aerodynamicist physicist scientist
Clark Blanchard Millikan was born on August 23, 1903, in Chicago, Illinois. He was the son of Robert Andrews Millikan, a physicist, and Greta Irvin Blanchard. He attended the elementary and high schools of the University of Chicago, where his father was a professor of physics.
Millikan's graduation from high school coincided with his father's winter assignment at Throop Institute of Technology, now it's California Institute of Technology or Caltech in Pasadena; Millikan spent a year at the University of California at Berkeley and Throop Institute before entering Yale University in 1920. Upon graduating from Yale in 1924 with majors in physics and mathematics, Millikan pursued graduate studies in the same subjects at Caltech, obtaining his Ph. D. in 1928 with the thesis "The Steady Motion of Viscous Incompressible Fluids. " Millikan's interest in airplanes and aeronautics began in childhood when he started to build model airplanes and flourished under the guidance of his mentor Harry Bateman. He and fellow students Arthur L. Klein and Albert Merrill demonstrated their aeronautical prowess by designing, building, and flying a biplane of unique design, capable of taking off and landing with a minimum of pilot control.
Millikan's interest in everything aeronautical made his choice of Caltech, in the heart of Southern California's burgeoning aircraft industry, a logical place for him to seek employment and settle down with his new bride. Millikan spent his entire professional career there, as assistant professor (1928 - 1934), associate professor (1934 - 1940), and professor of aeronautics (1940 until his death). His tenure at Caltech spanned, and to a considerable extent was responsible for, that institution's rise to a position of world leadership in aeronautical education and research. In 1925, the Daniel Guggenheim Foundation for the Promotion of Aeronautics was founded, and three years later Caltech received funds from it to establish a graduate school of aeronautics and to erect an aeronautical laboratory. Theodore von Karman was brought from Germany to supervise the project, and Millikan and Klein performed much of the actual design work, especially for the wind tunnel, which, by employing the modifications and improvements suggested by von Karman, became one of the most advanced and efficient in the world. It was the availability of this wind tunnel and its associated support facilities and personnel that enabled several American commercial aircraft companies (Douglas, Boeing, North American, Northrop, Lockheed, and Consolidated) to become leaders in the aircraft industry. Millikan, as supervisor of all testing and research in the wind tunnel, was directly involved in all phases of the work; he seemed happiest when he was actually in the wind tunnel itself, taking measurements or suggesting improvements. One of his projects pointed to the advantages of high-altitude flying and the development of multiengine pressurized aircraft for commercial use. Following von Karman's departure in 1944, Millikan served as acting director, and after 1949 as director, of the entire laboratory (GALCIT, as it was commonly called, standing for Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, California Institute of Technology).
Besides his great interest in aeronautical research and development, Millikan took his teaching responsibilities very seriously. He prepared meticulously for his classes at Caltech, teaching both basic courses in aerodynamics and advanced courses in the theory of fluids. Millikan was constantly challenged by, and contributed to, new developments in aeronautics. For example, immediately after World War II, Millikan became director of a new project shared by five Southern California aircraft companies. Called the Southern California Cooperative Wind Tunnel, the project was designed specifically to test aircraft at supersonic speeds. This was one of the first large supersonic wind tunnels anywhere, and it achieved worldwide fame for its efficiency, flexibility, and accuracy. It had immense influence on all postwar commercial and military aircraft, including developments such as swept-wing designs that Millikan's assistant, Ernest Robischon, had helped uncover among the tons of documents that were supposedly destroyed by the Germans at the close of the war. Millikan was initially skeptical regarding the value of rocket propulsion for aircraft and spacecraft, and he even advised one graduate student, Frank Malina, to "get a good job in the aircraft industry" instead of wasting time on rockets. But, by 1938, Millikan had changed his mind, and he then took the lead in championing both rockets and jet engines as propulsion systems; in 1941 he showed that rocket assisted takeoff could shorten takeoff distances by as much as 50 percent. He died in Pasadena.
In 1945, Millikan and Frank Malina established the nation's first academic course in jet propulsion. Millikan published forty papers on a wide range of topics, and his textbook Aerodynamics of the Airplane (1941) was the first volume of the GALCIT series of textbooks. He took an active part in professional societies such as the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences, which he served as president in 1937, and the National Academy of Engineering, which he helped found in 1964. In 1949, Millikan and his father were jointly awarded the Presidential Medal of Merit "for exceptionally outstanding conduct" in the field of rocket and jet propulsion development during World War II. Millikan was a co-founder, along with von Karman and others, of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; he helped to form the Aerojet General Corporation, and he served as a member of the board of directors of the National Engineering Science Company of Pasadena. Millikan was in great demand as a consultant in both military and civilian affairs because of his wide knowledge of the field of avionics and his vast circle of friends, colleagues, and former students. In early 1946, in an era when many academicians were becoming extremely skeptical of the propriety of close ties between academic institutions and research laboratories funded by the military, Millikan was instrumental in convincing the trustees of Caltech that its international reputation in aeronautics would be seriously jeopardized if it lost the unique facilities of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to other institutions. In the early 1950's, Millikan foresaw and helped promote, the role of long-range missiles and satellites in both military and civilian affairs, particularly through his membership on the Air Force's Scientific Advisory Board and as an adviser to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Millikan was an enthusiastic, outgoing, engaging person who played a major role in the worldwide development of aeronautical and space programs. His vigorous approach to his profession was carried over into his private life, where he enjoyed music, especially singing with friends around the piano while he played, outdoor recreation, particularly hiking and camping in remote areas, social clubs and gatherings, and keeping in touch with his vast circle of friends the world over.
On June 9, 1928, Millikan married Helen Staats. They had three children. In 1958, Millikan was divorced, and on February 19, 1959, he married Edith Nussbaum Parry.
22 March 1868 - 19 December 1953
16 July 1876 - 10 October 1953
17 December 1900 - 20 September 1973
30 June 1929 - 23 July 1930
30 July 1931 - 30 December 1951
