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Brigadier General
Michael L. Smith
Permanent Professor 1985–2000
B.S., University of Texas at Austin
M.S., University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
Mike Smith, the Academy’s 48th Permanent Professor, was born in Austin, Texas, in 1943. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1966 and was a Distinguished Graduate from AFROTC. While on an educational delay, Mike completed a Master’s degree in 1967, also in Aerospace Engineering. He then entered active duty with a first assignment as an Engineering Project Officer at the Space and Missile Systems Organization, Air Force Systems Command, Los Angeles Air Force Station, CA. In 1970 he returned to the University of Texas and was awarded the PhD degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1973. He then spent four years as an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Aeronautics in the Department of Aeronautics at the United States Air Force Academy. During that time Mike was recognized by the department as the Outstanding Instructor of Aeronautical Engineering. After a one-year assignment as a student at the Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell AFB, AL, 1977–1978, he became the Chief of the Performance Analysis Branch in the Propulsion Systems Program Office, Directorate of Engineering, Aeronautical Systems Division, Air Force Systems Command, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH. In 1980 Mike joined the faculty of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Air Force Institute of Technology, also at WPAFB, as an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the department. He served as the Executive Officer to the Commandant of AFIT from 1984 to 1985. In 1985 he was selected Permanent Professor and Head of the Department of Aeronautics at USAFA. During his 15-year tenure in that position, in addition to cadet instruction and research, he was responsible for the Academy’s Aeronautics Laboratory, which is a world-class facility consisting of hypersonic, supersonic, and subsonic wind tunnels, a water tunnel, a cascade tunnel, and three operating jet engines. Mike was promoted to brigadier general and retired from the Air Force in 2000.
Mike is the co-author with Dr. John J. Bertin of the textbook Aerodynamics for Engineers, first published in 1979 by Prentice Hall, 2nd edition in 1989, and 3rd edition in 1997. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Colorado and continued to teach aeronautics at the Academy on a part-time, voluntary basis until 2015.