In Memoriam: Leslie Lackman, Retired Aerospace Executive, Longtime Adjunct Professor and Benefactor

Leslie “Les” Lackman, an influential aerospace executive and engineer who was instrumental in helping expand the master’s in engineering online program at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and an active supporter of the school for more than two decades, died on March 29 in Los Angeles after battling cancer. He was 88. 

Lackman started his career in 1959 as an engineer with Rockwell Manufacturing Company’s North American Aviation Division in El Segundo, California, where he took on increasing responsibilities with the division’s advanced composites unit. Over his tenure, he helped pioneer the integration of composite materials into aircraft structures throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He began serving on the engineering team in 1980 for Rockwell International’s B-1B bomber program in North America — first as director of structures, then as the program’s chief engineer, overseeing more than 1,500 technical staff at sites in Southern California, Oklahoma and Ohio. The company built and delivered 100 of the planes to the U.S. Air Force on time and under budget beginning in 1985. The versatile long-range supersonic bomber continues to be deployed for strategic operations, with 45 B-1Bs still active as of 2021.

In 1987, Lackman was promoted to serve as the company’s vice president for advanced programs. In that role, he led an international team that developed an advanced flight control system for controllable flight at a high angle of attack. The team’s record-setting experimental aircraft, the X-31, achieved these advanced capabilities using thrust vectoring, which is now standard on modern fighter jets.

“Les made a significant contribution to the reputation and expansion of our online programs,” said Jenn-Ming Yang, MSOL director and associate dean at UCLA Samueli for online programs and international initiatives. “He was part of this program from the start as his long-term goal was to impart his knowledge and guide our students in how to run successful technology programs, something he was an eminent authority on. He was a big booster for the school and its students and he will be missed.”

Lackman was promoted to vice president and general manager of Rockwell’s North American Aircraft Division in 1993, overseeing its three business areas: strategic systems, aerostructures and advanced programs. The Boeing Company acquired the division in December 1996, and Lackman was tapped to lead the 4,000-employee unit through a two-year integration process. He also steered the integration of Rockwell’s aircraft manufacturing facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma into Boeing’s commercial aircraft group and its aerostructures group in Melbourne, Australia, into Boeing’s aircraft and missile group.

Prior to his retirement from Boeing in 1999, he served as a vice president managing the military aircraft site activities at the company’s California facilities in Seal Beach, Palmdale and Anaheim.

Lackman joined UCLA Samueli as an adjunct professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in 2000, where he enjoyed a productive second career in academia that leveraged his decades of experience and industry relations. He had an influential role in the creation of the school’s Master of Science in Engineering Online Program (MSOL), which has consistently been ranked at the top of online graduate engineering programs nationwide since its establishment in 2007. He headed the program’s engineering management specialization area and regularly taught courses on program management principles.

“Les made a significant contribution to the reputation and expansion of our online programs,” said Jenn-Ming Yang, MSOL director and associate dean at UCLA Samueli for online programs and international initiatives. “He was part of this program from the start as his long-term goal was to impart his knowledge and guide our students in how to run successful technology programs, something he was an eminent authority on. He was a big booster for the school and its students and he will be missed.”

Lackman also had a major influence in the school’s industrial partnerships. He was the deputy director of the school’s Institute for Technology Advancement and a long-serving member of the Dean’s Executive Board. 

For his outstanding record of accomplishments in industry and at UCLA, he received the UCLA Samueli’s Lifetime Contribution Award in 2018. The Dr. Leslie Lackman Family Executive Suite on the ground floor of the Engineering VI building was named in his honor upon the opening of its south wing that same year.

Lackman received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in engineering from USC. He was a founding member of the American Academy of Mechanics and a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was preceded in death by his parents Louis and Sylvia Lackman, son Raymond and sister Sharon. He is survived by sons Robert (Karin) and David; grandson Joey; as well as several nieces, nephews and cousins.