Born: United States of America
Primarily active in: United States of America

Dean E. Cooper was an exemplary employee of Sikorsky Aircraft Company who held five patents and wrote 13 technical papers. In 1980, Sikorsky Aircraft recognized Dean for inventing a redundant flight control system which could provide full rotor control following a flight control cable failure. During his years at Sikorsky Aircraft, he traveled to Russia with Sergei Sikorsky where he obtained his land and sea pilot's licenses.

In the years 1993 – 1995, he served with distinction as the American Helicopter Society’s (now Vertical Flight Society) Technical Director, leading the Technical Council and the technical agenda of the Society. In 1995, he increased the number of parallel technical sessions at the AHS Annual Forum in Fort Worth to accommodate an additional 50 papers, many of which addressed new fields such as avionics, systems, and HUMs, as well as more classical areas such as dynamics and aerodynamics. Current Forums are planned using the same basic format developed and implemented by Dean Cooper. During those years, Dean also served on the AHS Executive Committee and Board of Directors.

Dean retired in 1998 as Sikorsky Aircraft’s Director of Technical Engineering after 41 years of service.

Dean E. Cooper, formerly of Trumbull, Connecticut, passed away on August 3rd at his summer home in Naples, Maine, following a long battle with cancer.