ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, May 8, 1996                 TAG: 9605080074
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-3  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: HAMPTON
                                             TYPE: NEWS OBIT 

AEROSPACE PIONEER DIES AT 88

Charles H. Zimmerman, an aerospace research pioneer at NASA's Langley Research Center, died Sunday in Hampton. He was 88.

He joined the Langley Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, forerunner of the National Aeronautical and Space Administration's Langley Research Center, in 1929.

He conducted studies on aircraft stability, tail spinning and low-aspect-ratio airfoils. He wrote several NACA reports on his airfoil concept.

``Charlie was a great inventor. Those airfoils were like early unidentified flying objects,'' said John Duberg, a fellow researcher who became an associate director at the Langley center from 1975-80.

Zimmerman invented the world's first free-flight wind tunnel at the Langley center. He also invented a V/Stol (vertical/short takeoff and landing) flying wing aircraft in the 1930s.

In 1937, Zimmerman joined the Chance Vought Division of United Aircraft Corp. In 1948, he returned to Langley to supervise research on aircraft stability and to lead research on advanced aircraft wings.

He was a member of a three-man study group that recommended in 1953 that the nation become involved in research for space flight. He headed the Space Task Force in NACA headquarters in 1958, then became chief of the engineering and contract administration division for Project Mercury, the nation's first manned space flights.

In 1962, Zimmerman was named director of aeronautics at NASA headquarters in Washington. A year later, he became chief engineer.

He retired in that position at the U.S. Army Materiel Command in 1967.

- Associated Press

LENGTH: Short :   41 lines