Darden, Christine

By: Winifred W. Thompson

Source:

 Black Women in America, Second Edition

Darden, Christine

(b. 10 September 1942),
aerospace engineer, mathematician, and educator.

Christine Mann Darden is best known for her work as a researcher for NASA, where she was instrumental in conducting research on supersonic aerodynamics and the reduction of the sonic boom in supersonic travel. Darden was a pioneer in the design of supersonic aircraft. She developed several mathematical algorithms as well as devising new wing and nose cone shapes for their aerodynamic and sonic properties. She is in an administrative leadership position, playing a critical role in making decisions at NASA.

Darden was born in Monroe, North Carolina, to Noah Horace Sr., an insurance agent, and Desma Chaney Mann, an elementary-school teacher. She was the youngest of five children. At the age of three, she went to school with her mother, who taught first through fourth grades. At the age of four, she was enrolled in the first grade. After grade school, she attended Winchester Avenue School and then transferred to Allen High School, a Methodist boarding school, formerly called the Allen School for Negro Girls, in Asheville, North Carolina. She graduated from Allen High School as valedictorian and won a scholarship to Hampton Institute. Darden earned a BS in Mathematics with a minor in Physics from Hampton Institute in 1962 and an MS from Virginia State College in 1967. After her formal studies, she initially pursued a career in education. She taught junior-high through college-level mathematics. After she married Walter L. Darden Jr., also an educator, the couple moved to Petersburg, Virginia, where she became a research assistant in the Physics Department at Virginia State College.

Darden's fascination with mathematics and physical principles led her to enter into a field that was predominantly filled with white men, but her first position at NASA was in an all-female group called the computer pool, which provided support to engineers. After a time, she decided to pursue a career in engineering and began taking courses that were taught by George Washington University at NASA. Throughout this stage of her education, she was the only woman and the only African American in her classes. Still, she decided to pursue a PhD and, throughout the program, managed to juggle family life (including parenthood) and work.

Once Darden had her engineering degree, she requested a transfer to the engineering group. In 1973 she became an aerospace engineer and joined the sonic boom group, which was formed to address the problem of the sound that is produced by supersonic travel. Although it could transform the transportation industry, such travel in the United States is permitted only to military aircraft flying at great heights because of the damage it otherwise causes. Commercial supersonic transport takes place largely over the ocean. If the “boom” could be diminished, the resultant improvement in air travel would create a great economic advantage.

In 1989 Darden became director of the sonic boom group. Her research group has designed and tested new shapes for the wings and nose cones of airplanes, increasing their aerodynamic quality and their sonic properties. The group also works on the other effects that supersonic travel has on the environment. Darden has also collaborated with a team from Russia on an international effort to develop supersonic transportation.

In 1994 Darden received the Senior Executive Career Development Fellowship at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1999 she became the director of the Aero Performing Center at NASA's Langley Research Center, where she was responsible for air-traffic management and the development of an ultra-efficient engine. She serves as technical consultant on many projects and is author of more than fifty publications. In 1985 she received the Dr. A.T. Weathers Technical Achievement Award. She also received the Certificate of Outstanding Performance at Langley Research Center in 1989, 1991, and 1992. In 1988 she received the Black Engineer of the Year Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government, presented by the Mobil Oil Corporation.

Darden is equally dynamic in her church and community. She became an ordained elder in 1980 in the Presbyterian Church. As an African American woman in a field that was considered nontraditional for women and especially for African Americans, she has pursued her passion by choosing the road less traveled.

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