Holt Ashley (January 10, 1923May 9, 2006) was an American

aeronautical engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...

notable for his seminal research of

aeroelasticity Aeroelasticity is the branch of physics and engineering studying the interactions between the inertial, elastic, and aerodynamic forces occurring while an elastic body is exposed to a fluid flow. The study of aeroelasticity may be broadly classi ...

."National Academy of Engineering, Memorial Tributes: Volume 15 (2011):Holt Ashley"
Levy, Dawn (May 24, 2006).

Stanford Report.

Early life and education

He was born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, California. Ashley attended the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT), located in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

, from which he received a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...

degree in aeronautical engineering in 1948 and later a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degree in 1951, also in aeronautical engineering.

Career

From 1951 to 1954, he was a member of the faculty at MIT. Ashley served as an MIT associate professor from 1954 to 1960. He became a full professor at MIT in 1960, serving in that position until 1967. In 1967, Ashley joined the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, located in

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, California, where he was a professor of aeronautics and

astronautics Astronautics (or cosmonautics) is the theory and practice of travel beyond Earth's atmosphere into outer space. Spaceflight is one of its main applications and space science its overarching field. The term ''astronautics'' (originally ''astron ...

. He was elected to 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 ...

in 1970 "for contributions to the field of aerolastic structures and unsteady aerodynamics, aiding in the solutions of problems in vibration and gust loading". Ashley served as president 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 ...

(AIAA). He also served on the advisory boards of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

, the

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its assets ...

, the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

and the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

. He died on 9 May 2006, age 83.

Legacy

The AIAA established an award in Ashley's honorthe Holt Ashley Award for Aeroelasticity."AIAA:Technical Excellence AwardsAerospace Design, Structures, Test"

Notable awards and honors

* 1969the AIAA Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Award * 1981the AIAA Wright Brothers Lecture Award * 1987the

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 * 2003the AIAA the Daniel Guggenheim Medal * 2006the AIAA Reed Aeronautics Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashley, Holt 1923 births 2006 deaths 20th-century scholars 21st-century scholars American aerospace engineers Engineers from California Fellows of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics MIT School of Engineering alumni MIT School of Engineering faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Writers from San Francisco Stanford University School of Engineering faculty American science writers Ludwig-Prandtl-Ring recipients 20th-century American engineers

Early life and education

Career

Legacy

Notable awards and honors

See also

References