National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NACA/NASA Research and Development Projects Receiving the Robert J. Collier Trophy

For more detailed information about NACA and NASA Collier Trophy winners, please see From Engineering Science to Big Science, a NASA History Division publication edited by Pamela E. Mack.

Robert J. Collier Trophy

• Established 1911.
• Awarded by the National Aeronautic Association.
• Given annually for great achievement in aeronautics and astronautics in America.
• Oriented toward recognizing advances in the performance, efficiency, or safety of air or space vehicles.

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Award Winners

• 1929: NACA for the development of low-drag cowling for radial air-cooled aircraft engines.
• 1946: Lewis A. Rodert of Ames Aeronautical Laboratory for the development of an efficient wing deicing system.
• 1947: John Stack of Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory for research to determine the physical laws affecting supersonic flight. Lawrence D. Bell and Chuck Yeager also shared in this trophy for their work on supersonic flight.
• 1951: John Stack and associates at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory for the development and use of the slotted-throat wind tunnel.
• 1954: Richard Travis Whitcomb of Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory for the development of the Whitcomb area rule, according to the citation, a "powerful, simple, and useful method of reducing greatly the sharp increase in wing drag heretofore associated with transonic flight, and which constituted a major factor requiring great reserves of power to attain supersonic speeds."

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Award Winners

• 1961: Joseph A. Walker of NASA's Flight Research Center (along with Robert M. White, A. Scott Crossfield, and Forrest Peterson) for the scientific advances resulting from the X-15 test program.
• 1962: NASA's original seven astronauts for the Project Mercury flights.
• 1965: NASA Administrator James E. Webb and Deputy Administrator Hugh L. Dryden for effective management of a large-scale research institution.
• 1968: NASA Astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, and William A. Anders of NASA for the Apollo 8 lunar orbital mission.
• 1969: NASA Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins for the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission.
• 1971: David R. Scott, James B. Irwin, Alfred M. Worden, and Robert T. Gilruth of NASA for the Apollo 15 lunar mission as the most prolonged and scientifically productive mission of Project Apollo.
• 1973: NASA's Skylab program, with special recognition to William C. Schneider, program director, and the Skylab astronauts, for the production of scientific data about longterm space flight.
• 1974: John F. Clark of NASA and Daniel J. Fink of General Electric, representing the NASA/industry team for the development of LANDSAT, proving the value of U.S. space technology in the management of the earth's resources and environment.
• 1980: Edward C. Stone and NASA's Voyager mission team for the spectacular flyby of Saturn and the return of basic knowledge about the solar system.
• 1981: NASA and the industry team that developed the Space Shuttle and proved the concept of reusable spacecraft, with special recognition to astronauts John W. Young, Robert L. Crippen, Joe H. Engle, and Richard H. Truly.
• 1984: NASA and Martin Marietta for the development of the manned maneuvering unit, and the NASA team that rescued three disabled satellites, with special recognition to astronaut Bruce McCandless II, NASA's Charles E. Whitsett, Jr., and Martin Marietta's Walter W. Bollendonk.
• 1987: NASA's Lewis Research Center and the NASA/industry advanced turboprop team for the development of a new fuel-efficient turboprop propulsion system.
• 1988: NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly for success in returning America to manned space flight.
• 1993: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Recovery Team for repair of the telescope in December 1993. The citation honored the team "for outstanding leadership, intrepidity, and the renewal of public faith in America's space program by the successful orbital recovery and repair of the Hubble Space Telescope."