Presentation Date: July 25, 2013
Larry Rinek
Larry Rinek has spoken previously at various CAF - Golden Gate Wing dinner events in Alameda, reviewing famous USAF aircraft from the Cold War era. He is a published aviation historian, a guest lecturer in aero engineering for five universities, a former USAF officer, and a Senior Technology Consultant at Frost & Sullivan in Mountain View, CA.
His topic for the 25 July dinner meeting is flying wings. These unusual aircraft are a blend of wing and fuselage with no vertical airframe structures (like tail fins). They have earned a special place in aviation history and aero technology.
Noted for unconventional appearance, high airframe efficiency, low drag, and inherently low observability (LO) or stealth, flying wings have an interesting, albeit rocky development history as well as a bright unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) future.
Larry’s presentation will trace the origin of flying wings back to the 1920s, bring the story into the present, and look into the future. Engineers and developers have had to overcome major technical obstacles along the way, including inherently poor stability in yaw, as well as the difficulty of properly manufacturing these aircraft. He will walk through key historical milestones of flying wing aircraft development (in the USA: Northrop and Germany: Horten brothers), outlining successful technical solutions.
In conclusion, he will show breathtaking video clips of historical and modern flying wings in action. You won’t want to miss this exciting multimedia presentation. On display will be a scale B-2A model for “hangar flying” plus key research books and reference materials on flying wings.
Holding a BS in engineering plus an MBA in marketing, Larry is a veteran of the aerospace industry and an active member of various aero/technical organizations including the:
-- Air Force Association—AFA
-- American Aviation Historical Society—AAHS
-- American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics—AIAA
-- Society for Aviation History—SAH
-- Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE International)
Larry is also a charter member of the Aircraft Engine Historical Society--AEHS). Besides obtaining flight training including multiple solos in fixed-wing aircraft (Piper J-3C Cub), he is an avid pilot of radio-controlled (RC) model helicopters.
He earned a BS (with honors) in Industrial Engineering and an MBA in Marketing, both from UCLA, and has over 35 years of consulting experience. Many of his projects were sponsored by leading aerospace companies around the world, particularly when he worked for SRI International (the former Stanford Research Institute) in Menlo Park for 24 years.