Inventive engineering, shared family decisions, creativity, and service motivated David R. Riley, B.S. ’77 in his career and continue to drive him in retirement. He served on the Department of Aerospace Engineering’s alumni advisory board for over 30 years, volunteered as a guest speaker for classes, helped adjudicate student paper competitions, served as a judge for senior design projects, and participated in the department’s Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology re-certification efforts. For decades of sharing his time and expertise, Riley is named this year’s recipient of the Harry H. Hilton Dedicated Service Award.
“When I graduated in 1977, it was the Department of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering,” Riley said. “With approximately 75 students, we were one of the smallest classes because of the aerospace downturn after the end of the space race and the war in Vietnam and yet we were all intent on getting a degree and spending our career working in aerospace. I think only about one-third of the class made it to graduation."
Riley said his tight knit group of aerospace friends called themselves the Aerofoil Kids.
“We played together in intramural sports and formed study groups to try and decipher the challenging homework assignments,” he said. “Many of us returned to campus to celebrate our 40th and 45th class reunions, and plans are being made to celebrate our 50th class reunion in 2027.”
After graduating, Riley joined McDonnell Douglas where he worked on stability and control and flying qualities of the F-15 and F/A-18. In the mid-80s, he was assigned to NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility where he worked as a member of the X-29A flight test team. After this remote assignment, he returned to St. Louis and managed a research team that developed new high angle of attack flying qualities criteria and performed innovative research in aircraft agility. In the early 90s, he worked on the flight control development efforts of multiple programs including the C-17, A/F-X, AV-8B, T-45, and ASTOVL.
Riley led the flight control development team for the McDonnell Douglas/Northrop Grumman/British Aerospace Joint Affordable Strike Technology program. After McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in the mid-90s, he moved to Seattle to lead the Boeing Joint Strike Fighter flight control development team. He later took over the management of a Boeing Phantom Works research group, which performed research for the X-40A and X-37 space planes, X-36, the Sonic Cruiser, and multiple classified programs.
Riley has served as program manager for several NASA and Air Force Research Laboratory programs including the Active Aeroelastic Wing Program, the Automated Aerial Refueling Program, the Integrated Vehicle Energy Technology Program, and the Power and Thermal Advanced Demonstration Design Program. He won many honors and awards throughout his career including the Boeing Research and Technology 2008 Gold Team Award.
Early in his career, Riley earned a Master of Science Degree in engineering management and a Master of Science Degree in management of technology in 1990 and 1993 respectively, both from Washington University in St. Louis.
He was active in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics throughout his career and is still engaged with the Institute. Throughout his career, he served on and led technical committees, served on the board of directors, served as the vice president for technical activities, and as a St. Louis section advisor. He is a Fellow in the Institute, has 25+ technical publications, has presented papers at national and international conferences, and received the AIAA Distinguished Service Award in 2023.
Riley served on the AE’s Alumni Board from 1988 to 2022. During that time, he served as both vice president and president. He was honored with the department’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1995.
Riley reminisced about the exciting space race he witnessed growing up. On a family trip to Florida in December ’72, he was next to the vehicle assembly building watching Apollo 17 lift on the last mission to the moon. The aerospace slowdown that followed didn’t curb his enthusiasm to go into aerospace and timing worked in his favor.
“In ’69, U.S. astronauts landed on the moon. After that, the aerospace industry wound down quickly. In ’73, I graduated from high school and was interested in working in aerospace, but aerospace hiring was essentially dead. I learned that the government projections were that by ’77, when I’d be graduating from college, there would be jobs again.”
Riley took the risk and had a unique first day on campus.
“That Sunday morning in August ’73, I passed my check ride for my private pilot’s license in Peoria. I raced back home, and my parents drove me to campus. I was one of the last people to check into the dorm. The next afternoon, about 1:00 p.m., I met my future wife, Ann Campion. She majored in English literature at Illinois. So within a little more than 24 hours, I got my private pilot’s license, started college, and met my future wife!”
During his years at Illinois, the aerospace industry recovered as predicted. As an example, Riley said the students in the class of ’76, one year ahead of him, each got one job offer. A year later, he got nine.
McDonnell Aircraft Company offered him the most money to work on fighter aircraft stability and control and was close to his hometown, so he accepted their offer, and stayed for his entire career. He rose through many levels of management at McDonnell Douglas which merged with Boeing in 1997. Riley retired from Boeing in 2017 after 40+ years of service.
Throughout his career, Riley worked on everything from fighter aircraft to transport aircraft, space planes, and even vertical and/or short take-off and landing aircraft.
“When I started with McDonnell Douglas, I assumed I would work new concepts that would fly higher and faster. But the reality was, I continued working on new concepts that flew lower and slower. My career kept evolving and I was fortunate to work on many different projects across the corporation, but I was always migrating toward management.”
However, unlike other managers he’s known, Riley did not let the paperwork consume his job. He kept his engineering skills current and was able to contribute to problem solving when technical questions came up on a project.
One example was when he investigated alternate technologies to try and reduce the cost and increase the accuracy of precision air drop systems for the U.S. Army.
“About that time, almost all of the Army’s precision air drop suppliers were focusing on paraglider technology, which was high cost and provided low accuracy. I was invited by the Army to spend a day at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona to observe multiple precision air drop systems being tested. None of the developmental systems even came close to landing in the designated drop zone.”
Riley dove into this new world of parachutes and paragliders with no previous experience and developed some new ideas and concepts by leveraging his undergraduate education and industry experience. He ended up with three patents from this effort but unfortunately could not move this effort forward to flight testing.
Riley came back to campus to participate in the department’s ABET re-certification effort in 2013. Over lunch with Professor Prussing and some of the ABET evaluators, Riley discussed how, with his quality undergraduate education and industry experience, he fearlessly dove into the precision air drop world and came up with some new advancements. The ABET evaluators told Professor Prussing they were impressed that Riley was not intimidated in approaching a new field and was able to quickly make some advancements.
In retirement, Riley is busy working on his musical compositions, has formed an LLC with another retired engineer from Boeing to work on products that benefit society, travels with his wife Ann and spends time with his grandchildren. Riley has been married to his college sweetheart for 46 years. They have three adult children, and four grandchildren.
The Harry H. Hilton Dedicated Service Award is in honor of Hilton who was a faculty member in the department beginning in 1949. When Riley was an undergrad in the mid-70s, Hilton took over as the department head, a position he held until he officially retired in 1990. In retirement, Hilton continued to conduct research, teach graduate courses, and actively serve the department until he passed away in March 2022.