Adventures in Aerospace
Five decades of discovery
This presentation features most of the aircraft design projects Mr. Cummings has been involved with since 1967 when he started at North American Aviation. See his bio sketch below for some of the exciting projects in which he participated.
Note: While at Boise State, Mr. Cummings offered a hands-on workshop involving between 15-30 students and faculty. The workshop involved a presentation about creativity, and then an actual design exercise. Students were divided into teams of five members each. Each team had a different random-draw assignment. Students were not allowed to use any electronic devices, and the work was done with colored pens on 18″ x 24″ bond pads. The presentation lasted about 45 minutes, and then the students had about 1.5 hours to design their “product”. The work was stopped, and each team came to the front of the room to make a presentation on their fantastic product. Every team member spoke! The whole session lasted 2.5-3 hours. There was no “right answer” in the end, and there was not a grade assigned, so the students were VERY creative!
Darold Cummings, The Boeing Company (retired)
Presented March 11, 2016
About the Presenter
Darold B. Cummings has 49 years experience in aircraft design and development, and is the winner of the 2015 AIAA Aircraft Design Award. He was also selected as 2016 Distinguished Alumnus from California State University at Long Beach. He retired from Boeing as a Technical Fellow in 2004, and has most recently been consulting for Darpa (as Chief Engineer of the Rapid Eye program), NASA, USAF, Boeing, NextGen Aeronautics, PAX Scientific, AeroViroment and Empirical Systems Aerospace. He also presents Creativity Seminars to the industry, universities, and government agencies. He holds 30 patents in a variety of fields. In addition to his experience in the United States, Mr. Cummings has worked with Dasa and RFB in Germany, Bae in England, Aermacchi and General Avia in Italy, and Promavia in Belgium. He has also worked with both Mikoyan and Yakovlev (in the U.S.) on the development of requirements for their new jet trainer aircraft. Mr. Cummings last position at Boeing was manager of the Exploratory Concepts Group within Advanced Design/Phantom Works in Huntington Beach, California.
Mr. Cummings was a configuration designer at Boeing (Heritage Rockwell) from 1967-1982. During that time he worked on the B-1, early Stealth aircraft, AFTI, and Low-cost Fighter designs. In 1978 he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Next Generation Trainer (NGT) program. In 1988 he joined Northrop Corporation as the Chief Configuration Designer for the YF-23 Fighter Program, with prime responsibility for weapons integration and crew station design. He was also the Chief Designer for the Northrop Multi-role Fighter and CAS-X projects. In 1988 he rejoined Boeing (Heritage Rockwell) as the Chief Engineer/Chief Designer of the Ranger 2000 Jet Trainer Program, with responsibility for designing and building three prototype aircraft for the USAF/USN fly-off competition. One of the Ranger 2000 prototypes, along with Mr. Cummings patent on the aircraft, is on display in the Tulsa Air and Space Museum.
In 1996 he led the Boeing team to develop the Space Maneuver Vehicle (X-40A) Flight Demonstration Aircraft, which flew successfully in August of 1998 (see YouTube video of Darold Cummings X-40A). The X-40A is on display at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. Mr. Cummings name is written on the rear bulkhead. From 1998 to 2004, Mr. Cummings worked on Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV’s), Strike Tankers, and Deep Strike Aircraft projects. His last Boeing project was to develop a flying car concept for Dr. Robert Krieger, president of the Phantom Works. Mr. Cummings has been involved with NASA, USAF, and University studies of efficient “green” civilian and military transports for the last 12 years.
Mr. Cummings currently presents Creativity Seminars annually at the United States Air Force Academy, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Wright State University, and Oklahoma State University.
Mr. Cummings most interesting hobby is designing, building, and riding land speed record motorcycles. He currently holds 37 World Land Speed records, all set at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Mr. Cummings was featured in the September, 2006, Money Magazine for his accomplishments at Bonneville.
Education:
B.S., Industrial Design, California State University, Long Beach, 1967
Member of AIAA, AHS, ASME, SCTA, and Pioneers of Stealth
Security Clearance: Top Secret