ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- Even before the Arnold Engineering Development Center was dedicated in June 1951, partnerships between the new center and academia were being explored.
In May 1951, the Industry and Educational Advisory Board considered drafts of a proposed contract between the Air Force and the University of Tennessee. The I & EAB was made up of aircraft industry executives and prominent educators in the aeronautical science field and was tasked with making recommendations to the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force on policy matters pertaining to the design, construction and operation of AEDC.
At the same time the board looked over the proposal, it recommended a program be developed to provide qualified AEDC personnel university-level courses leading to degrees in physical and engineering sciences and “instruction in such other fields as circumstances may justify.”
Involvement from the University of Tennessee was requested by then-AEDC Commander Franklin O. Carroll in the early 1950s. On June 19, 1951, the Air Force awarded a letter contract to the university to study the board’s recommendations and, according to an AEDC news release issued in late 1952, to “make comprehensive preliminary study of methods by which educational institutions can assist the AEDC in the accomplishment of its mission.”
Under the direction of Wiley Thomas, coordinator of the University of Tennessee Cooperative Engineering Program, the university completed the study and submitted its final report on Dec. 1, 1952.
Twelve days later, then-AEDC Commander Col. Charles Moore announced the conclusions and recommendations of the study.
“The AEDC-University Affiliation Study has resulted in the very strong conviction that cooperative relationships between the Arnold Engineering Development Center and educational institutions are essential to the effective operation of the Center,” states an AEDC news release issued Dec. 12, 1952. “A careful consideration of the various methods of developing these relationships has led to the further conviction that they can best be brought about by arranging for the establishment and/or for further development of the specific program affiliates enumerated below.”
The study recommended that the Air Force should pursue the establishment of an engineering sciences graduate degree program for AEDC employees to “build and maintain the highly scientific workforce” required for effective operations of the center.
“Lecture and symposia programs should be provided for scientific and technical personnel of the Arnold Engineering Development Center,” the December 1952 release states. “The lecture program should consist of outstanding speakers drawn from recognized leaders in the fields of aviation, industry, and science. The lecture program will logically develop into symposia and colloquia devoted to those segments of scientific knowledge which be fully and continuously explored by the personnel at the Arnold Engineering Development Center if optimum operational and developmental efficiency is to be achieved.
“To provide a constant influx of well-trained young scientific personnel and to achieve the many other advantages which accrue to organizations which participate in established and recognized ‘co-op’ programs, the Arnold Engineering Development Center should provide for the establishment of engineering and business administration ‘co-op’ programs.”
The study further stated that AEDC should extend interim employment opportunities to college students majoring in engineering, physics, mathematics and chemistry. It was recommended that the primary recruiting effort should be directed to students who had completed two or more years of undergraduate curricula, with special emphasis placed on the employment of Bachelor of Science graduates who planned to pursue graduate degrees.
“The Arnold Engineering Development Center should extend employment opportunities to acceptable graduate students whose faculties have arranged for them to perform at the Center all or part of the research required for the master’s or the doctor’s degree,” Moore said in his announcement.
Several months prior to the announcement of the study recommendations, the University of Tennessee Division of Extension in September 1952 established the University of Tennessee Tullahoma Extension Center. There, 13 undergraduate courses in the social sciences, natural sciences, engineering and business were offered that fall, with 258 students made up of AEDC and Arnold Research Organization employees. ARO was the first company awarded a contract to maintain and operate AEDC.
The study recommended that this program be extended as the AEDC workforce increased.
Also recommended was the establishment of an “Institute of Flight Sciences” at AEDC.
“The Institute should engage the human and institutional resources of the entire free world and should foster specifically close ties with neighboring Southern educational institutions,” Moore stated in the announcement. “Such an institute would be a very natural extension of the proposed graduate degree program, the lecture and symposia programs, and the students research program, and it might well develop in an organic way from these programs.”
According to Beyond the Speed of Sound, a book detailing the history of AEDC, this proposal “rested on the expectation that activities of the institute would become a valuable factor in attracting and retaining the scientific personnel required for the full development of AEDC.”
The study also said “permanent, well-designed facilities” play a significant role in the evolution of industrial and educational programs.
“Therefore, the graduate degree program, the lecture and symposia programs, the undergraduate extension program, the Institute of Flight Sciences and the technical library can be housed effectively in an educational building separate from but located conveniently near the test facilities and the Administration and Engineering Building at the Arnold Engineering Development Center,” Moore stated in his announcement.
The study suggested that the beginning phases of the AEDC-universities program should consist of basic master’s degree curricula, with an emphasis in mathematics, and provide two options – one for aeronautical and mechanical engineering graduates and another for electrical engineering graduates.
Also recommended was making available to students an adequate technical library to support graduate instruction, as well as student and faculty research, in “such fields as included in the program.” At the time, ARO was already developing the AEDC Technical Library, located in the Administration and Engineering Building. In his announcement, Moore said those who completed the study noted the library was “rapidly fulfilling the preliminary recommendations of the AEDC-University Affiliation Study.”
The study further recommended that members of the faculty must have qualifications equivalent to those required by graduate departments in the participating educational institutions.
“Faculty selections, appointments, and work must be controlled or approved by the AEDC-Universities Graduate Study Board,” the study said. “Faculty assignments should include teaching, the direction of student research, and faculty research.”
The University of Tennessee program to award graduate degrees to Air Force- and ARO-staffed engineers at AEDC was approved in Washington, D.C., in mid-1956.
The university in June 1956 began offering graduate classes in selected engineering fields at AEDC.
In 1958, Bernhard Goethert, a German scientist employed at AEDC, proposed to the Air Force that a Tennessee aerospace institute be located near AEDC. Five years later, the state legislation authorized the University of Tennessee’s creation of a separate graduate space institute offering master’s and doctoral degrees.
The first convocation of that separate graduate institution – the University of Tennessee Space Institute – took place at AEDC on Sept. 25, 1964, one day after the first classes were held.
Classes would continue to be held at AEDC in offices provided by the Air Force as UTSI was constructed. The first classes were held at the UTSI site in November 1965.
Goethert served as the first full-time director of UTSI.
Today, UTSI is situated on more than 360 acres of property near Arnold Air Force Base, headquarters of Arnold Engineering Development Complex. As of September 2024, UTSI has awarded approximately 2,500 graduate degrees, including more than 300 doctorates.
More than 500 AEDC employees have earned graduate degrees at UTSI.
This is the 13th in a series of articles highlighting the history of Arnold Engineering Development Complex during its first 75 years. Additional articles will be published throughout 2026 to commemorate the anniversary of AEDC.