The AE pioneer reflects on the good times at Georgia Tech.
Kathy Engelhardt proudly poses with the Ramblin' Reck
AE alumna Kathryn “Kathy” Engelhardt (AE 1982, M.S. AE 1983), née Dunlop, has returned to Georgia, steps away from her beloved Georgia Tech, grateful for every leg of her journey. She reflected on her extraordinary experiences, lifelong friendships, and the lessons learned. Georgia Tech equipped her to excel in industry and navigate male-dominated spaces with tenacity and grace.
The Wonder Years
Born to a Jamaican mother and father of Irish descent, Kathy’s fascination with space and aviation set her apart from her peers early on. Her first plane ride at five sparked a lifelong love for the skies. While vacationing in Italy at nine, the precocious child begged to stay in the hotel room to watch the Apollo 11 moon landing instead of exploring Italy.
“I loved to build things and was always taking things apart and putting them back together,” she shared.
Math came easy, and she told everyone who would listen that she wanted to be an astronaut. So much so that her stepfather’s German clients recommended that she go to Georgia Tech if she wanted to do aerospace and design rockets and space shuttles. She was only 13 then, but the idea stuck in her head. When the time came, she applied to Harvard, Princeton, and Georgia Tech. She was accepted to all three, but Georgia Tech was always her top choice.
You’ve Got a Friend
At Georgia Tech orientation, one of the professors said, “Look around because half of the people won’t be here when you graduate. When she looked around, she realized there weren’t many women. “It was intimidating,” Kathy shared.
Luckily, she made friends quickly. She found her people Tom Engelhardt (EE 1983), Glenn Gossage (EE 1983), Paul Stanton (IMGT 1981), Chris Gioia, and Richard Trinca as early as the third day. The original group had been friends in high school and immediately absorbed her into their tight-knit crew.
There were so few women in aerospace engineering at the time, so they supported each other, whether taking notes for a friend or studying together. Kathy Cooper (AE 1982), Cynthia Lewis (AE 1982), and Marilyn J. Smith (AE 1982, M.S. AE 1983, Ph.D. 1994), in particular, became close. Smith and Kathy met in Intro to Aerospace and immediately clicked.
They took most of their rotorcraft classes together and shared a passion for helicopters. By grad school, they made a pact that one of them would be the first tenured female professor in aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech.
“I’m so proud of Marilyn. When she did it, I cried,” Kathy beamed. Their friendship spanned marriages, starting families, and multiple career changes.
Kathy Engelhardt and Marilyn Smith March 7, 2024 in Weber Building
Kathy Dunlop and Tom Engelhardt
Beyond Beautiful: an Epic Love Story
She not only walked away with two degrees but also a life partner. In the sizzling summer of 1979, she caught the attention of a handsome electrical engineering student. He had always been a part of her friendship circle, but he had only seen her in sweats and baggy clothes, so he didn’t notice her.
Most people had left campus for the summer semester, but she stayed to take some extra classes. One sweltering day, while Tom was working on his calculus homework in Smith Hall, Kathy looked over his shoulder and suggested how he could improve his mathematical equation. Startled, he swiveled around in his chair to find a stunning young lady wearing cut-off short-shorts and a tiny halter top that read “Jamaica” on the front.
“My first thought was that she was really smart. Then, I came face to face with her cleavage, looked into her eyes, and I was in love,” Tom shared. It began an epic love story, and the two have been together since that day and have three successful children, Thomas, Sara, and Stefan.
Their first date was the famous Champaign Jam at Grant Field (now Bobby Dodd Stadium) in 1979. The lineup included Aerosmith, the Cars, Mother’s Finest, Whiteface, Dixie Dregs, and the Atlanta Rhythm Section. After the date, he wrote a letter to her other suitor to let him know she was his girlfriend now.
In 1983, the couple tied the knot in Coral Gables, Florida on the same day that Kathy earned her master’s degree in aerospace engineering. She stayed an extra year to get her master’s, while Tom finished his bachelor’s degree. Her only regret was that her friends, including Smith, were getting hooded that day, so they weren’t able to attend the wedding.
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Oh, the People You Will Meet at Georgia Tech
Kathy befriended some fascinating people during her journey at Georgia Tech. One standout was astronaut Scott Horowitz (AE 1982, M.S. AE 1979, Ph.D. AE 1982). In the summer of 1981, Horowitz asked if she wanted to help him build a space shuttle for the July 4th Atlanta Parade. She and about 10 other students gave a resounding “yes”, not knowing they’d be building it with chicken wire and stuffing tissue paper into holes. While they toiled, a reporter from WSB News 2 came by the parking garage on campus and said, “Yellow Jackets, it doesn’t look like you’re going to be ready.”
Not discouraged, they worked into the night, finished in time, and flaunted their masterpiece on Peachtree Street, where former President Jimmy Carter served as the grand marshal for the parade. Cooper and Kathy proudly carried the sign that read 'Georgia Tech Aerospace' while Horowitz drove the car that supported their space shuttle. The reporter was left speechless and awarded them with coffee mugs and t-shirts.
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Georgia Tech Aerospace Float at the Atlanta July 4th Parade 1981
The connection lasted beyond college. Horowitz changed aerospace concentrations to become an astronaut and she admired him for it. One memorable night years later, she was in Florida with her children, she’d heard about a night shuttle launch and decided to take them to the beach to share her love for everything space. As they listened to the radio, the radio host announced the commander of the shuttle – “Dr. Scott Horowitz.” Overwhelmed with emotion, they jumped around the beach, celebrating the successful launch.
The next day, she emailed NASA, expressing her pride, and asked them to pass on her message to Horowitz. To her delight, he called her back when he returned to Earth, grateful for her support.
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Under Pressure
The Double Yellow Jacket fondly reflected on the faculty and dubbed Professor Robin Gray one of her favorites because he was also into helicopters and saved her from melting down during qualifying exams with his encouragement.
Always up for a challenge, Kathy came to enjoy verbally sparring with Professor John J. Harper, who she affectionately referred to as JJ. On her first encounter with Harper, he looked her in the face and said, “What are you doing here, little girl?”
The tiny first-year defiantly responded, “You’re on!”
What could have broken some students motivated her. She realized that his ribbing over the years drove her to be the best. She was determined to make him eat crow and did just that by getting straight A’s in his classes.
She had fun at Georgia Tech and being one of the brightest students in the class usually just ended with her tutoring or being an unofficial teacher’s aid. But one time, being the best turned ugly. It was in Professor C. Virgil Smith’s structures class, and she scored 78% on a tough test. She hadn’t received less than 94% before, so she cried. After class, Smith told her not to worry because she had the highest score, and most of her classmates had scored in the single digits, with the next highest being only in the teens. He said he would curve the test. It cheered her up, but it infuriated one of her male classmates. When they left, he told her that her high score would make them all fail the test, and he pushed her down a flight of stairs. It left her hurt mentally and physically, but more determined than ever. Her friends supported her and helped her get through the difficult time.
Takin’ Care of Business
After graduation, she took her first job at McDonnell Douglas in Los Angeles, California, working with one of her mentors and heroes, Sally LaForge.
“I’d never met another woman in my industry. Sally was a woman in helicopters and the head of a department.” Kathy said, “Sally threw a guy out of her office for interrupting my interview. Her leadership impressed me.”
Kathy’s proudest professional moment was the MD900 helicopter's first flight when it lifted and hovered. She helped design it, working closely with Andy Logan at McDonnell Douglas primarily on the NOTAR system. She knew every surface of the helicopter, having done wind tunnel and water tank tests. Despite setbacks, including an engine blowing up the day before the flight, she worked tirelessly to make it work.
On the day of the first flight, she was one of the few allowed on the flight line. When it took off, the vice president of Engineering picked her up in his arms and swung her around in celebration.
Looking back, it was a great day and she’s proud of her work, but being left off the patent is something she wished was different. She let it slide because she was 26 and naïve, but she would never let it happen again. Later, when she noticed she wasn’t being promoted like her peers, she stood up for herself with the facts instead of letting it go, and leadership made things fair.
When the digital age came, sensors came. There was all of this data. Not only did you need to know the math to process them, you needed to know how to write the software. So, I became a software expert. I wrote all my own software throughout my career.
Kathy Engelhardt
Throughout her career, the trailblazer was usually the only woman in the room, and often in a leadership role, but she earned the admiration and respect of the men through her hard work and acumen.
The helicopter designer shifted gears to be closer to her parents in Florida. She left Arizona and transitioned from engineering to numerical analysis. First, she did a numerical analysis of engines for Pratt and Whitney, but that wasn’t for her, so she went on to Northrop and Grumman and started writing tracking software for radars and digital signal processing. She found another niche where she excelled.
“When the digital age came, sensors came. There was all of this data. Not only did you need to know the math to process them, you needed to know how to write the software. So, I became a software expert. I wrote all my own software throughout my career,” she said.
Tom and Kathy Engelhardt at a Georgia Tech Football game
Today, she works for Quantum Technology Sciences, a Geospace Company, designing software and algorithms to analyze data from subsurface sensors. As the chief senior principal software architect, she leads the software department. Her primary role involves reviewing scientific algorithms and helping her team integrate them into the software. The maverick is still learning and mentoring others along the way, including Georgia Tech students she encounters in Midtown. She enjoys going to Georgia Tech activities and living in the heart of Midtown, but she is most looking forward to becoming an Oma (a German nickname for grandmother) later this year.
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A Legacy of Lifting Others Up and Breaking Barriers Along the Way
Professor Marilyn Smith was often overlooked and told ‘no’ simply because of her gender, but found support along the way, which propelled her to become one of the leading researchers in vertical lift.
She made history as Lockheed Martin’s first woman flight test engineer and later as the first female faculty member hired by the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering (AE) at Georgia Tech.
Her journey was far from easy, which motivated her to dedicate her career to opening doors and paving the way for women who followed. Now, a new scholarship established in her honor will continue her legacy, helping future generations pursue excellence, just as she has.