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Memorial Tributes Volume 14 (2011) / Chapter Skim
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WILLIAM REES SEARS
Pages 302-305

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From page 303...
... During World War II, he became the chief of aerodynamics and flight testing at Northrop Aircraft, Inc. Later, he headed the team that designed the first flying-wing aircraft (many of today's military aircraft are essentially flying wings)
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From page 304...
... He remained an active faculty member, however, and completed much of his important analytical and experimental work on adaptive-wall wind tunnels during his retirement. When he was a junior faculty member at Caltech, he was asked to direct the Civilian Pilot Training Program, a federal program that offered young people the possibility of earning a private pilot's license and receiving preparation for possible military flying in the event that the United States entered the war.
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From page 305...
... . A careful reading of this interesting volume reveals no unkind words about any of the persons he worked with over his long career; this was Bill's way of doing business, always upbeat and positive." He also remembers his father as a wonderful storyteller with a terrific sense of humor, evidenced in this short excerpt from his father's memoirs: Having arrived in Pasadena, I met my classmate Thurm Erickson, who drove me to the Caltech campus on California Street; I located the Guggenheim Laboratory of Aeronautics, opened its big copper front door, climbed the narrow stairs to the second floor, and presented myself to the young lady in the little office at the top of the stairs as a new graduate student.
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