Department of Aerospace Engineering

BS, Aeronautical Engineering, 1946

Pigott Professor of Engineering Emeritus, Stanford University

Arthur Bryson served in the Navy’s V-12 program, which brought him to the Iowa State aeronautical program in 1944-46. After a brief term as an Ensign in the U.S. Navy, a paper mill engineer, and a wind tunnel engineer with the United Aircraft Corporation, he returned to academic pursuits and obtained a PhD degree from Cal Tech in aeronautics in 1951.

Bryson served as a faculty member at Harvard University in 1953-68 and at Stanford University in 1968-94. As an academic, he gained the reputation as the “father of modern optimal control theory” and authored four widely used books and more than 100 papers on control theory and practice.

He is an honorary fellow of AIAA and an honorary member of IEEE. He was awarded membership into the National Academy of Engineering in 1970 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1973.

BS, Aeronautical Engineering, 1967

Chairman and CEO, Lockheed Martin

For Vance Coffman, a native of Winthrop, Iowa, his Iowa State degree in aeronautical engineering was the launching pad for a career that would find him thirty-five years later at the helm of Lockheed Martin, the world’s leading technology and systems integrator.

Coffman joined Lockheed’s space division in 1967 as a guidance and controls-systems analyst and progressed through critical technical and management roles for the company. He was responsible for the Hubble Space Telescope, the Milstar communications satellite program, the follow-on early warning system, and the corporation’s work on the Iridium satellite communications system.

Coffman earned his MS and PhD degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University. He is a fellow of AIAA and member of the National Academy of Engineering.

BS, Aerospace Engineering, 1974

Director of NASA Dryden Flight Research Center

Born in LeMars, Iowa, Kevin Petersen began a distinguished career with NASA as a co-op student at Dryden in 1971, while a student in aerospace engineering at Iowa State.

Petersen earned an MS degree from UCLA in 1976, specializing in control systems and gained early recognition at Dryden in the areas of flight dynamics, controls, and flight systems. He worked as a research engineer on the F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire, Highly Maneuverable Aircraft Technology, and X-29A Forward Swept Wing experimental aircraft programs. 

He has received many awards for his distinguished service, including NASA’s Exceptional Engineering Medal in 1985, the Exceptional Service Medal in 1987, and the Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2000. Petersen was named Director of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in 1999.

BS, Aeronautical Engineering, 1943

Chairman of the Board of Directors, The Boeing Company

From Sikeston, Missouri, “T” Wilson graduated from Iowa State in aeronautical engineering in the class of 1943 and joined The Boeing Company. The first airplane to bear the Wilson imprint was the dramatically new B-47 swept-wing bomber. Wilson was the overall project engineer of the B-52 program during the latter stages of its design, and he led the proposal team for Boeing that won the Minuteman ICBM program.

Wilson was elected vice president of Boeing in 1963 and was named company president in 1968 and chief executive officer in 1969, a position he held until 1986. 

Awards received include the James Forrestal Award in 1975, the Wright Brothers Trophy in 1979, and the 1982 Collier Trophy. Wilson also received the National Academy of Science Award for Aeronautical Engineering and the Daniel Guggenheim Medal.

In 1983, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame for his achievements during his Boeing career. In 1989, he was inducted into the National Business Hall of Fame. Wilson is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

BS, Aeronautical Engineering, 1944

Senior Vice President of McDonnell Douglas Corporation

A native of Chesterfield, Missouri, John Yardley was a Navy veteran of W.W. II and finished his undergraduate education at Iowa State in aeronautical engineering.  He earned an MS degree from Washington University and began his professional career as a stress analyst with the McDonnell Aircraft Co. in 1946 and was immersed in the expanding space program through the 1950’s. 

In 1958, he became project engineer for the one-man Mercury space capsule in which Alan B. Shepherd Jr. would become the first American in space. Yardley served as technical director for the Gemini program and was involved in the Apollo program.  McDonnell named him Vice President for the company’s Skylab program and then as general manager for space shuttle program.

In 1974, Yardley left McDonnell to become associate administrator in charge of the manned space flight for NASA. In 1981, he returned to McDonnell Douglas as senior vice president of its astronautics division and in 1988, became a senior vice president of the company.