Sheila Widnall

thumb|Sheila E. Widnall, Sc.D. (March 2004). Sheila E. Windall, Sc.D. (born 13 July 1938) is an American aerospace researcher, who is a former Secretary of the United States Air Force (1993–1997) and Institute Professor Emerita at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Quotes Integrity is essential. It's the inner voice, the source of self-control, the basis for the trust that is imperative in today's military. It's doing the right thing when nobody's looking. Civil Air Patrol If women don't belong in engineering, then engineering, as a profession, is irrelevant to the needs of our society. If engineering doesn't make welcome space for them, then engineering will become marginalized as other fields expand their turf to seek out and make a place for women. "Digits of Pi: Barriers and Enablers for Women Engineering", NAE Bridge, via MIT. It's not easy being a pioneer. It's not easy having to prove every day that you belong. It's not easy being invisible or having your ideas credited to someone else. "Digits of Pi: Barriers and Enablers for Women Engineering" On the "Widnall instability" The "Widnall instability" characterizes the turbulent wakes of aircraft: Aircraft trailing vortices have little waves that are generated and then break up....If another aircraft intercepts that trailing vortex, someone can be killed, because it’s a swirling flow....People now know that if you land airplanes three minutes apart, that’s going to be safer. in Giaimo, Caro (April 25, 2018). "The Stabilizer:Institute Professor and aero-astro pioneer Sheila Widnall ’60, SM ’61, PhD ’64, tackles sexual harassment in academia and some of the trickiest problems in rocket science", MIT Technology Review. External links https://pubs.aip.org/aip/pof/article-abstract/15/7/1861/254935/Widnall-instabilities-in-vortex-pairs?redirectedFrom=fulltext November 30, 2025 Widnall instabilities in vortex pairs Denis Sipp; Laurent Jacquin Physics of Fluids 15 1861–1874 July 2003 10.1063/1.1575752 Category:Women scientists from the United States Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Category:Women academics from the United States Category:1938 births Category:Women born in the 1930s Category:Living people Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:United States Air Force people Category:Women engineers from the United States