You are a lucky guy, Nguyen X. Vinh was not only a pilot and aerospace engineer but also an outstanding mathematician. I've read some of his work, and own one of his books, but never met or communicated with him.
Badboy
Indeed... he wrote me a letter of recommendation for my grad school trip out to Palo Alto. Not only was N.X. Vinh what you say, he was also a chain-smoking gambler who would never spend more than rock-bottom on a new car. I recall his new Escort wagon in 1985 - I didn't know you could delete the trim rings for credit.
Anyway, he was a fun-loving guy - from what I new of him. I always thought of him as a cross between a typical fighter pilot and a stereotypical Vietnamese: think of Maverick meets the VC Russian roulette player in the Deerhunter Tiger Cage.
He complained a bit about the Spitfire, btw. He said their turn rate was such that he was never sure on which side of the obstacle he needed to be. He depicted this, to a lot of laughter, in his heavy Vietnamese accent on the board via crude cartoons one day - jumping a stick figure from one side of a wall to another.