Apollo M. O. Smith
| Apollo M. O. Smith | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | July 2, 1911 Columbia, Missouri. |
| Died | May 1, 1997 (aged 85) |
| Education | Woodrow Wilson High School |
| Alma mater | California Institute of Technology |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | Aerospace |
| Employer(s) |
Douglas Aircraft; UCLA |
| Significant advance | Computational Fluid Dynamics |
Apollo Milton Olin Smith (usually referred to as A.M.O. Smith) (July 2, 1911 – May 1, 1997) was an important figure in the aerodynamics field at Douglas Aircraft from 1938 to 1975 and an early pioneer in the area of Computational Fluid Dynamics.
A.M.O. Smith was born in Columbia, Missouri. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California in 1929 and went on to study at Compton Junior College in Compton, California and finally the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, where he received his BS in 1936 and his MS in 1938. While at Long Beach, he was a member of the Long Beach Glider Club along with John Pierce, one of the earliest glider clubs in southern California. While at Caltech, he built and tested a number of rockets with Professor Theodore von Kármán's students Frank Malina, Edward Forman, Jack Parsons and Tsien Hsue-shen. This work led to the formation of Aerojet and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory several years later.
In June 1938, Smith was hired by the El Segundo Division of Douglas Aircraft. During his time there, he worked on aerodynamic and preliminary design problems of the DC-5, SBD Dauntless, DB-7 Boston, A-20 Havoc and A-26 Invader. In October 1942 he went on a leave of absence, at the request of General H.H. Arnold, to help organize and develop the newly formed Aerojet company as its first Chief Engineer. Under his guidance, the engineering organization at Aerojet grew from six people to over 400 by the time he left. This period saw the development and quantity production of the JATO type rocket at Aerojet.
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