The other day I saw a story about the Grumman X-29, which was a high maneuverability aircraft employing a forward swept wing and other features that made it potentially very responsive, yet inherently unstable.
This reminded me of my friend and classmate Jack Ellinwood who worked on the control system that stabilized the aircraft [Jimmy Chin, Howard Berman and Jack Ellinwood, “X-29 Flight Control System Design Experiences,” AIAA Paper 82-1538, 1982].
I met Jack during our junior year at RPI when we sat next to each other in a Fluid Mechanics class in the Rickets Building. He had just transferred from SUNY Delhi, into the aeronautical engineering program. Two of my aero friends were a year ahead of us, Ron Fleck whom I knew from German classes and our trip to the Goethe Institute in Murnau, and Steve Aoyama who was a housemate at 19 Eighth Street. All three of them had an interest in aero-elasticity and control systems, which I am sure led to his success on the X-29 program.
Jack joined my circle of friends and we went to hockey games and parties together. Jack spoke thoughtfully, but very slowly, and we joked that he picked up that habit on the farm talking to cows.
He met his wife at one of our parties, I think while we were in grad school during 1975-76. She was the sister of my landlady’s Korean daughter in law, Myong-ja, and in summertime there was Korean bar-b-q on the front steps. I think they got married after he started working for Grumman, and he would drive up to court her. I don’t remember his wedding, but I know my sister was up because she had become friends with Myong-ja.
Jack had to be back at work right after the wedding, so he rented a U-Haul that we loaded up all day Sunday. He handed me the keys to the truck while he and his bride led the way in his car (a Dodge Charger if I remember correctly). I had never driven such a big vehicle, but Barbara and I drove all night and then somehow got some heavy furniture up the stairs and into his apartment. Somehow I ended up home in Bethpage and Jack went to work.
My Dad worked at Grumman, and he would stop by their house in Bethpage from time to time. The last time I saw him was at my folks house before moving out to California. My Dad would fill me in on Jack, including the X-29 program.
I forget how I learned of his death from MS in 2002, but I do remember being contacted by his daughter Lisa, who I think had been raised back in Albany after Jack divorced. If she read this someday, I hope she knows that I was his friend. If I find any pictures, I’ll add them here. RIP Jack.