More Than an Engineer: Flight Testing Unusual Aircraft

Rob Ransone, an aeronautical engineer from Texas A&M, flight tested some unusual aircraft as a project flight test engineer during his eleven years at the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, California, and later as Development Engineer, VSTOL Technology for American Airlines in New York City. As a commissioned officer at Edwards he flew 106 hours of performance and stability & control flight tests of the YB-58A Mach 2 bomber, and tested the Tri-Service VSTOL performance, and stability & control flight tests of the XC-142A Tilt-Wing VSTOL transport and the X-19 Tilt Propeller VTOL aircraft. In 1964 he was the flight test representative on a 13-person Department of Defense team that evaluated the Federal Republic of Germany’s ability to develop VSTOL aircraft. At Edwards he received three outstanding Officer Effectiveness Reports and a civilian Sustained Superior Performance recognition. He left the Flight Test Center in 1968 to study VTOL and VSTOL aircraft for American Airlines in New York City as a means of relieving air traffic congestion in the Northeast Corridor. For American Airlines he evaluated several STOL aircraft concepts, and tested the French Breguet 941/MacDonnell MDC-188 STOL transport in simulated passenger routes. He defined STOL field length criteria, defined comprehensive STOL Airlines System Requirements, and evaluated the feasibility of a floating STOLport in the Hudson River to serve Manhattan Island. His work with a citizens protest group was documented in the display Confrontation of Technology with Society at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. His Society of Automotive Engineers paper, Chelsea STOLport - The Airline View, documenting the floating STOLport controversy, was published in the prestigious SAE Transactions For 1976 for its “high quality, lasting value, and contribution to the art.” Only 10% of SAE papers presented each year are awarded that honor. Mr. Ransone is an Associate Fellow and Lifetime Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a Lifetime Member of the Flight Test Historical Society. He lives in Virginia, is happily married to the former Paula McBride for more than 50 years, and has two grown children.