IN MEMORY OF

Richard J. Foch
20 March 1957 14 April 2014

Richard J. Rick Foch was a lifelong airplane enthusiast. He

built his first airplane model at the age of 7, published his first
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 first 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 government 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 Sections remotely piloted aircraft. He led the Vehicle Research Section from 1985
until 2005. During this period, he was responsible for the development of over 75 unmanned air vehicle projects, most of which
were of his design. Their development and flight testing made significant advancements in aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, and
autonomy. In February 2006, Mr. Foch was promoted to a Senior Professional (ST) position. As NRLs Senior Scientist
for 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 focused
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 flight testing the first
biological agent detector to be successfully miniaturized and integrated into an unmanned aircraft. In 2002, he was awarded the
Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award in recognition of his
career-long scientific 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
Rick Foch with the Dragon Warrior unmanned air vehicle.
Aeronautics and Astronautics.
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.

WINTER 2014