George T Skinner +George Tolmie Skinner was born July 22, 1923 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland and was internationally recognized for his work in fluid dynamics and hypersonic aerodynamics and also for his development of apparatus to study molecular collisions in gases andelectronic circuitry that made it possible to measure heat on the surface of space vehicles re-entering Earth's atmosphere. In his lifetime, he authored more than fifty reports and articles in technical journals and was a member of the American Physical Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the honorary scientific fraternity Sigma Xi. He joined the Royal Air Force in of 1943 and kept a journal of his travel experiences as he crossed the Atlantic Ocean, eventually landing in New York Harbor where he traveled by train to Terrell Texas to begin Air Craftsman training. He became a Sergeant pilot in 1944 and completed his training as a fighter pilot in Perthshire, Scotland. He finished his BS degree in engineering, graduating with honors from St. Andrews University in Dundee, Scotland. He won the Caird Travelling Scholarship that financed two years at Caltech and won the 1948 engineering medal. He returned to California where he received his Doctorates in Engineering in 1955 and completed his PHD at Caltech, then joined the technical staff of Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory's aerodynamic research department in 1958, remaining with the company when it became Calspan Corp. After his death in 1998, he was inducted posthumously into the Niagara Frontier Aviation and Space Hall of fame in 2002 for his internationally known work in low-speed fluid flows and hypersonic aerodynamics and his molecular Beam Theory that was used to study ways to detect the re-entry of missiles into the earth's atmosphere. Read More Read Less