Michael J. Wendl

Michael John Wendl (born June 6, 1934) is an engineer who worked at the McDonnell-Douglas Corporation, mainly in the area of aerospace control. He is noted primarily as one of the early developers of terrain following technology[1] and a proponent of incorporating energy management theory into the design of fighter aircraft. He won the Wright Brothers Medal in 1974 with Ralph Pruitt, Gordon G. Grose, and J. L. Porter for a paper discussing future aircraft designs that integrate fly-by-wire controls with engine inlets/nozzles and advanced pilot displays.[2]

  1. ^ Krachmalnick, F.M., Vetsch, G.J., and Wendl, M.J. (1968) Automatic flight control system for automatic terrain-following Archived 2009-02-26 at the Wayback Machine, Journal of Aircraft Archived 2008-06-22 at the Wayback Machine 5(2), 168-175.
  2. ^ Wendl, M.J., Grose, G.G., Porter, J.L., and Pruitt, V.R. (1974) Flight/Propulsion Control Integration Aspects of Energy Management, Society of Automotive Engineers paper number 740480.