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OCR for page 323
FRANCIS LOUIS VERSNYDER
1 925-1 989
BY MAURICE E. SHANK
FRANCIS L. VERSNYDER, retired assistant director of research
for materials technology, United Technologies Research Center,
and one of the worId's most distinguished high-temperature metal-
lu~ists, died sullenly November 2S, 1989, at the age of sixty-four.
Frank, as he was known by everyone, was born in Utica,
New York, May 27, 1925, and grew up in Watertown, New
York. His mother died in giving birth to him. Due to the
circumstances of his early life, the principal influence in
his youth was the parish priest of the local Roman Catholic
church. During his high school years and after graduation
he worked for the Watertown Highway Department until
he was drafted into the United States Army at age eighteen
in 1943. After his discharge from the Army in October
1945 he entered Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indi-
ana. He graduated in 1950 with a B.S. in metallurgy. While
at Notre Dame he married Katherine Kelly of Watertown.
In 1954 Frank joined the General Electric Company in
Lynn, Massachusetts, working on problems of high-temperature
metallurgy for early turbojet engines. His last position in
I ynn was as supervisor of metallography and high-tempera-
ture testing. In 1954 he received the Henry Marion Howe
Mecial of the American Society for Metals, his first profes-
sional recognition, for work performed a year earlier on
microconstituents of high-temperature alloys.
323
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324
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
In 1955 he transferred to the General Electric Research
Laboratory in Schenectady, New York, and remained there
until 1961. Believing that his future at the laboratory was
limited by his lack of a doctorate, he accepted an offer to
become head of alloy and materials clevelopment in a newly
formed research and development operation at Pratt & Whitney,
United Aircraft Corporation (now United Technologies) in Pa.
Hartford, Connecticut.
At Pratt & Whitney, the wide world. of ~nn~rt~,nit~r Are
~~ ~ ~ _ ~ _ ^~ 1_ _ · ~ · . .
~ ~ _~
~ If. —~4—^~ At
~v' ~~ ~~auve, ~ecnnlca1 inventiveness, and ability to innovate
by carrying his inventions into production and application.
He proceeded to invent the directionally solidified high-
temperature airfoil, precision cast, complete with intricate
cooling passages, for use in advanced gas turbines. From
this flowed the development and application of the mass-
produced single-crystal airfoil. He was awarded a pivotal
U.S. patent, "Gas Turbine Element," covering this "quantum
lean" in the state of the art. The work opened a new fiekl
_ ~ _ ~ 1 · _ _1 ~ · ~
w1 a~llC:U ~ll~n-~emperature metallurgy, with more than
one hundred subsequent patents issued to others. Use of
these materials provides greater durability qna c,~h~q='iq~
I:; ~ ~1 ~~ ~ ~~ ~ _ ~ ~ · 1 · I.
, _ , ~ ~ ~~4 ~~$
~,~ 111 ~o,~lI`lercla1 alrcratt, and allows higher thrust,
increased fuel efficiency, longer life, and greater maneuver-
ability7 and range in military applications.
The first production application of directionally solidi-
fied blades was for the TF30-P100 engine powering the F-
~ ~ ~ fighter-bomber.
``r, ~ .
---Of rat ''O -''at '
During the 1970s every new Pratt &
Whitney engine model entering production contained
directionally solidified airfoils, including engines that powered
the Boeing 747 and Douglas DC-10-40, and the F-IOO engine
that powered tile Air Force F-15 and F-1A6 fighters. Directionally
solidified airfoils are also used, under license, in the space
shuttle main engine. and in engines chin by art r1~'
~ . . ~ ~ · ~
O —~—~ ~ ~ ~ mu PA ~1~—
talc, Garrett turbine Engine Comn~q~nv Anal Rm11c 12~7~-
0 - — — ———A—~—- ., ~ ~—~ ~~= ^~ ~ ~ ~
~ · · · ~
Iseglnnlng In 1Y7d and subsequently, single-crysta, turbine
airfoils were introduced in both military and commercial
engines, including those for the advanced F-15 and F-16,
the Boeing 747, 767, and 757, and the Airbus A310.
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FRANCIS LOUIS VERSNYDER
325
In recognition of his achievements, Frank was elected to
the National Academy of Engineering in 1981. He was a
member of many professional societies and was active on
committees and boards relating to society organization, awards
selection, and professional matters. He served on many
National Research Council ad hoc committees and on the
Peer Review Committee of the National Bureau of Standards.
Frank was the author of forty-seven papers and technical
presentations.
In 1965, United Aircraft honored him with the George
Mead Gold Medal for Engineering Achievement. Subsequent
honors included the Dickson Prize Award and Medal of
Carnegie Mellon University in 1972; the Francis J. CIamer
Medal and Life Fellowship of the Franklin Institute in 1973;
and the College of Engineering Honor Award of the University
of Notre Dame and the Engineering Materials Achievement
Award of the American Society for Metals in 1975. In 1986
Frank received the National Medal of Technology of the
U.S. Department of Commerce from President Ronald Reagan
at the White House.
A few words must be said about Frank's World War IT
military service, which had a profound affect on his subse-
quent life and philosophical outlook. He served as a rifle-
man in the 54th Armored Infantry Division in the Mediter-
ranean and European theaters of operations. Much of the
time he served as a first scout the soldier who is out in
front of the men out in front. He volunteered for this assign-
ment because he "didn't want anyone to tell him what to
do." His campaign ribbons had four battle stars for the
Central Europe, Rome-Arno, Southern France, and Rhineland
Campaigns, plus a bronze arrowhead for the invasion of
Southern France. He was decorated with the Purple Heart,
with Oakleaf Cluster, for wounds received in action in May
and October 1944. Frank was on many night patrols and
on a bitterly contested beach head in Italy. Once, in a
position overrun by the Wehrmacht, with two companions
he hid for three days underneath the buckboards until the
position was retaken. His companions suggested surren-
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326
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
der, but he told them he would kill them before he would
let them do so. Later in the war his division overran and
defeated the Waffen SS unit that had committed the massa-
cre of American troops at Malmedy, Belgium. He said that
the battle was fought to the death, with no surrender and
no prisoners. His final action was the liberation of a Nazi
concentration camp.
These experiences in the face of battle, with life and
death encountered in an intensity of emotion not known
in peacetime, left memories that he could not bear to recall
and yet could never forget. They left him with an ever-
present sense of the inevitability of life and death. On
several occasions, being notified that he was about to receive
one of his numerous awards for professional achievements,
he would quote from Thomas Gray, eighteenth-century author
of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard": "...paths of
gior,v lead but to the grave."
Withal, Frank was a man of great charm, with a wry and
sometimes self-deprecating sense of humor, well read in
philosophy and history. He had a fierce sense of indepen-
dence and an extraordinary sensitivity to the motiv::~tinn~
~r +~ ~ ~ ~ : ~ ~ .. 4 _ ~ ~
. ~ ~ he ~ ~^ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~~ O
us c~e warn wnom ne came in contact in the industrial
world. Highly principled, he was concerned always that he
take the right action for the right reason.
Frank was impressive as a professional colleague and
charming as a friend. He had the skill and good fortune to
change completely the technology of high-temperature
metallurgy for gas turbines, thus opening a whole new area
of research and development for others who today pursue
the professional ramifications of his developments.
He is survived by three daughters, Connie Welling of Mt.
Vernon, New York, and Christine and Kelly of Hamden, Con-
necticut; two grandsons, Justin and Alexander Welling; and
his son-in-Iaw Martin Welling.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
francis louis
