A symposium on Aerothermoelasticity was held to present the latest significant developments in each scientific area and engineering area that comprise the component parts of this technology. New and significant contributions were presented in four technical areas consisting of dynamic aerothermoelasticity (flutter), stability and control, thermodynamics and aerodynamics (or aerothermodynamics), and structures including material and construction concepts. Categories important and significant to each technical area are discussed state-of-the-art wise. In addition, 26 separate papers are given on items of special importance.

The proceedings contain a collection of 16 papers presented at the Optimum System Synthesis Conference held at the Aeronautical Systems Division 11 - 13 September 1962. The meeting was directed toward defining the present position of optimum synthesis and determining guides for future research in both applications and theory. Most papers are concerned with various aspects of recent applications and theoretical developments in optimal control such as steepest descent techniques, suboptimal controllers, optimum filtering, and functional analysis techniques. Some earlier results are also discussed.