W.J. Jim McCroskey
March 9, 1937-May 26, 2023
Palo Alto, CA

A pioneer in the field of rotorcraft aerodynamics, an ardent advocate for international scientific diplomacy, and a much-loved father, grandfather, friend and colleague, William James “Jim” McCroskey passed away on May 26, 2023.

Jim’s interest in aeronautics emerged at an early age, inspired by his uncle, Harold M. Adams, who served in the US Air Force during World War II. During his high school years, he researched and created a model of the P-51 Mustang fighter jets that were stationed at nearby Love Field in Dallas. With this model, he won the National Model Airplane Championships three times (1954-1956), which led to the company Jetco commissioning a popular model airplane kit from his plans.

He met his wife of 55 years, Helen Elizabeth Wear (“Betty”), at the University of Texas at Austin, where he obtained a B.S. degree in 1960. He then pursued graduate studies in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Sciences at Princeton University, where their daughters Nancy and Susan were born. He, Betty and Nancy spent a year in Brussels while he studied at the Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, an experience that led to many lifelong friendships and influenced much of his later work on the NATO Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development, Flight Mechanics Panel (1975-1994). He received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1966, conducting his research in the field of hypersonic aerodynamics.

At this time, an opportunity arose at the newly established Army Aeronautical Research Laboratory, a joint collaboration between NASA and the Army at Moffett Field, California. In this new environment, he transitioned to research on rotorcraft. A highlight of his career was an academic year (1973-1974) spent on a personnel exchange at the French aerospace lab, ONERA, in Paris, as the inaugural participant in the U.S.-France Cooperative Research Project in Helicopter Dynamics. Later, with the emergence of research opportunities based on supercomputers, he shifted his focus to computational research, where he used his multifaceted experiences to serve as a bridge between numerical analysts and experimentalists. A member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, he retired in 2000, but continued to serve as a mentor and consultant for many years.

In his personal life, as in his professional life, Jim loved traveling. He also loved biking, hiking, and backpacking, with Sierra Club service trips to the mountains a highlight of many summers, as well as walks with family and friends in his later years. He was fond of classic sports cars and enjoyed the comradery of that community, together with his older daughter Nancy. He played an active role in the lives of both of his daughters, traveling frequently to attend his grandchildren’s performances, soccer games, and birthday and other celebrations as they were growing up until prevented by complications from Parkinson’s disease in the last five years of his life. He was preceded in death by his wife, Betty, in 2015 and is survived by his daughters Nancy McCroskey and Susan Kresin, sister Betty Ann McCroskey, son-in-law Vitaly Kresin, and granddaughters Lydia and Madeline Kresin.