Porter Perkins

"As the demand for all-weather protection on aircraft for unimpaired and continuous commercial and military service developed, the detrimental effects of ... icing on airplane performance became increasingly important" (1948)

Figure 1. Tunnel installation of hollow steel air-heated propeller for icing investigation. A tall, lean man with a distinctively tall nose inspects the propeller.

From NACA-TN-1586. I believe that this is Porter Perkins, circa 1946.

Summary

Porter Perkins published on icing topics for over 50 years while at NACA, NASA, and other groups.

Biographies and Memorials

Porter J. Perkins is a senior aerospace engineer working in aviation safety as manager of airworthiness of research flight activity at the Lewis Research Center of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. He has specialized in research on aircraft icing for more than 25 years. His in-flight measurements to characterize icing clouds were later incorporated into U.S. icing protection certification standards. He has authored or co-authored more than 25 reports in the field of aircraft icing, and continues to participate in icing research flights. Perkins is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

from Protection Against Icing: A Comprehensive Overview, Flight Safety Digest, Vol. 16 No. 6/7/8/9, June-September 1997. flightsafety.org

He is included on the Smithsonian Institute Air and Space Museum Wall of Honor (airandspace.si.edu).

Memorials have named him "The Father of Icing" (findagrave.com) (obits.cleveland.com).

As I said in the Welcome Post, I once shook hands with Porter Perkins, circa 1993. I also saw and heard him at a few meetings. That was my only direct link to the NACA era.

Publications

I could find only 24 publications, not the "more than 25" mentioned in the biography above. Searching is difficult, as his name is in three forms on ntrs.nasa.gov, at least two forms on scholar.google.com, and likewise at other sources (such as P. Perkins, P. J. Perkins, Porter J. Perkins, P. J. Jr Perkins, etc.)

Sixteen of his NACA publications are in The Historical Selected Bibliography of NACA-NASA Icing Publications, so he contributed to more than 10% of the 132 titles listed.

Several publications on instruments have been reviewed previously, and Perkins used, developed, and improved them.

Other publications are reviewed in the sections below.

Several of the publications had co-authors. In this series on Porter Perkins I will make comments about things assuming that Perkins either wrote them, or had an editorial hand in their inclusions. This may not be accurate in all cases, but it is difficult to sort out which co-author wrote what.

Propellers

  • Mulholland, Donald R., and Perkins, Porter J.: Investigation of Effectiveness of Air-Heating a Hollow Steel Propeller for Protection against Icing, I - Unpartitioned Blades. NACA-TN-1586, 1948. ntrs.nasa.gov
  • Perkins, Porter J., and Mulholland, Donald R.: Investigation of Effectiveness of Air-Heating a Hollow Steel Propeller for Protection against Icing, II- 50-Percent Partitioned Blades. NACA-TN-1587, 1948. ntrs.nasa.gov
  • Mulholland, Donald R., and Perkins, Porter J.: Investigation of Effectiveness of Air-Heating a Hollow Steel Propeller for Protection against Icing, III - 25-Percent Partitioned Blades. NACA-TN-1588, 1948. ntrs.nasa.gov
  • Perkins, Porter J., and Millenson, M. B.: An Electric Meter Suitable for Flight Investigation of Propellers. NACA-RM-E9C17, 1949. ntrs.nasa.gov

Instruments (previously reviewed)

  • Perkins, Porter J.: Flight Instrument for Measurement of Liquid-Water Content in Clouds at Temperatures Above and Below Freezing. NACA-RM-E50J12a, 1951.
    > review: Heated probes
  • McCullough, Stuart, and Perkins, Porter J.: Flight Camera for Photographing Cloud Droplets in Natural Suspension in the Atmosphere. NACA-RM-E50K01a, 1951.
    > review: Water drop imaging
  • Perkins, Porter J., McCullough, Stuart, and Lewis, Ralph D.: A Simplified Instrument for Recording and Indicating Frequency and Intensity of Icing Conditions Encountered in Flight. NACA-RM-E51E16, 1951.
    > review: NACA-RM-E51E16
  • Lewis, William, Perkins, Porter J., and Brun, Rinaldo J.: Procedure for Measuring Liquid-Water Content and Droplet Sizes in Super-cooled Clouds by Rotating Multicylinder Method. NACA-RM-E53D23, 1953.
    > review: NACA-RM-E53D23
  • Brun, Rinaldo J., Lewis, William, Perkins, Porter J., and Serafini, John S.: Impingement of Cloud Droplets and Procedure for Measuring Liquid-Water Content and Droplet Sizes in Supercooled Clouds by Rotating Multicylinder Method. NACA-TR-1215, 1955. (Supersedes NACA TN’s 2903, 2904, and NACA-RM-E53D23)
    > review: NACA-TR-1215, NACA-TR-1215 Thermodynamics

Meteorology

  • Perkins, Porter J., and Kline, Dwight B.: Analysis of Meteorological Data Obtained During Flight in a Supercooled Stratiform Clouds of High Liquid-Water Content. NACA-RM-E51D18, 1951. ntrs.nasa.gov
  • Perkins, Porter J.: Preliminary Survey of Icing Conditions Measured During Routine Transcontinental Airline Operation. NACA-RM-E52J06, 1952. ntrs.nasa.gov
  • Perkins, Porter J.: Statistical Survey of Icing Data Measured on Scheduled Airline Flights over the United States and Canada from November 1951 to June 1952. NACA-RM-E55F28a, 1955. ntrs.nasa.gov
  • Perkins, Porter J., Lewis, William, and Mulholland, Donald R.: Statistical Study of Aircraft Icing Probabilities at the 700- and 500- Millibar Levels over Ocean Areas in the Northern Hemisphere. NACA-TN-3984, 1957. ntrs.nasa.gov
  • Perkins, Porter J.: Icing Frequencies Experienced During Climb and Descent by Fighter-Interceptor Aircraft. NACA-TN-4314, 1958. ntrs.nasa.gov
  • Perkins, Porter J.: Summary of Statistical Icing Cloud Data Measured Over United States and North Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Ocean During Routine Aircraft Operations. NASA Memo 1-19-59E, 1959. ntrs.nasa.gov

Airships, NACA-TN-4220

  • Lewis, William, and Perkins, Porter J.: A Flight Evaluation and Analysis of the Effect of Icing Conditions on the PG-2 Airship. NACA-TN-4220, 1958. ntrs.nasa.gov

Ice shapes and Ice Protection

  • Ranaudo, R. ,J.; Mikkelsen, K. L.; McKnight, R. C. and Perkins, P. J. Jr., "Performance Degradation of a Typical Twin Engine Commuter Type Aircraft in Measured Natural Icing Conditions," NASA TM 83564 and AIAA-84-0179, 1984. ntrs.nasa.gov
  • Mikkelsen, K. L., McKnight, R. C., Ranaudo, R. J. and Perkins, P. J. Jr., "Icing Flight Research: Aerodynamic Effects of Ice and Ice Shape Documentation with Stereo Photography," NASA TM 86906 or AIAA-85-0468, 1985. ntrs.nasa.gov
  • Perkins, P., Otis Hastings, and William Rieke. "Thin, lightweight, electrothermal ice protection-New technology supplementing existing ice protection." 34th Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, AIAA-96-0391. 1996. arc.aiaa.org

Icing Severity Probability

Flight Safety

  • Perkins, Porter J., and William J. Rieke. "Tailplane icing and aircraft performance degradation." Accident Prevention (1992). flightsafety.org
  • Perkins, Porter, and William Rieke. "Aircraft icing problems-After 50 years." 31st Aerospace Sciences Meeting, AIAA-93-0392. 1993. arc.aiaa.org
  • Perkins, P. and Ranaudo, R., "Contending with Airframe Icing," SAE Technical Paper 2002-01-1518, 2002. sae.org, jstor.org [can be viewed at no cost with registration]

Books

  • Perkins, Porter J., "In-Flight Icing", Paperback – January 1, 2001. Sporty's Pilot Shop (I have not been able to find a copy of this; https://search.worldcat.org/title/54401515 lists libraries with it, but my local library said "no loanable copies".)

Conclusions of the Porter Perkins Series

  • Three areas of his continuing legacy are discussed.

social