Newport News, Virginia

Inducted in 2008, Norman “Norm” Crabill earned his engineering degree from the Catholic University of America in 1949 and his Master of Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Virginia in 1958.  Norm soloed in 1947 and earned his private pilot’s license in 1967.  In 1949 Crabill was hired by NACA and was assigned to research supersonic and transonic aircraft.  His 37 years with NACA/NASA included work on preorbital flight tests of Echo I and II satellites with the SHOTPUT program and the Lunar Orbiter Program that included five lunar orbital missions in 1966-1967 to select lunar landing sites for the Apollo Program.  He served as Mission Analysis and Design Manager for the Viking to Mars Project in 1968-1976.  Following Viking Crabill initiated the Digital Flight Recorder Program to derive statistical measures of the operation of Boeing 727 and 747, Lockheed L-1011 and the McDonald Douglas DC-10 aircraft.  In the mid 1970s he designed the NASA Storm Hazards Program using a specially equipped Convair F-106B aircraft to penetrate thunderstorms which provided valuable data to the aircraft industry.  After NASA, Crabill worked for Martin Marietta as a contractor to the FAA to develop new aviation weather data dissemination. Crabill formed Aero Space Consultants, Inc. in 1988 and his projects have included lightning hardening of composite aircraft, uplink weather to aircraft cockpits and the digital flight recorder for The Wright Experience’s 1903 Flyer which was demonstrated at Kitty Hawk in 2003.  A long-standing Board member of the VAHS, Crabill helped charter the Williamsburg Eagles Chapter, spearheaded the Virginia Airports book, Virginia Aviation History Project and was the first chairman for the VAHS Aviation Historical Marker Program.  Crabill continues as an independent consultant to VIGYAN, Inc., an aeronautical engineering firm in Hampton, Virginia.  He has two patents to his credit:  a control system for rocket vehicles in 1966 and the first practical cockpit weather data link system.