Marta Bohn-Meyer (18 August 1957 – 18 September 2005) was an American

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

. Marta Bohn-Meyer was born in

Amityville, New York Amityville () is a Political subdivisions of New York State#Village, village in the Babylon (town), New York, Town of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, on the South Shore (Long Island), South Shore of Long Island, in New York ...

. Marta Bohn-Meyer served as chief

of the

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

Dryden Flight Research Center The NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA. Its primary campus is located inside Edwards Air Force Base in California and is considered NASA's premier site for aeronautical rese ...

. Bohn-Meyer was involved in a variety of research projects at NASA — she was the first female crewmember assigned to the

Lockheed SR-71 The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" is a retired long-range, high-altitude, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed and manufactured by the American aerospace company Lockheed Corporation. Its nicknames include " Blackbird" and " ...

, serving as

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prim ...

during studies of

aerodynamic Aerodynamics () is the study of the motion of atmosphere of Earth, air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dynamics and its subfield of gas dynamics, and is an ...

s and

propulsion Propulsion is the generation of force by any combination of pushing or pulling to modify the translational motion of an object, which is typically a rigid body (or an articulated rigid body) but may also concern a fluid. The term is derived from ...

that used the SR-71 as a testbed. She was also project manager in a study of advanced

laminar flow Laminar flow () is the property of fluid particles in fluid dynamics to follow smooth paths in layers, with each layer moving smoothly past the adjacent layers with little or no mixing. At low velocities, the fluid tends to flow without lateral m ...

wing design using the

General Dynamics F-16XL The General Dynamics F-16XL is a derivative of the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-16 Fighting Falcon with a Cranked arrow, cranked-arrow delta wing. It entered the United States Air Force's (USAF) Enhanced Tactical Fighter (ETF) compe ...

aircraft.

Marta_Bohn-Meyer_preparing_for_F-16XL_laminar-flow_control_experiment

Bohn-Meyer was an accomplished Unlimited aerobatic pilot, and was twice a member of the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Team. She also served as Team Manager in 2005. Bohn-Meyer died while practicing for the 2005 U.S. National Aerobatic Championships when the Giles 300 aerobatic aircraft she was piloting crashed in

Yukon, Oklahoma Yukon is a city in eastern Canadian County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 23,630 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Founded in the 1890s, the town was named in reference to a gold rush in Yukon Territory, Canada, at the ...

, near the

Clarence E. Page Municipal Airport Clarence E. Page Municipal Airport is a public-use airport owned by the city of Oklahoma City and located in Canadian County, Oklahoma, United States. It is 15 nautical miles (28 km) west of the central business district of Oklahoma Cit ...

. The cause of the crash was deemed to be from catastrophic failure of the front hinge of the canopy - which apparently incapacitated her and led to the crash. Her husband was Robert R. Meyer, Jr., a project manager and flight test engineer at Dryden. Bohn-Meyer was a 1979 graduate from

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...

in Troy, N.Y. At that time she met her husband, Bob Meyer, during an internship at NASA. In addition to excelling in her aerospace career, Bohn-Meyer served as a role model to young girls interested in technical career fields. She could often be found in classrooms encouraging young women to explore career fields that have so long been dominated by men. EC96-43525-9

References

External links

Biography from NASAF-16XL interview with Marta Bohn-Meyer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bohn-Meyer, Marta 1957 births 2005 deaths Accidental deaths in Oklahoma Aerobatic pilots American women aviators Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American women engineers Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 2005 21st-century American women