AHS International was deeply saddened to learn of the
untimely passing of Dr. Friedrich Straub, 65, a senior manager of dynamics
technology and technical fellow of The Boeing Company. Straub, an AHS Technical
Fellow, was an AHS member since 1978. Throughout his career, he was a leader at
Boeing and in AHS.
Friedrich Karl Straub was born July 6, 1951 in Gifhorn, Germany. He graduated summa cum laude from nearby University of Hannover (Leibniz Universität Hannover) in 1975, with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering. From there, he received a scholarship to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he earned his PhD in Aerospace Engineering in 1980, under Prof. Peretz Friedmann.
Straub began working for Hughes Helicopters in Culver City, California. Then, along with many colleagues, he moved to Mesa in 1985, after the company was acquired by McDonnell Douglas (and merged with Boeing in 1997).
Straub had an outstanding career as a researcher and manager spanning 36 years. He co-authored several patents, presented dozens of papers at national and international technical conferences and has published several papers in technical journals. He was a co-author on 26 AHS Forum papers, and numerous other AHS conference papers, as well as eight refereed papers in the Journal of the AHS. Straub was selected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in 2014; in 2015, he was selected as an AHS Technical Fellow Award, which is “granted to Society members whose career-based technical accomplishments towards the goals and objectives of the vertical flight industry constitute an outstanding technical achievement.”He was the AHS Arizona Chapter’s Technical Director and responsible for running its annual scholarship for many, many years.
Straub passed away on Sept. 5, 2016 after a months-long battle against pancreatic cancer.
His family and colleagues suggest donations to the Friedrich Karl Straub Memorial Scholarship Fund set up by the AHS Arizona Chapter. Please visit http://ahsaz.org/scholarships.