Robert Thomas Jones

After enrolling in University of Missouri in 1927, but dropped out a year later to pursue his dream of flying. He joined Charles Fower's flying circus where he traded chores for flying lessons. In 1934, he took a more practical approach: he joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics -- the forerunner of NASA -- in Langley, Va., and in 1946 transferred to NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. His primary contribution to flight were his designs, starting in 1944, for swept-back wings, which are used now on most jet planes from fighters to passenger transports. When he retired in 1981, Jones received the Congressional Excalibur Award for his contributions to aeronautical science. He also received the Langley Award from the Smithsonian Institution, joining the likes of the Wright brothers and Charles Lindberg. Jones died August 11 in California. He was 89. From This is True for 8 August 1999 Suggestions for further reading: Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying by Wolfgang Langewiesche Amazon Price: $17.79 Customer Review: The service and condition of this special book was perfect. The shipment, the book and the price was all that I could ask for.. Great happiness here with my book. Thanks, Rick   ALONE: Orphaned on the Ocean by Richard Logan, Tere Duperrault Fassbender Amazon Price: $13.77 Customer Review: I have to admit this story did hold my interest, for a while. Kudos to Tere for surviving the whole horrid incident on board the boat, much less the ordeal in the ocean. But I think it would have been a better book if the words came from Tere instead...   Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters by Chesley B. Sullenberger, Jeffrey Zaslow Amazon Price: $10.87 Customer Review: My father is impossible to buy for, so I usually opt for books. And even then he is impossible to buy for, liking only certain types of non-fiction. 'Highest Duty' was outside of his usual reading material, but I gave it to him on a whim and he lov...   Overboard!: A True Blue-water Odyssey of Disaster and Survival by Michael J. Tougias Amazon Price: $16.32 Customer Review: This is the best book I have read in a long time. Michael Tougias puts the reader on the disabled sailboat,hundreds of miles from land,in a fierce storm with the least experienced sailors and in the water with the Captain and the o...   Alive by Piers Paul Read Amazon Price: $11.19 Customer Review: If you enjoy stories of survival, you'll certainly enjoy this one. The details of what the crash survivors did is no secret, but reading the intimate details about their challenges was at times, gut wrenching. Definitely not a page turn...   Newsfeed display by CaRP

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