Heinrich, Helmut Gustav

Helmut G. Heinrich, 1910-1979, was an internationally recognized expert in aeronautical engineering and a specialist in aeronautical deceleration and supersonic parachute design. He held a B.E. (1931) in mechanical engineering from the State Engineering College, Stettin, Germany, and a B.E. (1936) in aeronautical engineering from the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, Germany. Professor Heinrich completed a M.E. (1938) in aeronautical engineering and a doctorate of engineering (D.Eng., 1943) also from the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, Germany.

Heinrich's first appointment was as project engineer and later as section chief at the Graf Zeppelin Research Institution, Stuttgart, Germany, in 1935. From 1940 to 1946 he was head of the Department of Aerodynamics at the Graf Zeppelin Research Institution. After the war, Heinrich came to the United States as part of the Department of Defense's program to recruit German scientists and reconstruct their scientific work in the U.S. Beginning with his arrival in the U.S. until 1956, Heinrich served as a technical adviser to the Parachute Branch of the Equipment Laboratory at the Wright Air Development Center, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio.

Heinrich came to the University of Minnesota in 1956 where he served as professor of aeronautical engineering in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics in the Institute of Technology until his death in 1979. During his tenure, Heinrich was awarded numerous government grants totaling nearly $3.5 million to fund the design of parachutes for NASA's Gemini space capsule and for the Viking program that sent two probes to the surface of Mars.

Heinrich is the author of over 130 scientific publications. His honors and awards include the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences Thurman H. Bane Award (1954), induction as a Fellow to both the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the Royal Aeronautical Society of Great Britain in 1969, recipient of the Institute of Technology Distinguished Teaching Award (1972), and the first American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aerodynamics Deceleration Systems Award, received the day before his death in 1979.