Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
PROF. EDWARD S. TAYLOR OF MIT, AIRCRAFT ENGINE PIONEER, DIES AT 88 Edward S. Taylor, professor of flight propulsion, emeritus, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a leading figure in the development of both reciprocating and gas turbine aircraft engines, died Saturday night, February 2, apparently of a heart attack. A resident of Lincoln, Mass., he was 88. Professor Taylor was the founder and director for 22 years of MIT's Gas Turbine Laboratory, where he became recognized as an international authority on aircraft gas turbine engines which make possible the pure jet, turbo-fan and turbine-driven propeller engines that power today's high performance aircraft. Professors Jack L. Kerrebrock and Eugene E. Covert, both former heads of MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said in a statement that Professor Taylor also played a key role in educating engineers for the rapidly growing aircraft engine industry and that many of his former students became leaders in that industry. In recognition of his work and widespread influence in the field of aircraft engines, Professor Taylor received a number of prestigious awards. These included the Sylvanus Albert Reed Award in 1936 and the Robert H. Goddard Award in 1973. The Reed award was given by the Institute of Aeronautical Science for the greatest achievement in aeronautical science in the previous year, in this case Professor Taylor's invention of a vibration absorber for reciprocating aircraft engines. Some have held that this invention alone led to the large radial engines that were employed so successfuly in World War II and in large transport aircraft after the war. The Goddard prize, given by by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, cited his "continuous and successful contributions to the advancement of the art and science of air-breathing propulsion over a period of 45 years as designer, inventor, researcher, teacher and leader of a major educational and research center of aircraft engine activity." Professor Taylor, a native of New York City who grew up in Montclair, N.J., received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1924. He joined the staff of the Public Service Corporation in New Jersey that year and went to the Wright Aeronautical Corporation in 1925. He returned to MIT two years later as an instructor in aeronautical engineering and staff member of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory for Aircraft and Automotive Engines, then headed by his brother, C. Fayette Taylor. The two worked together, through World War II, on the development of reciprocating internal combustion engines until, following the war, Edward Taylor established the Gas Turbine Laboratory and concentrated on the development and refinement of jet engines, which had emerged in Germany and England during World II. He was appointed assistant professor of aeronautical engineering in 1934, associate professor in 1937, and professor of aircraft engines in 1942. He became professor of flight propulsion in 1962 and retired as emeritus professor in 1968. Following his retirement Professor Taylor remained active in the Gas Turbine Laboratory until very recently. At his retirement, nearly 90 of his former students and his colleagues gathered at MIT for a technical symposium in Professor Taylor's honor, focusing on the gas turbine. One of the speakers was Professor W. R. Hawthorne of the University of Cambridge, England, a member of the team that developed the jet engine in England in World War II Professor Taylor's many activities in World War II included positions on the War Production Board and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Special Committee on Jet Propulsion. He was involved in the planning for production both of aircraft and tank engines. Following the war, he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the U.S. Air Force from 1955 to 1960 and he served as a consultant for many of the nation's leading firms in the aircraft propulsion and rocket propulsion field. Professor Taylor was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Among his many publications is a book, Dimensional Analysis, and another coauthored with his brother, C. Fayette Taylor, The Internal Combustion Engine. His brother is also a professor emeritus at MIT, in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and a former head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Professor Taylor and his wife, Julia, both avid sailors, maintained a summer home on Chappaquidick Island, Martha's Vineyard. They enjoyed nearly annual excursions to the Maine coast in their small sloop, Katydid, accompanied by their dog, Squibnocket. In the winter months, Professor Taylor practiced silversmithing at a very high level in his basement workshop in Lincoln. In addition to his wife, Julia (Brodt), Professor Taylor is survived by two daughters, Mary T. Adelstein of Waban, Mass. and Marcia T. Fowle of New York City; three step-daughters, Francesca DeG. Moravcsik of Eugene, Ore.; Patricia DeG. Gahagan of Woodbury, Vt. and Madeleine DeG. Fletcher of Cambridge, Mass.; his brother, C. Fayette Taylor of Weston, Mass., 10 grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held in the First Parish Church in Lincoln Center on Friday, Feb. 8, at 2pm. Donations may be made to the MIT Scholarship Fund, in care of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, or to Amnesty International in New York City. --END-- CHB/2/4/91