THOMPSON M.J.

THOMPSON M.J. 28.07. 1904 Grand Rapids MI/USA 23.07. 1971 Austin TX/USA Milton John Thompson received the BS degree in aeronautical engineering in 1925, and the MS degree in 1926 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI. He won in 1928 a Guggenheim Fellowship to study at the Polytechnical Institute, Warsaw, where he obtained the ScD degree in 1930, returning then to his Alma Mater as assistant professor and from 1937 as associate professor in the Department of Aeronautical Engineering. During these years he was active in wind tunnel projects and also became known as a consultant in aeronautical engineering. He accepted in 1941 a professorship in aeronautics at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas UT, Austin TX. Because of the importance of aviation in World War II, the UT Department of Aeronautical Engineering DAE was established in 1942, with Thompson as chairman. He toured often the USA, Europe and the Middle East as a Lecturer, predicting that 90% of ocean travel after WWII would be by air, and that jets would travel twice the speed of sound. For most of 1945 he was on leave from his university to serve as supervisor of aerodynamics at the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD. After returning to University of Texas, he and a colleague established the Defence Research Laboratory, with Thompson serving as an associate director until shortly before his death. In 1958 the DAE became the Department of Aerospace Engineering, a change reflecting the emphasis on aerospace courses and the research in the travel outside the earth’s atmosphere, with Thompson remaining as chairman. He co-authored several books and wrote many journal papers, particularly in the field of flight performance of aerospace vehicles. He received grants allowing for collaborations with the University of Göttingen, Germany, Imperial College, London UK, and Cambridge University, UK. He was member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics AIAA, and the American Society of Engineering. Anonymous (1925). Milton J. Thompson. Michiganensian yearbook: 122. Ann Arbor. P Anonymous (1973). Milton J. Thompson. Who was who in America 5: 720. Marquis: Chicago. Dodge, R.A., Thompson, M.J. (1937). Fluid mechanics. McGraw-Hill: New York. Thompson, M.J., Wilson, R.E. (1951). Aerodynamic characteristics of nozzles and diffusors for supersonic wind tunnels. Defence Research Laboratory DRL-281. University of Texas. Witoszynski, C., Thompson, M.J. (1935). The theory of single burbling. Aerodynamic theory 3: 1-33, W.F. Durand, ed. Springer: Berlin. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fth23

THOMPSON P.W. 19.12. 1906 Alliance NE/USA 09.02. 1996 Daytona Beach FL/USA Paul Williams Thompson graduated in 1929 from the US Military Academy, West Point NY, and then attended the State University of Iowa, Iowa City IA, obtaining the BS degree from University of Tulane, New Orleans LA. During the 1930s, after an early career in the US Army Corps of Engineers, he was awarded a Freeman Scholarship, to study waterways of European countries by attending graduate classes at the Berlin Technische Hochschule, Berlin D. His extensive engineering education helped prepare him for his assignment as director of the US Waterways Experiment Station at Vicksburg MS. During his stay in Germany Thompson was detailed to various German army units and gained much valuable information and data ‘upon which improvements in US military engineering practice were later based’. He eventually gained a knowledge of German forces which, together with his understanding of the capabilities of the Allied Forces to be assemble for D-Day, qualified him to command the European Theatre Assault Training Center in England. He there developed the amphibious assault techniques and tactics to be used at the Normandy attack, and trained the forces which made the initial attack. As D-Day approached, Thompson was appointed to command the 6th Engineer Special Brigade, which spearheaded the Normandy assault. For his leadership in the initial wave, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Later on D-Day he was seriously wounded and, after a lengthy recovery, was promoted to brigadier general and assigned Chief of Information and Education with responsibility for Stars and Stripes, the Army weekly magazine lank. Thompson retired from the Army in 1946. He was awarded the degree of Commander in the French Legion of Honor, the Croix de Guerre with Palms, and many other decorations. The Association of Graduates recognized in 1994 his enormous contribution to the nation by naming him a Distinguished Graduate. Anonymous (1945). Paul W. Thompson. Engineering News-Record 135(Jul.12): 90. P Thompson, P.W. (1935). Discussion of River laboratory hydraulics. Trans. ASCE 100: 151-155. Thompson, P.W. (1938). The use and trustworthiness of small-scale hydraulic models. Civil Engineering 8(4): 255-257. Thompson, P.W. (1938). Current waterway studies. Engineering News-Record 121(Dec.29): 822-824; 123(Aug.17): 223-224. Vogel, H.D., Thompson, P.W. (1933). Flow in river bends. Civil Engineering 3(5): 266-268. https://apps.westpointaog.org/Memorials/Article/8499/ P