.
Transfered from Dr. Edwards' family in January 2012.
John William Edwards was born in Colfax, Iowa on July 8, 1939. In 1947, his father died of a heart attack and three years
later, in 1950, his mother moved with Edwards and his older brother to Portland, Oregon where she had obtained a position
teaching middle school. Edwards remained in Portland until he graduated from high school and was awarded a scholarship to
attend Yale University. He received a B.A. in physics from Yale in 1961 and an M.S. in physics from the University of Washington,
Seattle in 1963. He served in the U.S. Peace Corps from 1963 to 1965 teaching secondary school physics in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
at Haile Selaisse I University (now Addis Ababa University). In 1967, Edwards married Adelaide Majerus. They had two daughters,
Susan Elizabeth (b. 1967) and Mary Joanna (b. 1968). Edwards worked at NASA as an aerospace engineer from 1965 until he retired
in 2007, and continued work for NASA as a contractor to 2010.
Edwards worked at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) between 1965 and 1980, where he helped pioneer digital flight
control systems. At DFRC he worked on the Lifting Body flight test program, and in 1968 was assigned to the JetStar General
Purpose Airborne Simulator project, where he developed computer programs for analysis of flight simulation experiments that
were used at Dryden and by the Northrop Corporation for the next two decades. Edwards also developed computer algorithms that
allowed DFRC to move flight simulation from analog methods to all-digital simulation in real time. In 1970 Edwards wrote an
internal memorandum advocating for a new concept: the use of digitally-controlled remotely-piloted vehicles for flight testing.
This memorandum led to the development of DFRC's Remotely Piloted Research Vehicles. Edwards was lead research engineer for
the PA-30 Remotely Augmented Vehicle demonstration flight tests, and for the 3/8 scale F-15 Spin Research Vehicle flight tests.
This technique of using remotely-piloted vehicles was used several projects at DFRC, including the Drones for Aerodynamic
and Structural Testing (DAST), Highly Maneuverable Aircraft Technology (HiMAT), High Angle-of-Attack (Alpha) Research Vehicle,
and F-8 Digital Fly-by-Wire flight programs. In recognition of his "ability to apply recently developed techniques to practical
flight research programs" (NASA Langley, 2004), Edwards received the National Space Club's Hugh L. Dryden Fellowship in 1974,
which allowed him to pursue his Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California from
1974 to 1976.
Edwards' Ph.D. thesis, "Unsteady Aerodynamic Modeling and Active Aeroelastic Control," was completed in 1977 and resolved
a longstanding theoretical dispute in Theodore Theodorsen's unsteady aerodynamic theory. With this research, Edwards helped
establish the flutter analysis methods that have since become standard in the aerospace industry.
Edwards returned to DFRC in 1976 and was principal research engineer for the DAST program. In 1978, he developed an adaptive
digital filter for the Space Shuttle in order to control pilot-induced oscillations caused by the vehicle's poor handling.
The Pilot-Induced Oscillation Suppression filter Edwards developed was added to the Shuttle's flight control computer, and
was used on all of the Shuttle's orbital missions. Edwards received a patent for the filter algorithm, as well as several
NASA awards.
In 1980, Edwards transferred to NASA's Langley Research Center (LaRC), where he remained for the rest of his career. From
1981 to 1989 he was head of the Unsteady Aerodynamics Branch. He is credited with transitioning NASA from classical aeroelastic
analysis methods to computational aeroelastics during this period. Under his management, the Unsteady Aerodynamics Branch
developed the first code capable of transonic flutter analysis of complete vehicles. Called Computational Aeroelasticity Program-Transonic
Small Disturbance (CAP-TSD), the code has been widely used throughout industry and academia.
From the 1980s through the rest of his career, Edwards organized symposia and gave lectures internationally about computational
unsteady aerodynamics. He taught several graduate-level courses on aeronautics at George Washington University in affiliation
with NASA's Joint Institute for the Advancement of Flight Sciences, as well as at Old Dominion University and Christopher
Newport College. He was a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO's) Advisory Group for Aerospace Research
and Development, and NATO's Research and Technology Organization. He served on standing committees for the American Institute
of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and was associate editor of AIAA's
Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics from 1981 to 1983. He was also an active member of the Aerospace Flutter and Dynamics Council (known as the "Flutter Club")
from 1979 through 2010. In 2001 Edwards was elected as AIAA Fellow
In 1989 Edwards returned to research as a senior research engineer in the Aeroelasticity Branch at LaRC. For the rest of his
career, he concentrated on two areas of research: "shock-boundary layer interactions in transonic flutter and limit cycle
oscillations, and wind tunnel model and structural vibrations" (NASA Langley, 2004). He developed a new interactive viscous
boundary layer coupling method, which was incorporated into the CAP-TSD code. The resulting CAP-TSDV code enabled several
first-time computations throughout the 1990s, which have been used to investigate various problems, including anomalous loads
on the Space Shuttle vertical tail fin, residual pitch oscillations on the B-2 Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit (Stealth Bomber),
and an unsteady hydroacoustics problems on a marine pump at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.
In 1993, Edwards' calculations on Langley's National Transonic Facility (NTF) cryogenic wind tunnel led to new insights into
wind tunnel resonance processes and research into the connections between acoustics and unsteady aerodynamics. In 1997 Edwards'
measurements of model and tunnel vibrations in the NTF led to formation of the NTF Model Vibrations Project within the NTF
Revitalization Project. In the early 2000s Edwards was also project leader for the Model for Aeroelastic Validation Research
Involving Computation (MAVRIC) wind tunnel flutter model test.
From 2000 to his retirement in 2007, Edwards was involved in several accident investigations, including the Pegasus X-43 rocket
mishap investigation, the American Airlines Flight 587 Airbus crash investigation, and the Space Shuttle Columbia Return to
Flight effort. His computations on the aerodynamic stability of the Space Shuttle's External Tank Protuberance Aerodynamic
Load (PAL) Ramps shielding the tank's cable trays, led to the removal of the foam ramps from the Shuttle's external tank for
the return to flight.
After retiring in 2007, Edwards was appointed Distinguished Research Associate at NASA, and continued to work as a contract
researcher on projects for NASA, including work for the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, and on the MAVRIC project. In
addition to this work, he continued to teach, give lectures, and publish papers through 2010, and continued to correspond
with his peers into 2011. Edwards died June 3, 2011 in Williamsburg, Virginia.
NASA Dryden History Office, Dryden Flight Research Center. Edwards, California. PP12.01, John W. Edwards Papers, 1965-2011,
Box 18.
An Ombudsman's Opinion. November 28, 1998.
NASA Dryden History Office, Dryden Flight Research Center. Edwards, California. PP12.01, John W. Edwards Papers, 1965-2011,
Box 13.
Research and Development Classification Process (RDCP). 2004.
Waltman, Gene. L. (2000).
Black Magic and Gremlins: Analog Flight Simulations at NASA’s Flight Research Center. NASA History Division, Washington, D.C. NASA SP-2000-4520. Retrieved from
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/pdf/88787main_Black_Magic.pdf
The following terms may be used to index this collection.
Ames Research Center
Langley Research Center
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
National Transonic Facility (U.S.)
Langley Research Center. Unsteady Aerodynamics Branch
J.W. Edwards
John W. Edwards, 1939-2011
William P. Rodden
Airfoils
American Airlines Flight 587 Crash, 2001
B-2 bomber
Computational Aeroelasticity Program - Transonic Small Disturbance (CAP-TSD)
Computational Aeroelasticity Program - Transonic Small Disturbance Viscous (CAP-TSDV)
Computational fluid dynamics
DAST program
F-15 strike eagle
Flutter (Aerodynamics)
Remotely piloted vehicles
Space Shuttles--Pilot-induced oscillations
Space Shuttles--Protuberance Air Load Ramps
Transonic Dynamics Tunnel (TDT)
Unsteady flow (Aerodynamics)
This collection consists of research notes and data, project documentation, presentations, publications, administrative files,
correspondence, educational materials, and visual media created or accumulated by Edwards between 1965 and 2011, thus documenting
Edwards' entire career.
Series I contains the bulk of the physical papers. These documents are related closely to Edwards' research and professional
life at NASA. These include scientific research projects (Subseries 1) his administrative documents (Subseries 2), and awards
he received (Subseries 3). The files in Subseries 1 document NASA projects and research in which Edwards was involved. These
include Edwards' handwritten project notes, raw data, personal correspondence, as well as formal documentation, NASA memos,
and NASA technical reports. A significant portion of these documents concern the development and use of the Computational
Aeroelasticity Program-Transonic Small Disturbance (CAP-TSD) and CAP-TSDV computer codes for modeling and analysis of unsteady
aerodynamics and flutter.
Series II includes presentation documents, publications, and publication drafts authored by Edwards.
Series III contains correspondence between Edwards and his peers. A large body of correspondence between Edwards and William
Rodden form a subseries, as do a set of correspondence concerning preparations for various professional conferences, and peer
review of papers for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics'
Journal of Aircraft.
Series IV includes documents from Edwards' Ph.D. coursework as well as documents compiled and authored by Edwards for various
graduate-level courses on aerodynamics that he taught himself.
Series V is comprised of electronic records from 1995 to 2011. These include e-mail correspondence, born-digital files in
multiple file formats, and optical media. Digital files include data as well as publications, reports, images, and videos.
Series VI includes visual media, primarily photographic materials and Video Home System (VHS) tapes, many of which document
wind tunnel tests at NASA.
Arrangement of the John W. Edwards Papers
On the series-level, an arrangement was imposed by format to create six series, with physical papers in Series I-IV, digital
media in Series V, and visual media in Series VI. Additionally, Series I-IV were arranged in topical groups based on function,
which is the organization suggested in Edwards' original, incomplete organization.
Papers within each series are arranged by different methods:
- Series I: NASA Papers, 1965-2010 is arranged primarily by project.
- Series II: Works Authored by John W. Edwards is arranged according to publication status.
- Series III: Correspondence is arranged by Edwards' original order.
- Series IV: Education Papers is arranged by Edwards' role as student and teacher.
- Series V: Electronic Records, 1995-2011 is arranged by Edwards' original order.
- Series VI: Visual Media is arranged by format.
Materials within folders retain Edwards' original order where possible. A large portion of the collection was not arranged
into folders by Edwards, but were ordered loosely by subject. New folders were created for these materials.
Arrangement is as follows:
- I. NASA Papers, 1965-2010
- Project Documents
- Administrative Records
- Awards
- II. Works Authored by John W. Edwards
- Presentations
- Publications and Drafts
- III. Correspondence
- Bill Rodden
- Conference Planning
- Other
- IV. Education Papers
- PhD Coursework
- Teaching
- V. Electronic Records, 1995-2011
- Electronic Files
- Optical Media
- VI. Visual Media
- Photographs, Negatives, and Film Strips
- Two-inch Projection Slides
- Video Home System (VHS) Tapes