The aerospace engineering department at Mississippi State University will be honored Nov. 1 when the Raspet Flight Research Laboratory is designated one of the nation’s 13 soaring landmarks.
The laboratory, named for August Raspet, a pioneer in soaring research and the founder of flight research at MSU, is the university’s oldest research facility.
According to a press release, the dedication ceremony will start at 1 p.m. where flight lab director David Lawrence will be master of ceremonies.
A plaque honoring Raspet and Richard Johnson, another sailplane pioneer and MSU student, and will be presented at the ceremony.
“(Raspet) was interested in modifying airplanes for efficiency and his research led to the first composite plane,” said George Bennett, retired director of the lab.
Paul MacCready, chairman of AeroVironment Inc. and the “father of human-powered flight” will speak at a banquet that evening. A graduate of both Yale and Caltech, MacCready was mentored by Rapset and founded his own company.
“This is a chance for everyone to get together,” Bennett said. “There will be a bunch of old-timers there to tell their stories.”
Raspet established the aerophysics department at MSU in 1948 and incorporated research into the program that led to the establishment of the lab.
Raspet died in an accident during a flight demonstration in 1960. After his death, the Mississippi Legislature set aside money for the construction of a building in his memory.
“We called it getting a building the hard way,” Bennett said.
Bennett also said that the structure was the only large building at that time in the nation devoted to flight research.
Today, the Raspet Lab is still one of the leading university research facilities in the country.
“We are very proud that our facility is one of only a few labs in the country with the capabilities to design, build and test full-scale prototypes,” Thomas Edwards, research director at Raspet, said.
There are 11 full-time staff members for the lab, but student involvement is a key part of the lab’s work. Rodney Lincoln, facilities director at Raspet said that the lab currently has eight full-time students, but that number changes depending on what kind of projects the lab has at any one time.
“A lot of what we do here is research composite manufacturing parts, which are basically fiberglass,” Lincoln said.
Flight research, prototyping and working with composites are the lab’s main jobs, but it also can serve the school directly.
“When students get into flight classes in the upper years, we can bring them out here to see how it works in a real world environment,” Edwards said. He also added that the labs are open for students to do various projects.
The Raspet Flight Research Laboratory is located on Airport Road, off of Miss. Highway 12, just before Wal-Mart.