Alfred Gessow
Dr. Alfred Gessow was a pioneer in the helicopter field and authored the aviation classic, “Aerodynamics of the Helicopter”.
Early Years
Born on October 13, 1922, in Jersey City, New Jersey, Gessow graduated from the City College of New York in 1943 with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering.
After receiving his master’s degree in aeronautical engineering at New York University in 1944, he joined the government’s National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA), a predecessor organization of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Gessow was also one of the founders of the American Helicopter Society (now the Vertical Flight Society) established in 1943, and the founding editor of the Journal of the American Helicopter Society. He was active in shaping the society into the world’s leading professional technical society for vertical lift.
Today, the Alfred Gessow Award is given each year for the best technical paper at the Society's Annual Forum.
Gessow would work at NASA’s Langley Research Center until 1959, when he transferred to NASA headquarters.
At NASA headquarters, he served as Chief of the Fluid Physics Branch, Assistant Director of the Research Division and Director of the Office of Aerodynamics. Gessow also became a member of the Senior Executive Service at NASA Headquarters, where he was responsible for assessing requirements and opportunities in aerodynamics, gas dynamics, flight mechanics and associated disciplines as they applied to aircraft and spacecraft.
As Chief Program Manager, he oversaw translating these requirements into NASA-wide cohesive research programs and for implementing them, and acted as NASA’s spokesperson for these programs in a variety of contacts with industry, universities, and other government groups.
Alfred Gessow preparing the HNS-1 for a test flight
The Sikorsky HNS-1 "Hoverfly" was the first production helicopter in the U.S. NACA Langley took delivery of one for testing in 1945, the year after Gessow joined the facility.
Education Pioneer
Gessow’s distinguished career as an educator began at the University of Virginia (1945-1956), where he taught courses on helicopter theory and aerodynamics.
He would go on to devote much of his career to expanding the knowledge of helicopter aerodynamics, developing new theories, and conducting flight experiments. His book "Aerodynamics of the Helicopter," coauthored with Garry C. Meyers, Jr., remains the classic text on the subject.
From 1944 until 1980, he was the chairman of the Committee on Graduate Studies at Langley and helped establish an advanced degree program there for NACA personnel.
During the 1960’s and 70’s, he was an adjunct professor at New York University and the Catholic University of America, in addition to teaching helicopter theory as an Invited Professor at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science in Seoul.
Gessow (far right) at Langley with Orville Wright (far left), circa mid-1940’s.
Gessow checks out the experimental Bendix Helicopter, a single-seater aircraft that used a system of coaxial rotors, circa 1940s.
University of Maryland
In 1980, Gessow came to the University of Maryland to become chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering.
He would serve in this post for the next eight years, greatly expanding the department’s research and education activities in rotorcraft, composite structures, hypersonics and space system design.
During this period, he was active in shaping research and technology policies through his membership in the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, the Army Science and Technology Boards, and as a consultant to the U.S. Army, NATO, and the Institute of Defense Analysis.
In 1981 Professor Gessow founded the university’s Center for Rotorcraft Education and Research and was its director until 1992 when he became Professor Emeritus.
The center he created was renamed in his honor in 1997, and continues to be internationally recognized as one of the leading institutions for rotorcraft research and education.
He passed away on May 2, 2002.
Recognitions & Honors
- Founding editor of the Journal of the American Helicopter Society
- NASA Exceptional Service Medal recipient (1977)
- AHS Honorary Fellow (1978)
- AIAA Fellow (1982)
- AHS Alexander A. Nikolsky Honorary Lectureship (1985)
- Lecture “Understanding and Predicting Helicopter Behavior - Then and Now”
- Alexander Klemin Award recipient (1996)
A legacy in action
In 1997, Andrew Gessow gave a $1.33 million gift to the Clark School of Engineering to honor his parents, Alfred and Elaine Gessow.
That generous endowment helped create the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center—a broader umbrella and permanent home for rotorcraft research at Maryland, and supported the creation of the Alfred Gessow Endowed Chair.
Right: Members of the Gessow family at AGRC's 25th anniversary celebration in 2007. Pictured from back left, sons Jory and Jody Gessow, Elaine Gessow (front left) and daughters Laura Goldman and Lisa Michelson.