Knight, Dutton, Castles, and the Early Rotorcraft Researchers at Georgia Tech

The aeronautical engineering department at Georgia Tech was established in 1930, when Georgia Tech was announced as the recipient of the final Guggenheim aeronautics grant. Georgia Tech was the only school in the southeastern United States to receive the grant, which Tech's president M.L. Brittain called "Georgia Tech's highest honor." He proceeded to tour the existing aeronautical sciences departments in the United States to gain experience and advice before hiring Montgomery Knight, the director of the Atmospheric Wind Tunnel (AWT) at the NACA Langley Research Laboratory, as the first chair of aeronautical engineering at Georgia Tech. This paper will trace the early history of Montgomery Knight's rotorcraft research at Georgia Tech and link his contributions to the present day, beginning with his arrival at Georgia Tech and oversight of the construction of the department's first wind tunnel, and continuing with the subsequent addition of faculty, many of whom were students of Knight himself.