List of aerospace engineers

A

• Talbert Abrams – aerial photography and plexiglas pioneer, designer of the Abrams P-1 Explorer
• Gerd Achgelis – helicopter pioneer
• Jakob Ackeret
• Clément Ader – early aviation pioneer
• Bruce Aikenhead – Avro Canada, NASA
• Buzz Aldrin – astronaut, mechanical engineer and second person to walk on the Moon
• Rostislav Alexeyev – ground effect vehicle designer
• Edmund T. Allen – engineer, test pilot
• Harry Julian Allen – NASA, inventor of blunt body re-entry vehicles
• Gwen Alston – aerodynamicist
• Oleg Antonov – founder of the OKB-153 Antonov design bureau
• Neil Armstrong – astronaut, aeronautical engineer and first person to walk on the Moon
• Yuri Artsutanov – space elevator pioneer
• Holt Ashley – researched aeroelasticity
• Lee Atwood – North American Aviation engineer

B

• Brunolf Baade – lead designer of the Baade 152
• Erich Bachem – designer of the Bachem Ba 349 Natter rocket plane
• Leonard Bairstow – National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom) researcher
• Herman Barkey – led the design team for the McDonnell Aircraft F-4 Phantom
• V. P. Barmin – designer of the rocket launch complex
• Frank Barnwell – chief engineer Bristol Aeroplane Company
• Robert Ludvigovich Bartini – designer of the Bartini Beriev VVA-14 and other experimental projects, founder of the OKB-86 design bureau
• Yaakov Bar-Shalom – researcher of target tracking
• L. E. Baynes – designer of the Baynes Bat tank glider
• Jim Bede
• Hermann Behrbohm – aerodynamicist at Messerschmidt and Saab
• Rex Beisel – lead engineer at Curtiss and Vought
• Giuseppe Mario Bellanca – aircraft pioneer, blended wing designer
• Viktor Nikolayevich Belyaev – strength engineer, designer of the Belyayev DB-LK
• Dwight Henry Bennett – developed Fly-by-wire technology, helped design the F2Y, F-102, F-4 Phantom, F/A-18
• Thomas W. Benoist – early airline entrepreneur
• Igor Bensen – autogyro designer
• Max Bentele – jet engine pioneer
• Aleksandr Bereznyak – designer of the BI-1 rocket plane
• Georgy Beriev – founder of the OKB-49 Beriev design bureau
• J. D. Bernal – invented the Bernal sphere for space habitation
• Albert Betz – designer and researcher
• Paul Bevilaqua – lift fan inventor
• Ronald Eric Bishop - chief designer of the de Havilland Mosquito
• Matus Bisnovat – missile designer
• Robert Blackburn – aviation pioneer
• Louis Blériot – aviation pioneer
• George Eugene Bockrath – researched fracture mechanics
• Hendrik Wade Bode – NASA advisor
• Jenny Body – former President of the Royal Aeronautical Society
• William Boeing – founder of Boeing
• Charles Bolden – NASA Administrator
• Viktor Bolkhovitinov – lead designer of the Bolkhovitinov DB-A bomber, founder of the OKB-293 design bureau
• Ludwig Bölkow – aerodynamicist for the Me 262
• Alan Bond – designed spaceplanes and an SST
• Philip Bono – space launcher developer
• Frank Borman – commanded first mission to circle the Moon
• Karel Bossart – lead designer of the Atlas ICBM
• Enea Bossi Sr. – aviation pioneer
• William Hawley Bowlus – glider designer
• John Boyd – created the energy–maneuverability theory
• Frances Bradfield – wind tunnel researcher
• Ferdinand Brandner – aircraft engine designer
• Erik Bratt – lead designer at Saab AB
• Vance Breese – engineer and test pilot
• Louis Charles Breguet – aviation pioneer, founder of Bréguet Aviation
• Maurice Brennan – designer of flying boats, helicopters, transports, rockets, hovercraft
• Yvonne Brill – electrothermal hydrazine thruster
• Arthur E. Bryson – "father of modern optimal control theory"
• Isabelle Buret – engineer specializing in telecommunications and astronautics
• Vincent Burnelli – blended wing and lifting body designer
• Anne Burns – wind shear expert
• Adolf Busemann – swept wing
• Robert W. Bussard – designer of nuclear thermal rocket engines
• Fedor Ivanovich Bylinkin – aviation pioneer

C

• Sydney Camm – Hawker Hurricane designer
• Secondo Campini – jet engine pioneer
• Giovanni Caproni – founder of Caproni
• Albert Caquot – aviation pioneer
• Mario Castoldi – chief designer at Aeronautica Macchi
• Beatrice Mabel Cave-Browne-Cave – undertook pioneering work in the mathematics of aeronautics
• George Cayley – notable for his research in aerodynamics
• Clyde Cessna – early aircraft designer and founder of Cessna
• Roy Chadwick – design engineer for the Avro Company
• Roger Chaffee – Apollo 1 fire victim on January 27, 1967
• George Henry Challenger – engineer with the Bristol Aeroplane Company and later with Vickers
• Jim Chamberlin – Avro Canada, NASA
• Roy Chaplin – Hawker Aircraft
• George Chapline Jr. – proposer of a fission-fragment rocket
• Kalpana Chawla – died in the Columbia disaster
• Vladimir Chelomey – founder of the OKB-52 rocket design bureau
• Boris Ivanovich Cheranovsky – flying wing designer
• Boris Chertok – space program control systems designer
• Chu Chia-Jen
• Thomas P. Christie – mathematician, co-creator of the Energy–maneuverability theory with John Boyd
• Zbysław Ciołkosz – introduced the use of shaft turbine power for helicopters
• John Drury Clark – developer of jet and rocket fuel
• Val Cleaver – rocket engineer
• Henri Coandă – inventor of the jet engine
• Richard Coar – RJ10 rocket engine designer
• Christopher Cockerell – hovercraft inventor
• Dandridge MacFarlan Cole – Titan II designer
• Franklin R. Collbohm – Douglas test pilot, engineer, and executive, co-founder of the RAND Corporation
• Giuseppe Colombo – developed the gravitational assist profile used in the Mariner 10 mission to Mercury, invented the space tether
• Nicholas Comper – designer of the Comper Swift
• Philip M. Condit – former CEO of Boeing
• René Couzinet – invented retractable landing gear
• Eugene E. Covert – wind tunnel designer
• Ray Creasey aerodynamicist, helped design the BAC Lightning
• Gaetano Crocco – rocketry pioneer
• Scott Crossfield – first man to fly faster than twice the speed of sound in NAA's X-15
• Alwyn Crow – rocket designer
• Irv Culver – P-38 designer
• Glenn Curtiss – founder of the US aircraft industry
• Kazimierz Czarnecki – NACA and NASA engineer

D

• Werner Dahm
• Frederick Dallenbach – Auxiliary power unit designer
• Corradino D'Ascanio – helicopter pioneer
• Marcel Dassault
• Serge Dassault
• Arthur Davenport – Westland Aircraft
• Fred David – designer at Heinkel, Mitsubishi, Aichi Kokuki and Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation
• Stuart Davies – designed the Avro Lancaster and Vulcan
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Geoffrey de Havilland
• Louis de Monge – blended wing inventor
• Juan de la Cierva – inventor of the autogyro
• Satish Dhawan
• Walter Stuart Diehl – created US Navy test facilities, authored Engineering Aerodynamics
• Bertil Dillner – engineer at Saab and Boeing
• Paul Bernard Dilworth
• Heini Dittmar – record-breaking pilot
• Jurgis Dobkevičius – Lithuanian aviation constructor, military pilot
• Takeo Doi – designer for Kawasaki Aircraft Industries
• Tom Dolan – developed the lunar orbit rendezvous concept for the Apollo program
• Roy Dommett – the United Kingdom's Chief Missile Scientist
• Charles J. Donlan – NASA manager
• Allen F. Donovan WW2 aircraft, Atlas and Titan missiles, nuclear rockets
• Jimmy Doolittle – instrument flying developer
• Étienne Dormoy – airplane and autogyro designer
• Claude Dornier
• Anatoly Dorodnitsyn – researched meteorology, vortex wing theory, boundary layer theory in a compressible gas, and supersonic gas dynamics
• Donald W. Douglas – founder of the Douglas Aircraft Company
• George Dowty – designer of aircraft components
• Charles Stark Draper – developed inertial navigation
• Hugh Latimer Dryden – researcher and NASA administrator
• Guy du Merle – engineer, test flew captured Bf 109 and He 111 in Spain
• Alberto Santos Dumont – inventor of the dirigible; aeronautics pioneer
• J. W. Dunne – invented the first delta wing
• Pedro Duque – engineer and astronaut
• William F. Durand – propeller designer, NACA chair
• Ludwig Dürr – airship designer
• Leonid Dushkin – rocket engine designer

E

• George Edwards – designer at Vickers-Armstrongs and BAC
• Alfred J. Eggers – NACA / NASA researcher, developed re-entry bodies and compression lift, managed Pioneer program
• Joe Engle – astronaut
• Robert Esnault-Pelterie – aviation and rocketry pioneer, invented the center stick
• Walter Extra – aerobatic aircraft designer

F

• Maxime Faget – designer of the Project Mercury spacecraft
• Ole Fahlin – propeller and prototype airplane developer
• Sherman Fairchild – founded Fairchild Aircraft
• Charles Richard Fairey – founder of the Fairey Aviation Company
• Farman Brothers
• Robert W. Farquhar – NASA engineer, inventor of the halo orbit
• Roy Fedden – British engine designer for Bristol Engine Company
• Bobak Ferdowsi – JPL flight engineer
• Antonio Ferri – created the Ferri scoop used on the jet intakes of the XF-103, F-105, XF8U-3, and SSM-N-9 Regulus II cruise missile, and the diverterless supersonic inlet used on the F-35
• Gerhard Fieseler – German aircraft designer
• Harold Finger – Project NERVA lead engineer
• Gary Flandro – NASA researcher, conceived the Planetary Grand Tour fulfilled by the Voyager program
• Alexander H. Flax – developer of tandem helicopters and reconnaissance satellites
• Anton Flettner – helicopter pioneer
• Nicolas Florine – helicopter pioneer
• James C. Floyd – Avro Canada designer
• Henrich Focke – helicopter pioneer
• Anthony Fokker
• Henry Folland – chief designer at Nieuport, Gloster, and Folland Aircraft
• Edward Forman – co-founder of JPL, Aerojet
• Robert L. Forward – designer of solar sails and space tethers
• Harlan D. Fowler – Fowler flap inventor
• John Fozard – Hawker Siddeley Harrier designer
• Anselm Franz – jet engine pioneer
• Stelio Frati – designer of several aircraft inc the SIAI-Marchetti SF.260
• Leslie Frise – designed the Type 156 Bristol Beaufighter
• John Carver Meadows Frost – chief designer of the Avro Canada CF-100 and several VTOL projects
• Michimasa Fujino – Hondajet designer

G

• Giuseppe Gabrielli – aircraft designer
• Robert Gilruth – engineer, NACA and NASA administrator
• Peter Glaser – developed the solar power satellite
• John Glenn – first American man to orbit the Earth in 1962
• Valentin Glushko
• Robert Goddard – scientist who developed the first liquid-fueled rocket 3-16-26
• Tadeusz Góra
• Fritz Gosslau – V-1 flying bomb designer
• Arthur Gouge – designed the "C-class" Empire and Sunderland flying boats, invented the Gouge flap
• Granville Brothers – GeeBee racers
• Jay Greene
• Alan Arnold Griffith – jet engine designer
• Gus Grissom – Apollo 1 fire victim on January 27, 1967
• Gordon G. Grose – integrated fly-by-wire controls with engine inlets/nozzles and advanced pilot displays
• Gu Songfen – participated in the design of the Shenyang JJ-1, chief designer of the Shenyang J-8 and Shenyang J-8II
• Guan De – aeroelasticity engineer, participated in the design and development of the Shenyang JJ-1, the Shenyang J-8 and the Shenyang J-8II
• Leroy Grumman – founder of Grumman Aircraft
• Tore Gullstrand – chief engineer at Saab
• Siegfried and Walter Günter – jet aircraft pioneers
• Mikhail Gurevich – co-founder of the OKB-155 MiG design bureau
• Bartolomeu de Gusmão – Portuguese priest, aircraft designer
• Antanas Gustaitis – Lithuanian aircraft designer, Brigadier General, Commander-in-Chief of Lithuanian Air Force

H

• Wolfgang Haack
• B. J. Habibie
• Raoul Hafner – helicopter pioneer
• Edward N. Hall – Minuteman ICBM engineer
• – sailplane designer
• Julius Hatry – built the first rocket plane
• Harry Hawker – test pilot, formed Hawker Aircraft
• Willis Hawkins – design lead of the L-133 and C-130
• Clinton H. Havill – researched airships and propellers
• Richard E. Hayden – noise reduction developer
• Wallace D. Hayes – discoverer of the area rule and hypersonics
• Edward H. Heinemann – Chief Engineer for Douglas Aircraft, designed 20 military aircraft
• Ernst Heinkel – developed first jet rocket aircraft
• Chris Heintz – kit plane designer
• Scarlin Hernandez – aerospace engineer for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope
• Hall Hibbard – Lockheed engineer
• Homer Hickam – NASA engineer, model rocketry enthusiast
• Geoffrey T. R. Hill – designer of the Westland-Hill Pterodactyls and co-developed the aero-isoclinic wing
• Stanley Hiller – founder Hiller Aircraft
• Hellmuth Hirth – aircraft engine designer, brother of Wolf Hirth
• Wolf Hirth – sailplane designer, brother of Hellmuth Hirth
• Leonard S. Hobbs – engine designer
• John Hodge – Avro Canada, NASA
• Sighard F. Hoerner – aerodynamicist, assisted the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch design
• Nicholas J. Hoff
• Samuel Kurtz Hoffman – rocket engine designer
• Kurt Hohenemser – helicopter pioneer
• Walter Hohmann – invented the Hohmann transfer orbit
• Peter K. Homer
• Stanley Hooker – British engine engineer for Rolls-Royce Aerospace
• Ralph Hooper – Hawker Siddeley Harrier developer
• Jiro Horikoshi – chief engineer for the Mitsubishi A6M
• Horten brothers – flying wing designers
• John Houbolt – NASA engineer, lunar orbit rendezvous proponent
• Kathleen Howell – known for her contributions to dynamical systems theory applied to spacecraft trajectory
• Hsue-Chu Tsien – aeronautical engineer
• Howard Hughes – aerospace engineer, owned RKO movie studio
• Huang Zhiqian – lead designer of the Shenyang J-8
• Jerome Clarke Hunsaker – pioneer of heavier and lighter than air aircraft
• Rick Husband – died in the Columbia disaster
• François Hussenot – inventor of one of the early forms of the flight recorder

I

• Sergey Ilyushin – founder of the OKB-39 Ilyushin design bureau
• Aleksei Isaev – rocket engine designer
• Hideo Itokawa – aircraft and rocket designer at Nakajima Aircraft Company
• Sergey Izotov – aircraft engine designer, founder of the OKB-117 design bureau

J

• Mary Jackson – NASA engineer
• Eastman Jacobs – advanced wind tunnels, airfoils, turbulence, boundary layers, and Schlieren photography
• Hans Jacobs – sailplane pioneer
• Jack James – Mariner program manager
• Antony Jameson – pioneered computational fluid dynamics
• Robert P. Johannes – developed Fly-by-wire technology
• Clarence "Kelly" Johnson – formed Lockheed's Skunk Works and led the design of the SR-71, U-2, F-117A, F-104, C-130, T-33, P-38, and Constellations
• Katherine Johnson – mathematician who worked as an aerospace technologist at NASA
• Robert Thomas Jones – aeronautical engineer at NASA
• Drago Jovanovich – rotorcraft designer
• Charles Joy – engineer at Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, Gloster Aircraft Company. and Handley Page
• Hugo Junkers – pioneered the design of all-metal airplanes

K

• Rudolf Kaiser – sailplane designer
• A. P. J. Abdul Kalam – former President of India, "Missile Man of India"
• Charles Kaman – helicopter pioneer
• Nikolai Kamov – founder of the Kamov design bureau
• Abraham Karem – founder of UAV technology
• Alexander Kartveli – Chief Engineer at Republic Aviation, contributor to first aerospace vehicle prototypes
• Otto Kauba – designer of the Škoda-Kauba SK 257, co-designer of the Škoda-Kauba P14
• Harold R. Kaufman – developed first ion thrusters
• David Keith-Lucas – engineer at Short Brothers
• Mstislav Keldysh – rocket and spacecraft designer
• W. Wallace Kellett – Kellett Autogiro Corporation
• Thomas J. Kelly – leader of the Apollo Lunar Module design team
• Alexander Kemurdzhian – mechanical engineer who is best known for designing Lunokhod 1, the first lunar rover
• Sergey Khristianovich – aerodynamicist
• Dutch Kindelberger – Chief Engineer at Douglas Aircraft and head of North American Aviation
• Klapmeier brothers – founders of Cirrus Aircraft
• Milton Klein – nuclear rocket engineer
• Ave K. Kludze, Jr. – NASA engineer
• Heinz-Hermann Koelle – von Braun associate
• Yuri Kondratyuk – first developer of the lunar orbit rendezvous concept
• Otto C. Koppen – MIT professor, designer for Ford and Helio Courier
• Yuri Koptev – engineer, former Roscosmos General Director
• Sergey Korolev – Korolev rocket design bureau founder
• Semyon Kosberg – lead engine designer at OKB-154
• Gleb Kotelnikov – parachute pioneer
• Frank Kozloski – rotorcraft and missile developer
• Chris Kraft – NASA administrator
• Eugene Kranz – aeronautical engineer
• Werner Krüger – inventor of the Krueger flap
• Dietrich Küchemann – aerodynamicist
• Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kuznetsov – engine designer, founder of the OKB-276 Kuznetsov design bureau

L

• Gustav Lachmann – designer at Handley-Page
• Barry Laight – designer of the Blackburn Buccaneer
• Aarne Lakomaa – involved in the design of the Saab 35 Draken and the Saab 37 Viggen
• Frederick W. Lanchester – aerodynamicist
• Geoffrey A. Landis – NASA engineer, interplanetary exploration
• Samuel Pierpont Langley – aircraft pioneer
• Agnew E. Larsen – engineer at Curtiss and Pitcairn
• Conrad Lau – lead designer of the XF8U-3 and A-7 Corsair
• Semyon Lavochkin – founder of the OKB-301 Lavochkin design bureau
• Lovell Lawrence Jr. – co-founder of Reaction Motors
• Bill Lear – founder of Learjet
• Jerome F. Lederer – aviation-safety pioneer
• René Leduc – designer of the ramjet-powered Leduc 0.10
• Diane Lemaire – first woman to graduate from the University of Melbourne with a degree in engineering
• Léon Levavasseur – aviation pioneer
• David S. Lewis – F-4 Phantom II program manager
• George W. Lewis – NACA administrator
• Gordon Lewis – turbine engine designer
• Fuk Li – JPL Mars Exploration Directorate manager
• Robert Lickley – Chief Engineer at Fairey Aviation Company
• Robert H. Liebeck – airfoil and blended wing body designer
• Otto Lilienthal
• Charles Lindbergh – made first solo transatlantic airplane flight from NY to Paris in 1927 on Spirit of St. Louis
• Per Lindstrand – balloons and other aircraft
• Alexander Lippisch
• Claude Lipscomb – designer of the Short Stirling
• Boris Lisunov – engineered a copy of the DC-3
• William Littlewood – contributed to the design and operational requirements of transport aircraft
• Olof Ljungström – engineer at Saab, taught aircraft design at Stanford University and Caltech
• Allan Lockheed – co-founder of the Lockheed Corporation
• Malcolm Lockheed – co-founder of the Lockheed Corporation
• Grover Loening – awarded first ever degree in aeronautical engineering
• Robert Loewy – rotor-wing VTOL aircraft designer
• Roy LoPresti – general aviation designer
• Samuel Jasper Loring – researched aeroelastic flutter problems
• George Low – aerodynamicist and NASA administrator
• Gleb Lozino-Lozinskiy – General Designer of the NPO Molniya design bureau, lead designer of the Buran space shuttle
• Lu Xiaopeng – designer of the Nanchang Q-5 and the Nanchang J-12
• Heinrich Lübbe – Anthony Fokker collaborator
• Glynn Lunney – Apollo program
• Robert Lusser – designer at Messerschmitt, Heinkel, and Fieseler
• Jean-Marie Luton – ESA Director General
• Arkhip Lyulka – engine designer, founder of the OKB-165 Lyulka design bureau
• Lev Lyulyev – artillery, rocket, and missile designer, founder of the OKB-8 design bureau

M

• Paul MacCready – human-powered aircraft designer
• Elsie MacGill – chief aeronautical engineer at Canadian Car and Foundry
• Ernst Mach – physicist, studied shock waves
• Georg Hans Madelung – V-1 designer
• Peyton M. Magruder – lead designer of the Martin B-26
• Viktor Makeyev – SLBM designer
• Frank Malina – rocket engineer, JPL administrator
• John C. Mankins – NASA space-based solar power researcher
• Frank E. Marble
• Frederick Marriott
• Glenn L. Martin – founder of the Glenn L. Martin Company
• Hans Mauch – jet engine pioneer, artificial limb developer
• Mark D. Maughmer – aerodynamicist
• Owen Maynard – Avro Canada, NASA
• William C. McCool – died in the Columbia disaster
• James Smith McDonnell – founder of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation
• Colin R. McInnes – solar sail researcher
• Marion O. McKinney Jr. – NACA and NASA engineer, researched VTOL flight
• William B. McLean – lead designer of the AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile
• George J. Mead – engine designer
• William C. Mentzer – contributed to aircraft maintenance and economics
• Wilhelm Messerschmitt – designed Bf 109 and jet powered Me 262
• Artem Mikoyan – co-founder of the OKB-155 MiG design bureau
• Mikhail Mil – founder and general designer of the OKB-329 Mil design bureau
• Alexander Mikulin – engine designer, founded the OKB-24 Mikulin design bureau
• Frederick George Miles – designer at Miles Aircraft, husband of Maxine Blossom Miles
• John W. Miles – pioneer in theoretical fluid mechanics
• Maxine Blossom Miles – pilot, designer, draughtswoman, aerodynamicist and stress engineer, designer of the Miles Hawk
• Clark Blanchard Millikan – professor of aeronautics
• Arseny Mironov – Russian scientist, aerospace engineer and aircraft pilot
• Don Mitchell – sailplane designer
• R. J. Mitchell – designed the Spitfire aircraft
• Swati Mohan – Mars 2020 engineer
• Paul Moller – circular aircraft designer
• Montgolfier brothers – inventors of the hot air balloon
• John J. Montgomery
• Albert Mooney – general aviation designer
• Hans Moravec – space tether developer
• Morien Morgan – 'Father of the Concorde'
• George Mueller – NASA administrator
• Alan Mulally – Boeing executive and President of Ford
• Hans Multhopp
• Elon Musk – founder of SpaceX and co-founder of Tesla
• Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev – founder of the OKB-23 Myasishchev design bureau

N

• Aleksandr Nadiradze – Soviet Georgian ballistic missile and rocket engineer
• James C. Nance – aircraft nuclear propulsion engineer
• Gerhard Neumann – engineer for General Electric, contributed to the design of the J79
• Édouard Nieuport – aviation pioneer
• No Kum-sok aka Kenneth H. Rowe – North Korean MiG-15 pilot defector, US aeronautical engineer and professor
• Umberto Nobile – semi-rigid airship designer
• Desmond Norman - co-designer of the Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander
• John Dudley North – chief engineer at Boulton Paul Aircraft
• Robert B. C. Noorduyn – Noorduyn Norseman designer
• Jack Northrop – founded Northrop Corporation in 1939 and later the Flying Wing
• Genrikh Novozhilov – key designer of multiple Ilyushin passenger aircraft

O

• Hermann Oberth – rocketry pioneer
• William C. Ocker – instrument flying pioneer
• Wendy Okolo – NASA engineer
• Gerard K. O'Neill – developer of the O'Neill cylinder for space colonization

P

• Frederick Page – lead designer of the English Electric Lightning and the BAC TSR-2
• Mark Page – blended wing body and UAV designer
• Thomas O. Paine – engineer, scientist, NASA administrator
• Paul C. Paris – known for introducing fracture mechanics to the aviation industry
• Bob Parkinson – HOTOL spaceplane developer
• Jack Parsons – rocket engineer, chemist, JPL founder
• Pedro Paulet – rocketry pioneer
• Vladimir Pavlecka – invented flush rivets, designed the ZMC-2 rigid airship and pressurized transports
• Nicolas Roland Payen – delta wing developer
• Richard Pearse – early New Zealand aircraft builder
• Jerome Pearson – space elevator developer
• George Edward Pendray – co-founder of Reaction Motors
• Harald Penrose – test pilot and glider designer
• Edgar Percival – founder of the Percival Aircraft Company
• Bruce Peterson – NASA engineer and test pilot
• Anatoly Perminov – former Roscosmos General Director
• Vladimir Petlyakov – founder of the Petlyakov design bureau
• W. E. W. (Teddy) Petter – designer at Westland, English Electric, and Folland
• Frank Piasecki – helicopter pioneer
• William Hayward Pickering – rocketry pioneer, JPL director
• Percy Pilcher
• Harold Frederick Pitcairn – autogyro developer
• Curtis Pitts
• Paul Poberezny – founder of the Experimental Aircraft Association
• Mikhail Pogosyan – general director of Sukhoi and United Aircraft Corporation
• Hermann Pohlmann – designer of the Ju 87 Stuka
• Nikolai Polikarpov – founded the Polikarpov design bureau
• Boris Popov – invented one of the first successful aircraft ballistic parachute systems
• Henry Potez
• Herman Potočnik
• Ludwig Prandtl
• Ronald F. Probstein – researched hypersonics including re-entry vehicle design
• Ralph V. Pruitt – integrated fly-by-wire controls with engine inlets/nozzles and advanced pilot displays
• Palmer Cosslett Putnam – wind-power pioneer

Q

• Qian Xuesen

R

• Arthur Emmons Raymond – lead designer of the DC-3
• R. Dale Reed – NASA lifting body designer
• Wendell E. Reed – developed jet engine controls
• Wilfrid Thomas Reid
• Frederick Rentschler – aircraft engine designer
• Judith Resnik
• Osborne Reynolds
• Richard V. Rhode – researched aerodynamic loading
• Ben Rich – director of Lockheed's Skunk Works; contributed to SR-71 and F-117 development
• G. Tilghman Richards – annular wing designer
• John M. Riebe
• Norbert Riedel – developed jet engine starting motors
• Robert brothers – balloonists
• Tecwyn Roberts – Avro Canada, NASA
• Frank D. Robinson – helicopter designer
• Alliott Verdon Roe
• Francis Rogallo – NASA engineer, created the Rogallo wing which led to hang-gliding
• Gertrude Rogallo – wife and collaborator of Francis Rogallo
• Frank E. Rom – NASA nuclear propulsion engineer
• Stuart Roosa – astronaut
• Harold Rosen – electrical engineer known as "the father of the geostationary satellite"
• Milton Rosen – lead designer of the Vanguard rocket
• Jan Roskam
• Ludwig Roth
• Carlo Rubbia – fission-fragment rocket proposer
• Edward J. Ruppelt – director of Project Blue Book
• Archibald Russell – designed the Concorde, Blenheim, Britannia, and Type 188
• Burt Rutan – airplane and spacecraft designer
• Tubal Claude Ryan – founder of the Ryan Aeronautical Company
• Yuri Alekseevich Ryzhov – aerodynamicist

S

• Friedrich Wilhelm Sander – pyrotechnics and rocket technology engineer
• Eugen Sänger – spaceplane designer
• Irene Sänger-Bredt – wife and collaborator of Eugen Sänger
• George S. Schairer – lead designer at Consolidated and Boeing
• Helmut Schelp – jet engine pioneer
• Alexander Schleicher – sailplane designer
• Paul Schmidt – V-1 engine designer
• Edgar Schmued – lead engineer on the P-51, F-86, F-100, F-5, T-38
• Edmund Schneider – glider designer including the Schneider Grunau Baby
• Raemer Schreiber – nuclear rocket engine designer
• Bernard Schriever – managed ICBM development
• Schweizer brothers – sailplane designers
• William T. Schwendler – co-founder of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation
• Robert Seamans – engineer, NACA and NASA administrator
• William R. Sears – flying wing designer
• Ernest Edwin Sechler – researched thin-shell structures
• Anita Sengupta – led the JPL team that designed the Curiosity Mars rover parachute system
• Lucien Servanty – SO.6000 Triton and Concorde designer
• Alexander P. de Seversky – founder of Seversky Aircraft, later Republic Aviation
• Joseph Francis Shea – NASA Administrator for the Apollo Program
• Beatrice Shilling – perfected the carburetor on the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine
• Leonid Shkadov – aircraft development and optimization engineer
• Nevil Shute – aeronautical engineer and author
• Arkady Shvetsov – chief engine designer at the OKB-19 design bureau
• Igor Sikorsky – pioneered helicopters
• Ozires Silva – founder of Embraer
• Abe Silverstein – engineer, NACA and NASA administrator
• Apollo M. O. Smith – Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak, F3D, and F4D designer, pioneer in computational fluid dynamics
• Herbert Smith – designer of the Sopwith Triplane
• John Maynard Smith – military aircraft designer, later evolutionary biologist and geneticist
• Joseph Smith – designer at Supermarine
• Ted R. Smith – designer of the Aero Commander and Aerostar
• Pavel Solovyov – chief engine designer at the OKB-19 design bureau
• Song Wencong – lead designer of the Chengdu J-10
• Thomas Sopwith – Sopwith Aviation Company
• Tony Spear – Mars Pathfinder project manager
• Percival H. Spencer – designer of the Republic RC-3 Seabee
• Dorothy Spicer – aeronautical engineer
• Reginald Stafford – designer of the Handley Page Victor
• John Stack – Bell X-1 designer
• Lloyd Stearman – founder of Stearman Aircraft
• Adam Steltzner – JPL engineer for Mars rovers' entry, descent, and landing
• Alan Stern – engineer and planetary scientist, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission to Pluto
• Homer Joseph Stewart – helped develop Explorer 1, Pioneer 4, and several rockets
• Edward Stinson – founder of the Stinson Aircraft Company
• Luigi Stipa – invented the "intubed propeller"
• Harrison Storms – directed North American Aviation's Apollo Program
• William Bushnell Stout – Ford Trimotor designer
• Michael Stroukoff – designer of the Fairchild C-123 Provider
• Ernst Stuhlinger – ion engine developer
• Pavel Sukhoi – founded the OKB-51 Sukhoi design bureau
• Martin Summerfield - co-founder of Aerojet
• Sun Cong - chief designer of the FC-31 and Shenyang J-15
• Joe Sutter – chief engineer for the Boeing 747
• Ed Swearingen – general aviation designer
• Clarence Syvertson – NACA / NASA researcher, developed sounding rockets, compression lift, lifting bodies
• Victor Szebehely – aerospace engineering and celestial mechanics

T

• Max Taitz – scientist in aerodynamics and flight testing of aircraft, one of the founders of Gromov Flight Research Institute
• Kurt Tank – designer of aircraft in Germany, Argentina, and India
• Clarence Gilbert Taylor – designer of the Piper Cub
• Moulton Taylor – experimental aircraft pioneer
• Peter Theisinger – JPL Mars Exploration Rover project manager
• Theodore Theodorsen – aerodynamicist at NACA
• Richard G. Thomas – aeronautical engineer and test pilot
• Mikhail Tikhonravov – rocket and spacecraft pioneer
• Milton Orville Thompson – NASA engineer and test pilot
• Grigori Tokaty – rocket engineer
• Alessandro Tonini – designer at Gabardini, Macchi, and IMAM
• Myron Tribus – deicer developer, heat transfer researcher
• Robert Truax – Aerojet engineer, designer of the Sea Dragon heavy launch vehicle
• Richard Truly – former astronaut and head of NASA
• Konstantin Tsiolkovsky – rocketry pioneer
• Tu Jida – participated in the development of the Shenyang JJ-1, chief designer of the Nanchang CJ-6, Shenyang J-5A, Chengdu JJ-5, and several variants of the J-7 fighter, including the Chengdu J-7M
• Sergey Tumansky – engine designer, founder of the OKB-300 Tumansky design bureau
• Andrei Tupolev – founder of the OKB-156 Tupolev design bureau

U

• Dana Ulery – JPL scientist, automated tracking of deep space probes
• Ralph Hazlett Upson – designed the world's only all-metal stressed-skin airship
• Oskar Ursinus – sailplane designer

V

• Max Valier – rocketry pioneer
• Sitaram Rao Valluri – researched metal fatigue
• Kermit Van Every – high-speed aircraft designer, Douglas Aircraft
• Richard VanGrunsven – prolific kit aircraft engineer
• Vandi Verma – JPL robot engineer
• Vladimir Vetchinkin – aerodynamicist
• Walter G. Vincenti – hypersonic aircraft designer
• Aurel Vlaicu
• Richard Vogt – designer of asymmetrical aircraft
• Gabriel Voisin – aviation pioneer
• George Volkert – designed the Handley-Page Halifax
• Wernher von Braun – German rocket pioneer
• Theodore von Kármán
• Hans von Ohain
• Fritz von Opel – rocketry pioneer
• Chance M. Vought – founder of Vought Aircraft
• Traian Vuia – first flight with no other ground devices
• Gerard Vultee – engineer, founder of Vultee Aircraft

W

• Lawrence Wackett – "father of the Australian aircraft industry", lead designer of the CAC Boomerang
• Gerhard Waibel – sailplane designer
• Dwane Wallace – early Cessna CEO and designer
• Richard Walker – main designer for jet aircraft of Gloster Aircraft Company
• Barnes Wallis
• Ken Wallis – autogyro
• Hellmuth Walter – rocket engines
• Frid Wänström – engineer, head of calculations at Saab
• Joseph F. Ware Jr. – Lockheed engineer and test pilot
• Edward Pearson Warner – NACA research engineer
• Kyūichirō Washizu
• Frank Wattendorf – von Karman assistant, wind tunnel designer
• Johanna Weber – aerodynamicist for the Handley-Page Victor and Concorde
• Fred Weick – airmail pilot, NACA research engineer who designed the NACA cowl, and designer of the Ercoupe and Piper Cherokee
• Daniel Weihs
• Edward Curtis Wells – Boeing executive and designer
• Ted A. Wells – co-founder of Beech Aircraft Corporation
• Michael J. Wendl – developed terrain following technology, energy management theory, and integrated fly-by-wire controls with engine inlets/nozzles and advanced pilot displays
• Günter Wendt – McDonnell Aircraft and North American Aviation engineer; pad leader, prepared all crewed Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft
• Alexander Weygers – discopter designer
• Ray Wheeler – Saunders-Roe designer of rockets and hovercraft
• Orville A. Wheelon – invented the Verson-Wheelon process for aircraft sheet-metal forming, introduced titanium fabrication
• Richard Whitcomb – NACA/NASA inventor of the area rule, supercritical airfoil, and winglet
• Ed White – Apollo 1 fire victim on January 27, 1967
• Gustave Whitehead – aviation pioneer
• Frank Whittle – pioneer of the jet engine
• Michel Wibault – invented vectored thrust
• Robert H. Widmer – lead designer on the B-36, B-58, F-111, and F-16
• Sheila Widnall – fluid mechanics researcher
• Stanisław Wigura
• Geoff Wilde – Rolls-Royce engine designer
• Heather Willauer – United States Naval Research Laboratory researcher of jet fuel manufacture from seawater
• Oswald S. Williams Jr.
• Sam B. Williams – small fanjet engine developer
• Thornton Wilson – B-47, B-52, and Minuteman missile designer
• Steve Wittman – air-racer and aircraft designer
• Hans Wocke – designed forward-swept wing jet aircraft
• Julian Wolkovitch – promoted the closed wing
• Homer J. Wood – auxiliary power unit designer
• Pete Worden – NASA director
• Wright brothers – made first powered airplane flight on Dec 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, NC
• Theodore Paul Wright – engineer and administrator
• Georg Wulf – aviation pioneer
• James Hart Wyld – co-founder of Reaction Motors, designed the rocket engines for the Bell X-1 and RTV-A-2 Hiroc

X

• Xu Shunshou – oversaw the development of the Shenyang JJ-1 and participated in the design of the Nanchang CJ-6, the Nanchang Q-5, and the Xian H-6, died from mistreatment during the Cultural Revolution

Y

• Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev – founder of the OKB-115 Yakovlev design bureau
• Mikhail Yangel – founder of the OKB-586 design bureau
• Ye Zhengda – participated in the design of the Shenyang JJ-1
• Chuck Yeager – test pilot and first to break the sound barrier
• Vladimir Yermolaev – lead designer at OKB-240
• Ed Yost – developer of the modern hot air balloon
• Arthur M. Young – designer of the first Bell helicopter

Z

• Albert Francis Zahm – aeronautical experimenter and chief of the Aeronautical Division of the U.S. Library of Congress
• Stephen Joseph Zand – solved many early aviation vibrations problems
• Friedrich Zander – rocket designer, solar sail and gavitational assist developer
• Filippo Zappata – worked for Gabardini, Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico, Blériot, Breda, and Agusta
• Engelbert Zaschka – one of the first German helicopter pioneers
• Helmut Zborowski – rocket and VTOL designer
• Ferdinand von Zeppelin – airship designer
• Nikolay Zhukovsky – researcher
• Henri Ziegler – father of the Airbus program
• Charles H. Zimmerman – experimental aircraft designer, designed the Vought XF5U "flying pancake" and invented a kinesthetic theory of control that led to the VZ-1 Pawnee flying platform
• Robert Zubrin – Mars Society founder, designer of the theoretical nuclear salt-water rocket
• Fritz Zwicky – astronomer, patented several jet engine features