Robert O. Dietz, a recognized ground test expert nationally and internationally who was one of the first individuals to become a fellow of Arnold Engineering Development Center, died Jan. 19 at his home in Manchester, Tenn. Dietz served as Director of Technology and Deputy of Planning at AEDC in the late 1960s, but he started at the Tennessee R&D facility in 1950, working with a contractor. His long career included stints as director of the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Belgium and as US representative to NATO’s fluid dynamics panel. He also helped develop the National Transonic Facility at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. He was inducted as an AEDC fellow in 1989. (Arnold report by Philip Lorenz III)
General Atomics, the maker of one of the Air Force’s first Collaborative Combat Aircraft, has ambitious plans for its family of semi-autonomous drones beyond the FQ-42, including a flying-wing aircraft capable of carrying out both reconnaissance and strike missions. Meanwhile, the Air Force Research Laboratory announced a new program to…