ROBERT T. JONES

1910–1999

BY WALTER G. VINCENTI

ROBERT THOMAS JONES, one of the premier theoretical aerodynamicists of the twentieth century, died on August 11, 1999, aged eighty-nine, at his home in Los Altos Hills, California. At the time of his retirement in 1982, Jones worked as a senior research scientist at the Ames Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in nearby Mountain View. Following formal retirement, he served until 1997 as a consulting professor at Stanford University.

Jones—”R.T.” to his friends and coworkers—was born on May 28, 1910, in the farming-country town of Macon, Missouri. Writing about his days in Macon High School in an unpublished autobiographical article, he pays tribute to “a wonderful mathematics teacher . . . who took us along the intricate path of exponents, logarithms, and trigonometry.” Like so many of his generation, he also built model airplanes, radios, and electronic gadgets. More important for his later work, he “devoured eagerly” the technical articles appearing in aeronautical magazines and the technical reports from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). These experiences would influence him for life.

Following high school, R.T. attended the University of Missouri, dropping out after an unsatisfying freshman year. Returning to Macon, he joined the locally based Marie Meyer Flying Circus, a stunt-flying group typical of the time. Here he received