Dr. George W. Sutton
Retired
SPIE Involvement:
Author
Area of Expertise:
high energy lasers, aero-optics, missiles
Profile Summary

• First to measure stress waves caused by cavitation (doctoral thesis).
• Measured the heat transfer in a rocket nozzle throat.
• Invented, developed, and demonstrated first ablation heat protection material for hypersonic reentry.
o Developed for the G.E. data capsule. It took the first photos of Earth from space (300 mi)
o That success led to the Corona Project satellite photo reconnaissance with recovered the film with the Satellite Recovery Vehicle that used my ablation material, that showed that the Soviet Union had only 6 ICBMs instead of hundreds (John Kennedy’s “missile gap”).
o Used on U.S. missile reentry vehicles and the Mercury manned satellite.
• Pioneered magnetohydrodynamic engineering; wrote text book and taught graduate courses at U.P. and M.I.T.
• Scientific Advisor to U.S. Air Force Headquarters (2 years); helped initiate several important programs.
• DARPA Amos site – made possible first ground-based image of a foreign space vehicle.
• Initiated first high power laser project (over 100 kW).
• Pioneered aero-optics.
• Ballistic missile defense – multicolor infrared discrimination analysis.
• Most recent work for the Missile Defense Agency – airborne defense.
• Member of 6 National Research Council studies - with published results.
• Authored or coauthored 118 papers and co-authored/edited 3 books.
• Editor-in-Chief of the AIAA Journal for 30- years.
Publications (12)

Proceedings Article | 30 November 2017 Paper
Proceedings Volume 2104, 21048I (2017) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2298738
KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Mirrors, Observatories, Telescope design, Infrared astronomy, Optical instrument design, Stars, Zerodur, Borosilicate glass, Tolerancing

Proceedings Article | 17 September 2013 Paper
S. Taylor, J. Price, C. P. Chen, John Pond, G. Sutton
Proceedings Volume 8877, 887705 (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2025408
KEYWORDS: Turbulence, Modulation transfer functions, Near field, Atmospheric turbulence, Diffraction, Fourier transforms, Near field optics, Distortion, Geometrical optics, Laser beam propagation

Proceedings Article | 26 July 2011 Paper
George Sutton, John Pond
Proceedings Volume 8001, 80012A (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.890265
KEYWORDS: Turbulence, Correlation function, Refraction, Wave propagation, Airborne laser technology, Radio propagation, Fourier transforms, Magnetism, Scattering, Imaging systems

Proceedings Article | 1 July 2002 Paper
Proceedings Volume 4714, (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.472582
KEYWORDS: Mirrors, Lightweight mirrors, Wavefronts, Space mirrors, Composites, Actuators, Solids, Protactinium, Resistance, Differential equations

Proceedings Article | 4 June 2002 Open Access Paper
Proceedings Volume 4632, (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.469755
KEYWORDS: Gas lasers, Carbon dioxide lasers, Carbon dioxide, High power lasers, Resonators, Chemical lasers, Laser marking, Mirrors, Missiles, Analytical research

Showing 5 of 12 publications
Conference Committee Involvement (1)
High-Power Electrical Lasers and Beam Control
25 January 2000 | San Jose, CA, United States
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