Akira Azuma

Japan

 

Professor Akira Azuma, Aeronautical Research and Development

Professor Akira Azuma was a key aeronautical researcher and educator in Japan who contributed significantly to the study of the biokinetics of flying and swimming, in addition to his research on rotary wings.

After graduating from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tokyo in 1953, he joined Kawasaki Aircraft Company (presently Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.).

He was dispatched by the company to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to begin research on helicopter flight dynamics in 1959. After a two-year stay in the US, he returned to the company. In 1964, he joined the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, part of the University of Tokyo, as an associate professor. He conducted comprehensive research on helicopter structure, aerodynamics, flight dynamics and acoustics, pioneering a unique research field that could be called helicopter engineering. His outstanding contributions included the measurements of induced velocity by a rotor in vortex-ring state, together with Prof. Washizu, and the proposal of local momentum theory, notably with his student, Prof. Kawachi, with successful applications to the analyses and simulations of helicopter gust response and tandem rotor interference. He was promoted to professor at the University of Tokyo in 1974.

He started his research of the biokinetics of flying and swimming around 1980. He published a series of influential books, including The Biokinetics of Flying and Swimming, in 1992 with Springer Verlag（later republished by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Education Series in 2006). In 1984, he became a visiting professor at the University of Maryland. In 1987, he served as the president of the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences. He was honored as a Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo in 1988. He opened his private research laboratory and continued his research, mostly on biokinetics, until his passing.

Professor Akira Azuma passed away on August 18, 2025, at the age of 98. A gathering to remember and honor Prof. Azuma was held on July 18, 2026, at the University of Tokyo. Most graduates from Prof. Azuma’s laboratory, including his coworkers in wideranging activities during his professorship at the university and after his retirement, attended this gathering. Memorial speeches were given along with slideshows and movies of his research activities, and several of his famous books were displayed along with his portrait surrounded with flowers.

 

Source: 'In Memoriam' pages in Vertiflite, September October 2026.