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This is the 28th volume of Memorial Tributes compiled by the National Academy of Engineering as a personal remembrance of the lives and outstanding achievements of its members and international members. These volumes are intended to stand as an enduring record of the many contributions of engineers and engineering to the benefit of humankind. In most cases, the authors of the tributes are contemporaries or colleagues who had personal knowledge of the interests and the engineering accomplishments of the deceased. Through its members and international members, the Academy...
This is the 28th volume of Memorial Tributes compiled by the National Academy of Engineering as a personal remembrance of the lives and outstanding achievements of its members and international members. These volumes are intended to stand as an enduring record of the many contributions of engineers and engineering to the benefit of humankind. In most cases, the authors of the tributes are contemporaries or colleagues who had personal knowledge of the interests and the engineering accomplishments of the deceased. Through its members and international members, the Academy carries out the responsibilities for which it was established in 1964.
Under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering was formed as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. Members are elected on the basis of significant contributions to engineering theory and practice and to the literature of engineering or on the basis of demonstrated unusual accomplishments in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology. The National Academies share a responsibility to advise the federal government on matters of science and technology. The expertise and credibility that the National Academy of Engineering brings to that task stem directly from the abilities, interests, and achievements of our members and international members, our colleagues and friends, whose special gifts we remember in this book.
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BY INDERJIT CHOPRA AND EARL H. DOWELL
WILLIAM JAMES MCCROSKEY was a pioneer in the field of rotorcraft aerodynamics, an ardent advocate for international scientific diplomacy, and a much-beloved father, grandfather, friend, and colleague. Jim passed away on May 26, 2023.
He developed an early interest in aeronautics, inspired by his uncle, Harold M. Adams, who served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. During his high school years, Jim researched and built a model of the P-51 Mustang fighter jets that were operated out of nearby Love Field in Dallas, Texas. With this model, he won the National Model Airplane Championships three times (1954-56), leading Jetco to commission a popular model airplane kit based on his original plans.
Jim met his wife of 55 years, Helen Elizabeth (“Betty”) Wear, at the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a B.S. degree in 1960. He then went on to pursue graduate studies in hypersonic aerodynamics at Princeton University’s Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Sciences, earning his Ph.D. in 1966. During this time, Jim and Betty’s daughters, Nancy and Susan, were born. Jim, Betty, and Nancy spent a year in Brussels while he studied at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, an experience that not only led to many lifelong friendships but also influenced much of his later work with the Flight Mechanics Panel of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development (1975-94).
During this time, Jim was offered an opportunity at the newly established Army Aeronautical Research Laboratory, a collaboration between NASA and the Army at Moffett Field, California. In this new environment, he transitioned to rotorcraft research. A highlight of his career was an academic year (1973-74) spent in Paris as part of a personnel exchange with the French aerospace lab ONERA; he was the inaugural participant in the U.S.-France Cooperative Research Project in Helicopter Dynamics. Later, with the emergence of supercomputing, he shifted his focus to computational research, using his multifaceted expertise to serve as a bridge between numerical analysts and experimentalists.
A member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, he retired in 2000 but continued to mentor and consult for many years.
In his personal life, as in his professional career, Jim loved traveling. He also loved biking, hiking, and backpacking, with Sierra Club service trips to the mountains being a highlight of many summers, along with walks with family and friends in his later years. He was fond of classic sports cars and enjoyed sharing that enthusiasm with his older daughter, Nancy, through the camaraderie of that community. He played an active role in both of his daughters’ lives and frequently traveled to attend, as they were growing up, his grandchildren’s performances, soccer games, birthdays, and other celebrations. His activities grew limited when he developed complications from Parkinson’s disease in the last five years of his life.
Preceded in death by his wife, Betty, in 2015, Jim is survived by his daughters, Nancy McCroskey and Susan Kresin; his sister, Betty Ann McCroskey; his son-in-law, Vitaly Kresin; and his granddaughters, Lydia and Madeline Kresin.