Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

in the College of Engineering

Timeline

    1. 1895 (circa) Department of Mechanical Engineering established
    2. 10/29/1937 First female Mechanical Engineering student Katharine Stinson, personal friend of Amelia Earhart, is the first woman to enroll in Mechanical Engineering.
    3. 1941 First female Engineering graduate Katharine Stinson becomes the first woman to graduate from NC State's School of Engineering. Stinson received a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree, Aeronautical Option. Stinson was taking flying lessons at the old Raleigh Airport on US-401 when Amelia Earhart flew in for a visit in the early 1930s. When Stinson told Earhart that she wanted to become a pilot, Earhart advised her to become an engineer, a career Stinson pursued in spite of obstacles that prevented most young women from striving for such a degree. Stinson was told she must enter State College as a junior, so she completed forty-eight semester hours in one year at Meredith (including two summer sessions) to attain her goal. Besides being the first woman engineer to graduate from NC State, Stinson was also the first woman engineer hired by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, now the Federal Aviation Administration. By the time she retired from the FAA, as Technical Assistant Chief of the Engineering and Manufacturing Division, she had served as the third president of the Society of Woman Engineers and on a presidential advisory committee for aviation safety under Lyndon Johnson. "I just wanted to be a good engineer . . . I just did my job and most of the men accepted me," Stinson once said.
    4. 1941 Diesel Program One of the most significant contributions to the war effort is the Diesel Program, developed by the Mechanical Engineering Department. The program trains more than 1,500 members of the Navy.
    5. 2/6/1942 Katharine Stinson hired Katharine Stinson, a 1941 graduate of State College, is hired by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (forerunner of the Federal Aviation Administration) as a junior engineer, making her the first woman to hold this position.
    6. 1966 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering The Department of Mechanical Engineering is renamed the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
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