Mr. Ezra Kotcher (1903-1990) is to this day considered the father of supersonic flight, and is also the Air Force Institute of Technology's very first director.
His personal collection of research, notebooks, drawings, and hundreds of other items, generously donated by the family, are housed in the D'Azzo Research Library's AFIT archives. Selected items are on display outside the library and in the library entrance.
Ezra Kotcher was born in 1903 in Brooklyn, New York. He was a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley (1928). He held a Master's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Michigan (1937). His most significant contribution was the development of the X-1 and X-2 airplanes and the first ever supersonic jets.
Career: In 1928 he became an instructor at Wright Field in Ohio, later known as the Air Corps Engineering School and eventually named the Air Force Institute of Technology. He was a senior professor there when the United States entered World War II and he went on active duty. In 1942, Kotcher joined the Air Force as a military officer and became a senior aeronautic engineer at Air Materiel Command. After the war, he served as Head of Technical Intelligence for the Air Force in Japan, before returning to Wright Patterson Air Force Base to head the Air Force Institute of Technology as its very first Director, appointed 2 May 1946. The First Commandant of AFIT was Brigadier General Mervin E. Gross, appointed 1 May 1946. He remained at AFIT until 1951 and during this time was instrumental in getting the X-1 program off the ground. After the Korean War, he became the Director of Labs at Wright Air Development Center (Wright-Patterson) and held this position until he retired in 1961. After retirement, he took a management position with the Aerospace Corporation.
The Bell XS-1 Plane: In 1944, researchers proposed a new breed of research plane to probe the sound barrier. One was a turbo jet powered aircraft, a conservative, safe approach led by John Stack of NACA. The other, led by Kotcher (U.S Army/Air Force), a rocket engine that was more dangerous but more likely to reach the speed of sound. Eventually Kotcher and Stack agreed to work together. During a visit in 1944 to Ezra Kotcher's office at Wright Field, a gentleman by the name of Robert Woods of Bell Aircraft Corp, agreed with Kotcher to design a research plan capable of reaching 800 MPH at an altitude of 35K feet. Working closely with the Bell Aircraft and NACA design teams, the revolutionary Kotcher led the way in the design and development of the Bell X-1, the first US Supersonic jet. First flight, January 19,1946.
Mr. Kotcher invented the Air Speed Computer, patented in Feb 1944, Dayton, Ohio.
Col. Ezra Kotcher passed away in 1990, at the age of 87. He lived in Oakland, California. He was survived by his wife, Etta Jean Kotcher, two daughters, and three grandchildren.