8/9/2019 In Memory of Richard J. Foch - Spectra 2014

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WINTER 2014

Richard J. ‘Rick’ Foch was a lifelong airplane enthusiast. He built his rst airplane model at the age of 7, published his rst

design in American Aircraft Modeler  magazine at age 16, and soon

graduated to radio-controlled models. In high school, he combined

his academic and modeling skills to win a rst place at the 1974

International Science and Engineering Fair. For his efforts, Rick

was awarded a full tuition scholarship to the Florida Institute of

Technology (FIT), a trip to attend the 1974 Nobel Prize Award

Ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, and several trips to tour govern

ment and military research laboratories. This experience cemented

his desire to pursue aeronautical engineering as a career.

Upon graduation from FIT in 1979, Rick accepted a position at

the Naval Research Laboratory, which was investigating the use

of unmanned systems for electronic warfare missions. He earned

an M.S. in aerospace engineering from the Universities of Notre

Dame and Maryland in 1985. From 1980 through 1993, Rick was

the chief test pilot for the NRL Vehicle Research Section’s remote

ly piloted aircraft. He led the Vehicle Research Section from 1985

until 2005. During this period, he was responsible for the devel-

opment of over 75 unmanned air vehicle projects, most of which

were of his design. Their development and ight testing made sig-

nicant advancements in aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, an

autonomy. In February 2006, Mr. Foch was promoted to a Senior Professional (ST) position. As NRL’s Senior Scientisfor Expendable Vehicles, he applied his vision toward establishing effective paths for short-term and long-term Navy

UAS technology development. A key research area was non-fossil-fuel propulsion and his most recent research focuse

on fuel cell propulsion for Navy UAVs.

Rick published over 75 research papers and journal articles on

small expendable air vehicles and their technologies. In 1996,

he received an NRL Special Act Award for ight testing the rst

 biological agent detector to be successfully miniaturized and in-

tegrated into an unmanned aircraft. In 2002, he was awarded the

 Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award in recognition of his

career-long scientic and technical contributions to the Fleet.

In 2013, Rick completed a book detailing the achievements of the

 Naval Research Laboratory in unmanned aviation over the past

thirty years: Unmanned Aircraft Systems Innovation at the Naval

 Research Laboratory, published by the American Institute of

Aeronautics and Astronautics.

IN MEMORY OF

Rick Foch with the Dragon Warrior unmanned air vehicle.

20 March 1957 – 14 April 2014

When Rick was four years old, his father let him sit in the cockpit of a Cessna T-37.

“At that instant, I fell in love with anything and everything involving airplanes.”