Stanley F. Schmidt facts for kids
Stanley F. Schmidt (born January 21, 1926 – died August 13, 2015) was a very important aerospace engineer. He helped create the Schmidt-Kalman filter. This special filter is used to help planes and spacecraft navigate, or find their way. It was especially important for the Apollo missions to the Moon.
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Early Life and Education
Stanley Schmidt was born in Hollister, California, on January 21, 1926. His parents were Fred and Edith Schmidt. He married Meredith Hallenbeck in 1949.
Stanley started his engineering training in 1944. He was part of the Navy Air Corps. He earned his first engineering degree from Marquette University in 1946. Later, he got his Master's and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He finished these in 1952 and 1959.
Schmidt's Amazing Career in Engineering
Working at NASA Ames Research Center
From 1946 to 1961, Stanley Schmidt worked at the NASA Ames Research Center. This is where he found out how useful the Kalman filter could be. He used it to help process data for the Apollo manned lunar missions. These missions were sending humans to the Moon!
While at NASA Ames, he also helped build flight simulators. These are machines that let pilots practice flying. He also designed ways to fix problems in control systems. He was even a boss, in charge of all the analog simulation work.
Innovations at Lockheed and Philco
In 1961 and 1962, Schmidt worked for Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. He used his knowledge of filter theory to help understand how rockets worked. He also created computer programs to check how well launch vehicles performed after they flew.
From 1962 to 1966, Schmidt was a top scientist at Philco's Western Development Laboratory. He led studies on how to guide and navigate space vehicles. He also created computer programs to help design these systems. At Philco, he came up with the idea for the fan beam navigation satellite. This new idea helped prove that satellites could navigate very accurately. It was also here that he developed a special version of the Kalman filter. This filter was named the Schmidt–Kalman filter in his honor!
Leading Teams at Analytical Mechanics and Northrop
In 1966, Schmidt joined Analytical Mechanics Associates, Inc.. He became a vice president and technical director for their western division. At AMA, he created another special Kalman filter for navigation systems. He also used control theory to make NASA's piloted flight simulators even better. He developed several navigation systems for spacecraft. These systems used advanced versions of the Kalman filter.
Later, from 1992 to 2001, he worked as a consultant for Northrop. He led a team that used a Kalman filter for the first time in an aircraft. This was for the C-5A navigation system. He continued to help Northrop. He led the design of the Kalman filter for the navigation system in the B-2 bomber.
Organizations and Memberships
Stanley F. Schmidt was a member of several important engineering groups:
- He was an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
- He was a member of Eta Kappa Nu.
- He was a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
- He was also a member of Tau Beta Pi.
