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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Diane Black

Samuel Black, born May 11, 1925, is a retired aerodynamicist and flight dynamics engineer from Goodyear Aerospace Corporation (GAC). He is a 1950 mechanical engineering graduate of Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio (now Case-Western Reserve University).

In 1985, he won the Arnstein Award, GAC's highest honor for technical achievement. Black had established an unsurpassed reputation in aerodynamics, through his innovation and uncanny shrewdness in solving complex aerodynamic problems. He was highly regarded by his peers and the Air Force customer for his technical contributions to the tactical munitions dispenser and the MK-82/84 Ballute air inflatable retarder programs. He was also highly regarded by the Navy for his technical expertise on the VLA (Vertical Launch ASROC (Anti-Submarine Rocket)) program.

During his career he was responsible for aerodynamics design, wind tunnel testing, and flight test validation on the following programs: Vertical Launch Asroc, ASW standoff weapon proposal, tactical munitions dispenser, Ballute air inflatable retarders, laser guided dispenser munition, standoff cluster munition, Mace cruise missile, and the Aimpoint drop test program.

The Mace missile was NATO's main vanguard in Europe in the 1950s and early 1960s. He also worked on the Navy's Grebe cruise missile, the country's first antisubmarine guided missile, and GAC's space and re-entry vehicle programs, which anticipated the Space Shuttle vehicle of the 1980s.

Sam and his wife, Maurine, live in Akron and have four daughters and five grandchildren.