Rogers Smith

Born in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, on April 13, 1936, the only child of parents Douglas and Anna, Rogers Smith moved with his parents to Toronto in 1942 when his father enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Rogers’ father was posted to England as a weapons loader and Rogers grew up in Toronto. He graduated in 1955 from Harbord Collegiate Institute, a school with a tradition of academic excellence since 1892.

Enrolling in the Regular Officer Training Program of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Rogers studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Toronto. He earned a Bachelor of Applied Science degree with honours in 1959 and began pilot training at RCAF Station Centralia, Ontario. Later summers of pilot training were completed at RCAF Trenton and finally at Gimli, Manitoba. On leave from the air force with a scholarship, Rogers completed his M.Sc. degree with honours at the U of T in aeronautical engineering in 1961. Returning to flying, he completed a course on F-86 Sabres at Chatham, New Brunswick, and was posted to 1 (F) Wing at Marville, France, where he flew Sabres with 441 Squadron until it was disbanded in 1963.

In 1964 Rogers left the RCAF to take a position as a test pilot with the National Research Council (NRC) in Ottawa. While working with the National Aeronautical Establishment (NAE) of the NRC, Rogers was involved with the development and testing of helicopter stability and other research projects.

Following three years with the NRC, he was offered a position in the United States with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  As his mother was an American citizen at the time of his birth, Rogers was able to have dual Canadian American citizenship.

After a year with NASA at the Langley Research Center in Virginia, in 1968 he moved to the Cornell Aeronautical Labs (later called Calspan) in Buffalo, New York. There for 12 years he worked on various projects, mainly in handling characteristics and flight control research using variable stability aircraft, as well as demonstrating and lecturing on the subjects at test pilot schools. Eventually Rogers specialized in projects to develop specifications through in-flight simulation for the General Dynamics F-16 and McDonnell Douglas F-18 jet aircraft. In 1973 he returned to NRC/NAE to fill in as chief pilot for a year before returning to Calspan. While there he co-developed an analytical technique known as the Neal-Smith Criterion to evaluate flight qualities of fighter aircraft; it is a system still in use.

In 1970, Rogers joined the Niagara Falls unit of the Air National Guard (ANG). He flew T-33s, McDonnell F-101 Voodoos, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms and F-16s. In 1982 he transferred to the NASA Dryden facility at Edwards, California and commuted on weekends from there to Niagara Falls to fly with the ANG. In 1994 after 24 years with the ANG, including two as a Squadron Commander and his last year as Group Commander of the Unit, he retired from the Guard as a Lieutenant Colonel.

At NASA Dryden, civil and military projects were continuously underway. These included electronic “fly-by-wire” control systems, advanced engine technology, weather-related safety, aircraft control and development programs for Access-to-Space Vehicles. In addition, Rogers flew other specialized NASA research aircraft including the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, the fly-by-wire Vought F-8 Crusader, and the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, capable of Mach 3+ speeds and used for high-altitude reconnaissance flights during the Cold War. It was the fastest aircraft in the world. In trips to Sweden, he consulted on SAAB Gripen fighter aircraft development and in January 1993 became Chief Test Pilot at NASA Dryden, heading a team of 13 research crews.

As well, he was a project pilot for the multi-national X-31 program. The X-31 was a small delta-wing jet aircraft that first flew in 1990 in a joint U.S.-German program to explore the benefits of Thrust Vectoring for fighter aircraft. Only two were ever built, with flights and testing ending in 1995.

In 1997, selected for the Russian/American Flight Research Exchange Program, Smith had the opportunity to fly seven flights in four different Russian aircraft in Russia. One special experience for him was flying the MiG-25 to 81,000 feet. In 1998, and for his final two years at NASA Dryden, he was Acting Director for Flight Operations, where he led the Avionics, Operations Engineering, Quality Inspection, Aircraft Maintenance and Modifications and other fields. Throughout his career, Rogers has served as both an engineer and a pilot, continuing his own test flying duties. In 1999, he participated in the Independent Review Team on the multi-nation Joint Strike Fighter Program. When retiring from NASA, Rogers had logged 10,000 hours, with 8,000 of them in jet aircraft. With 6,000 hours as a test pilot, he is one of the western world’s most experienced and respected engineering test pilots.

Lured out of retirement in 2001, Smith joined the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) as a consultant and spent the next three years in Germany. He last served there as Vice President and Director of Flight Test and Testing at the EADS Military Flight Test Center. It was during a key period of development of the prototype and production stages of the EuroFighter. Since returning home to the United States. “Rog” as he is known, has continued as a consultant in the aviation industry. As such, he maintains a current FAA licence as manager and test pilot for a program of development and testing of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the United States Air Force.

Throughout his career, Rogers has been active in the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP), serving positions on the executive board, including president in 1996. In 1998 he was awarded the Distinguished NASA Leadership Medal. In 2003 he was honoured with SETP’s James H. Doolittle Award for outstanding management or engineering achievement in aerospace technology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Edward Schneider, a colleague and former test pilot who flew with Rogers for eighteen years, has stated that,

“Rogers Smith has clearly demonstrated during a superb career, a series of achievements as a fighter pilot, test pilot, flight instructor, engineer and manager, which I will classify as both vast and superlative. He has commanded a fighter squadron, successfully performed hundreds of successful flight tests, taught a generation of test pilots, written over thirty technical papers, and invented flight test techniques... one of Canada’s and the world’s finest test pilots.”

Rogers still flies as required to qualify for his current UAV test pilot work, using a Cessna 182 Turbo and still maintains his dual citizenship. He has lived in Mammoth Lakes, California with his wife, Judith, since 1997. Rogers Smith is the father of five grown children – Lauren, Lisa, Mark, Trevor, and Meghan – and grandfather to six.