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Charles A Yost

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Charles A. Yost
Charles A. Yost
Born(1933-07-10)July 10, 1933
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
DiedMarch 29, 2005(2005-03-29)
Leicester, North Carolina, United States
ResidenceLeicester, North Carolina, United States
NationalityAmerican
Known forTemper Foam (memory foam), SunMate, Electric Spacecraft Journal, Magnetic Propulsion, New Energy
Scientific career
FieldsAerospace engineering, Electric propulsion, Electrostatics

Charles Anthony Yost (July 10, 1933 – March 29, 2005) was an American aeronautical engineer, inventor, and publisher. He is widely credited as the developer of viscoelastic "Temper Foam" (memory foam), which he created in the 1960s under a NASA contract, and as the founder of the company Dynamic Systems, Inc. Later in life he founded Electric Spacecraft, Inc. and published the Electric Spacecraft Journal, a periodical devoted to the study of electric field propulsion and related fringe-science topics including electrostatics, electrogravitics, and aether concepts.

Biography

Early life and education

Yost was born on July 10, 1933, in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Charles William Yost and Winnie (Tuminski) Yost. As a teenager he became an accomplished amateur astronomer, designing and building a ten-inch reflector telescope and an observatory cover for his high school, and he developed early interests in rocketry, electrostatics, and the work of Nikola Tesla. He later recalled deciding at age 17, in 1950, that a "flying saucer" could in principle be designed to operate on electrostatic principles.

After completing military service, Yost earned a B.S. degree in aeronautical engineering in 1962 from Northrop University in Inglewood, California.

Career

As a research engineer on NASA projects, Yost developed and analyzed parachute recovery systems for the Apollo spacecraft and ejection seating for military aircraft. From 1966 to 1969 he served as Director of Systems Analysis at Stencel Aero Engineering Corporation (SAEC) in Arden, North Carolina.

In the late 1960s, working under a NASA contract, Yost developed the open-cell viscoelastic polyurethane material that became known as "Temper Foam." Originally designed to improve crash protection and comfort in aircraft seating, the material later gained wide use in the mattress and medical-cushion industries as "memory foam." His NASA-related work on the subject was documented in the 1969 report Human Survival in Aircraft Emergencies.

Yost purchased property in Little Sandy Mush, Madison County, North Carolina, in 1967, both to pursue high-voltage experiments and to manufacture visco-elastic cushion materials; that same year he founded Dynamic Systems, Inc. (DSI). In the late 1960s and early 1970s he was on the faculty of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College (AB-Tech). After selling the original Temper Foam formula in the mid-1970s, he developed several improved visco-elastic formulations trademarked as SunMate, Pudgee, and Foam-in-Place Seating, which DSI manufactured for medical, orthopedic, and industrial applications worldwide.

Electric Spacecraft, Inc.

From his youth Yost had been interested in powering spacecraft with electricity rather than chemical rockets, an interest he said was reinforced by his frustration with the limitations of rocket technology during his work on the Apollo project (1962–1966). In the late 1980s he founded Electric Spacecraft, Inc. (ESI), and in 1990 he began publishing the Electric Spacecraft Journal (ESJ) as a means of networking with others interested in electrodynamic field propulsion by investigating electrostatics, electromagnetics, atomic physics, gravity, inertia, energy, and aether concepts. He served as the journal's executive editor until his death. His daughter Susan Yost Carswell served as its managing editor, and after Yost's death, researcher Richard Hull was named executive editor.

In 2004 Yost established the Research Center Trust and the Sunlight Foundation to continue scientific and educational studies after his death; the Foundation's stated purpose was to encourage individual research in the natural and physical sciences "where the motive is compatible with natural ecological balances and peaceful human coexistence."

Yost died of pancreatic cancer on March 29, 2005, at his home on Sunlight Drive near Leicester, North Carolina, at the age of 71. He was survived by his wife of 27 years, Sandra (Thacker) Yost; his son Robin William Yost; his daughters Julie Ann Yost and Susan Yost Carswell; and his brother Robert Albert Yost.

Scientific contributions

Yost's principal engineering achievement was the development of viscoelastic ("memory") foam, an open-cell polyurethane material that molds to the body under pressure and returns slowly to its original shape. First developed to improve occupant survival in aircraft crashes and ejection seats, the technology was later adapted for medical seating, wheelchair cushions, prosthetics, and consumer mattresses.

Through the Electric Spacecraft Journal, Yost sought a means of electric field propulsion for spacecraft, distinguishing it from conventional ion propulsion. A stated goal of ESI was to evaluate claims of electrogravitics in terms of engineering feasibility. Yost concluded that direct-current electrogravitic propulsion of the kind demonstrated by T. Townsend Brown and Agnew Bahnson Jr. was not viable, and he characterized electrogravitics as "almost certainly an illusionary construct," while encouraging careful, objective replication of experiments by independent researchers such as Jean-Louis Naudin. These ideas lie outside the scientific mainstream. Yost also held idiosyncratic personal views about the nature of the electron, dimensions, and time, which he acknowledged he was never fully able to formalize.

Honors

  • 1973 – NASA Technology Utilization Award, for viscoelastic polyurethane foam
  • 1977 and 1999 – NASA Certificates of Recognition, for Temper Foam technology
  • 1991 – Governor's Cup (14-state region), awarded to Dynamic Systems, Inc. for contributions to Southern economic development
  • 1998 – Inducted into the U.S. Space Technology Hall of Fame
  • 2015 – Inducted (posthumously) into the Flexible Polyurethane Foam Hall of Fame

Yost was a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the Electrostatics Society of America, the Natural Philosophical Alliance, the American Vacuum Society, and the Society for Scientific Exploration.

Publications

  • Human Survival in Aircraft Emergencies, (NASA CR-1262), National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Springfield, VA (1969) 55pp. (B0006CCTAQ).

Abstracts

Books

External links

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