John Roncz

John Roncz was born to Peter John Roncz and his wife Catherine, nee Scheibelhut, of South Bend, Indiana, who were married in June 1946. Known as P. John Roncz, his father was a co-founder of Maron Products Inc, an engineering company specialising in metal stampings, mainly for the automotive industry. The young Roncz was a prodigy, becoming a concert violinist at the age of five, playing with a local symphony orchestra. At the age of 10, after 6 months practice, he moved to the piano, winning a state prize, and had composed a march for his class, and entered national and international piano competitions. He attended a special school for gifted people at his local university, Notre Dame in South Bend, where he displayed a talent for languages, becoming fluent in eight modern and ancient languages, including French and Hebrew. As a student at Notre Dame, he studied particle physics and Egyptian hieroglyphics while reading for his honours degree in government and international affairs. At no time in his life did he do any engineering course. designing and making better and cheaper parts than the competition. He did not charge for designing the parts, but, by not revealing to his clients the specification of the metal he used, they were compelled to buy it from him. The success of this business involved Roncz in a lot of travelling, particularly to Detroit, so he decided that he would prefer to fly than to drive. He had always had an interest in aviation (his father had been a bombardier during WW2) and had built model aircraft as a child. Now he learned to fly in a Cessna 150, gaining his licence in 1975. He then bought a used Rockwell 112 and gained his commercial and instrument ratings in that before earning his multi-engine rating in a Cessna 310. He then did some cargo flying for a local company by night, while still doing his day job. == Aerodynamics ==

Roncz became interested in aerodynamics theory, and having read some books on the subject, became fascinated by the mathematics behind the theories. He was of course extremely good at mathematics, and began testing the numbers using his calculator. This was extremely tedious work for the multiple calculations he wanted to perform, and he lost interest in pursuing it. He did however continue to devour every aerodynamics theory book and paper he could find and soon realised that the newly-invented home computers could relieve him of the tedium of multiple calculations, so he built his own Heathkit H8 personal computer from a kit. He then had to learn to program it, at which he also became expert. By 1975 he had written his first program, for airfoil calculations. In addition to the known aircraft types worked on by Roncz for Scaled Composites, there were other projects, some worked on by Roncz, done for companies and probably arms of government paying for secret work, about which nothing has been made public. and agreed a five year contract with Roncz for his services. In 1987 Beech terminated the contract with three years to run. Roncz sued and accepted a $2.2 million settlement. Despite a good prospect of a jury awarding up to $10 million in punitive damages, Roncz said that he felt it would be morally wrong to be vindictive. Other aircraft During his time working for Rutan, and after that period, Roncz was doing designs for many other projects. This list of the other aircraft that he worked on is not complete. It also doesn't include aircraft that used his airfoils without his direct input. Airfoil names Roncz sometimes gave his airfoil designs fanciful names. These included: • GOLA: Gobs of Lift Airfoil • OSPITE: Olympic Swimming Pool in Trailing Edge • POP: Peter's Other Profile • SODA: Stamp Out Drag Airfoil and the suffix MS stood for the initials of Mike and Sally Melvill. Other projects Nautical • In 1988 Scaled Composites was commissioned to build the carbon-fibre wing for Stars & Stripes, a racing catamaran. Roncz was the aerodynamicist for the project. After the first wing was completed, the race's venue changed from Long Beach, California to San Diego, California, necessitating an increase in the wing's height from to . The new wing was designed and built within 8 weeks, and the catamaran went on to win the race convincingly. Roncz also designed the rudders. • Roncz redesigned the keel of the America III racing yacht which won several San Diego races. • Roncz completely redesigned the airfoils of the Airfish 2 wing-in-ground-effect (WIG or WIGE) vehicle which was developed from the RFB X-114 designed by Alexander Lippisch. He worked with the US company Flarecraft Inc. Motor racing • Roncz used his CFD skills to refine the aerodynamics of the Riley & Scott Mk III prototype World Sports Car (WSC) race car. Lectures Roncz often featured in forums at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh during the 1980s and 90s. His sessions were always popular for his wit and wisdom. Lecture titles included "The Aerodynamics of the Flight of Dragons", "Drag Reduction for Aircraft" (as Gemini Technologies), "Can Dragons Fly?" and, with Burt Rutan, a "Tent Talk Show" and "Life, the Universe and Everything Else". He was a Distinguished Lecturer for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a visiting lecturer at eight universities. Patents and awards Over his aerodynamics career, Roncz gained at least eight patents, usually as part of a team of inventors, and gained several awards including: • the 1985 Stan Dzik Award for outstanding airfoil design contribution. • the 1990 August Raspet Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to the advancement of the design of light aircraft, presented to him by EAA President Tom Poberezny. • the 1991 Milwaukee School of Engineering and EAA Gold medal for distinguished achievement in aerospace engineering. • the GAPAN Grand Master's Australian Medal for co-designing the Eagle Aircraft Eagle 150, which he received from Prince Philip at the Guildhall in London on 24 October 2000. == Other interests ==

Alongside the aerodynamics, Roncz led a second life as a medium in Spiritualism. For this he would regularly visit Arthur Findlay College, near London Stansted Airport in England to participate in their sessions. He also wrote a book about it, entitled ''An Engineer's Guide to the Spirit World: My Journey from Skeptic to Psychic Medium'', published in 2012 and still widely available in 2026. Roncz was also a member of the Sinai Synagogue, and participated in the reading of the Torah. == Death ==

John Roncz died of cancer in the South Bend area which had been his main residence throughout his life. == Footnotes ==