Ross Gunn

Lore & Background

Ross Gunn developed an early interest in amateur radio as a teenager, building and operating his own sets. During summer vacations he worked as a radio operator on a Great Lakes passenger ship and for the Glenn L. Martin Company. After serving as a military radio instructor in World War I, he earned degrees in electrical engineering and physics, then worked at McCook Field designing aircraft radio devices that contributed to the first drones. He later earned his doctorate at Yale.

At the Naval Research Laboratory from 1927 to 1947, Gunn conducted research on cosmic rays, terrestrial and solar magnetism, and published 28 papers. After the discovery of nuclear fission, he attended Enrico Fermi's 1939 presentation to the Navy and became an early proponent of using nuclear power for submarine propulsion. He helped secure Navy funding for uranium research and recruited Philip Abelson to work on thermal diffusion for isotope separation, a method later used in the Manhattan Project's S-50 plant.

After the war, Gunn organized a symposium on nuclear submarines and later moved to the Weather Bureau, where he studied atmospheric phenomena and directed the Air Force-Weather Bureau Cloud Physics Project. He became a research professor at American University in 1958 and remained there until his death.

Reader's Guide

Gunn's significance lies in his early recognition of nuclear power's potential for submarine propulsion, a vision that eventually led to the nuclear navy. His work at the Naval Research Laboratory on thermal diffusion contributed to the Manhattan Project's S-50 plant, which produced slightly enriched uranium that fed into other enrichment processes and was credited with shortening World War II by eight days. His earlier development of radio-controlled aircraft devices at McCook Field aided the creation of the first drones used as antiaircraft targets. After the war, his atmospheric research at the Weather Bureau and his role on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board continued his pattern of applying physics to practical problems. The New York Times described him as 'one of the true fathers of the nuclear submarine program.'

Did You Know?

• Gunn worked as a radio operator on the SS Seeandbee, a Great Lakes passenger ship, during summer vacations.
• He received the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award on September 4, 1945.
• Gunn designed radio devices for controlling aircraft that were used in the development of the first drones.
• He was one of the first to appreciate the possibility of using nuclear power for submarine propulsion.