Air Force Appointee Soared In Her Field -- Ex-Tacoman To Be First Woman To Head U.S. Armed Service

WASHINGTON - A fighter jet slicing through blue sky looks effortless. But Sheila Widnall, a top aeronautical engineer, can tell you in precise detail what's really involved.

Widnall herself has soared through a male-dominated field. And now, confirmed yesterday by a Senate committee and awaiting full Senate confirmation, she is about to become secretary of the Air Force - the first woman to head a branch of the U.S. armed forces.

After President Clinton announced her nomination early this month, she told friends and family, "This is something I have wanted to do from the time I was a little girl."

As a child during World War II, Widnall would dash outside to wave at planes streaking over her Tacoma home on their way to McChord Air Force Base.

The rush of wind over wing has fascinated her ever since.

Her research, much of it sponsored by the Air Force, has been aimed at making flying safer by explaining the flow of air currents around planes. She has solved problems of turbulence, explored the air wakes left behind large jets and studied the spiraling air flows created by helicopters.

The wind also whips through her free time. She frequently sails with her husband off Marblehead, even during bitter Massachusetts winters. She loves windsurfing and holds a patent for a fin that could make windsurfing boards more stable.

Friends trace Widnall's knack for building things and penchant for mathematics to her father, Rolland Evans, a cowboy turned college math professor.

Evans also worked as a production supervisor at the Boeing aircraft plant, where his daughter would later do design work during her college summers.

Her mother, Genevieve Evans, was a juvenile-probation officer. With her example, "there was never any question that I would work," Widnall told The Boston Globe in 1988.

Widnall attended Catholic schools in Tacoma, attending St. Patrick grade school and graduating from Aquinas Academy in 1956.

Widnall's high school project on the radioactive decay of uranium won first prize in the Puget Sound Science Fair, earning her a trip to the national competition.

It was there that an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology steered Widnall toward the school that would provide her an education, a husband and a career.

"What's MIT?" she remembers asking.

Widnall was one of only 23 women among 936 students in the freshman class of '56.

"It was quite unfashionable for women to go into engineering," said her husband, William Widnall, also an aeronautical engineer.

"But she's made it look so effortless."

She brushed off the "slights and sly innuendos" aimed at female scientists, showing good humor and single-minded determination, said an MIT classmate, Richard Kaplan.

Former Professor Holt Ashley said he encouraged Widnall to pursue her doctorate and join the MIT faculty because "she was a card-carrying genius."

She met William Widnall, the son of a New Jersey congressman, while she was a freshman. He was a sophomore.

They were married in June 1960, and have two children - Bill, 29, and Ann, 25.

Widnall quickly adopted her husband's passion for sailing; he is a champion amateur skipper, and she sometimes joins his crew.

After her nomination, William Widnall's membership in a Marblehead yacht club caused some turbulence for his wife.

Local members of the Anti-Defamation League complained that the Eastern Yacht Club discriminates against Jews. Commodore E. Paul Casey denied the charge, saying the club has Jewish members.

Widnall has declined interviews pending her confirmation hearing. But her husband calls the complaint a "bum rap," saying she has led efforts to increase the number of women and minorities studying science.

She became the first woman to chair the MIT faculty in 1979. Last year, she was named associate provost.

Widnall, who has served on the Air Force Academy's board of visitors and as an adviser to Wright Air Force Base, approaches the secretary's post with obvious glee.

Although not a pilot, she told the Air Force Times that she covets demonstration flights in Air Force jets.

"I talk in lofty terms about the symbolic content of the job," she said. "But I also want to fly supersonic." ------------------------------------------------------------------- Profile of the nominee for Secretary of the Air Force

NAME - Sheila Evans Widnall

EDUCATION - B.S. and M.S., aeronautic and astronautic engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1961; Ph.D., MIT, 1964.

EXPERIENCE - She taught at MIT from 1964 to 1992, when she was named associate provost.

She became a full professor in 1974 and was chairwoman of MIT faculty, 1979-80; was the Department of Transportation's first director of university research in 1974; served on the Air Force Academy's board of visitors, 1978-84, including two years as chairwoman.

She also was on advisory committees to the Military Airlift Command and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

She was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1987-88.

QUOTE - Questioned yesterday by senators about women flying combat missions, Widnall said she has an "empathy for women who believe they were born to fly. I rejoice in the opportunity for them."

Associated Press