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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Brooke Fitzgerald

Robert Frank Stengel is a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University, where he has conducted research on flight dynamics and control, meteorological hazards to flight, air traffic management, and biological applications of systems theory.

Prior to joining the Princeton faculty in 1977, Dr. Stengel was with The Analytic Sciences Corporation (TASC), the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, the U.S. Air Force (USAF), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). At the Draper Laboratory (1968-73), he was principal designer of the Apollo Project Lunar Module manual control logic used for all moon landings, and he contributed to Space Shuttle guidance and control system design. There, he also initiated a project to develop a bedside computer for the analysis of cardiovascular data.

His work at TASC (1973-77) included optimal-control modeling of the human pilot, fuel-optimal flight paths for jet transports, digital control of high-performance aircraft and helicopters, and submarine dynamics and control. While serving as a USAF lieutenant (1960-63) he was a range safety officer at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.

As director of Princeton's Flight Research Laboratory from 1977 to 1983 Stengel, his students, and staff conducted pioneering experimental research on digital flight control systems, flight computer networking via fiber-optics, aircraft flying qualities, and aerodynamic parameter identification. This research used Princeton's two fly-by-wire, variable-stability aircraft and a specially instrumented sailplane.

From 1994 to 1997, he served as the Engineering School's Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. During that time, he initiated new programs of graduate study and undergraduate computer education, and he developed an innovative approach to teaching engineering freshman seminars.

He is the author of two textbooks:
- OPTIMAL CONTROL AND ESTIMATION, Dover Publications. New York. 1994. (originallv published as STOCHASTIC OPTIMAL CONTROL; Theory and Application, J. Wiley & Sons. New York. 1986.)

- FLIGHT DYNAMICS. Princeton University Press. Princeton. NJ. 2004.

Dr. Stengel received the S.B. degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1960) and M.S.E., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace and Mechanical Sciences from Princeton University (1965, 1966, 1968). He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He has received the John R. Ragazzini Education Award of the American Automatic Control Council (2002) and the AIAA Mechanics and Control of Flight Award (2000). Together with R. John Hansman, M.I.T., and Robert Lilley, Ohio University, he was the recipient of the Federal Aviation Administration's 1997 Excellence in Aviation Award. He has served with various advisory groups, including the U.S. Congressional Aeronautical Advisory Committee; AIAA committees for flight dynamics and control, artificial intelligence, civil aviation, and reusable space transportation. The USAF Committee on the Trans-Atmospheric Vehicle, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Committee for Aeronautics and Aviation Technologies, and National Research Council Committees studying low-altitude wind shear and its hazard to aviation. Army mobility systems, and Navy capability for theater missile defense.