W. Barry Nixon *60

Barry Nixon, who as a test pilot pursued high-level aeronautical research on Princeton’s Forrestal campus, died peacefully Aug. 22, 2017, at age 87.

Nixon graduated from Yale with a bachelor of engineering degree in 1952 and earned a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Princeton in 1960. Until retiring in 1985, he was a flight research pilot and corporate pilot/airport manager at the Flight Research Laboratory at the Forrestal Airport of Princeton University.

His primary research efforts involved aircraft-handling qualities. He flight-tested experimental aircraft, such as the Goodyear rubber airplane, a gyrocopter, and air-cushion vehicles known as GEMS (ground-effect machines). Nixon represented a bygone era, when the School of Engineering and Applied Science conducted high-level aeronautical research on the Forrestal campus. He concurrently spent 30 years of active and reserve service and retired as a captain in the Naval Reserve.

Born in Woodbury, N.J., Nixon resided in Lawrenceville for 56 years. He was also a small-plane commercial airline pilot operating out of Princeton Airport. In retirement, he took up hot-air ballooning full time with his family and friends, traveling to many balloon rallies.

Nixon is survived by his wife of 65 years, Marian; four children; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.