This year marks centennial of first powered and controlled flight

Since 1978, Fred E. C. Culick, Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Jet Propulsion at the California Institute of Technology, has been project engineer and the designated first pilot in a project to build a full-scale wind tunnel model of the Wright 1903 Flyer, as well as a flying version of this first airplane. Culick hopes the plane will take off from Edwards Air Base by the end of this year. The work is sponsored by the Los Angeles Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Culick has published numerous papers on aviation history, the work of the Wright Brothers, and the AIAA Wright project. He co-authored the recent book On Great White Wings-The Wright Brothers and the Race for Flight, an illustrated history of the race to invent the first powered aircraft.

Culick has worked extensively on problems of acoustics and combustion instability in rockets and air-breathing engines; and on problems of combustion instabilities and pollution in gas-turbine engines. In collaboration with JPL, he is engaged in research on electric propulsion for spacecraft and on a method to reduce the dangers of fires following aircraft crashes.

After receiving his Ph.D. degree from MIT with a major in aeronautics and astronautics and a minor in physics, Culick came to Caltech as a research fellow. He is an active member of the International Academy of Astronautics and a fellow of the AIAA. An expert in atmospheric flight, including the performance, stability, and control of aircraft., he has been a consultant for numerous governmental agencies and private companies around the world on matters related to aeronautics.