Charles H.Murphy received his Ph.D. in Aeronautics at Johns Hopkins University in 1957 after completing his undergraduate studies at Georgetown University with a major in Mathematics in 1947. He has published over sixty papers in the scientific literature on missile dynamics and related topics and co-authored the book THE PARIS GUNS AND PROJECT HARP. Dr Murphy was the U.S. originator and director of the U.S.-Canadian project HARP, which made a number of advances in gun technology. As part of this program, Dr. Murphy personally directed the firing of a sounding projectile to the record altitude of 111 miles from an extended 16-inch gun at the Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.

He was with the Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL) from 1950 until the founding of the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in 1992. In December 1997 Dr. Murphy retired from ARL.

Dr. Murphy was the U.S.Army nominee for Outstanding Young Man in Federal Government (1966), received the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) 1966 Maryland Engineer of the Year Award and the BRL R.H.Kent Award for 1969. He is the 1976 recipient of the AIAA Mechanics and Control of Flight Award and was awarded the Army's Decoration for Meritorious Civilian Service in November 1979. Dr. Murphy received U.S.Army Research and Development Achievement Awards in September 1979 and December 1986. He was elected Fellow, AIAA in May 1981 and was given the 1990 National Firepower Award by the ADPA Picatinny Chapter.

He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois and the University of Virginia. His internationally recognized short course "Free Flight Motion of Symmetric Missiles" has been given at UCLA, Norwich University, University of Tennessee Space Institute and the East China Engineering Institute, Nanjing, People's Republic of China.

The purpose of this course is to give a complete survey of the flight mechanics of unguided symmetric missiles. Engineers concerned with the measurement of aerodynamic forces and moments acting on symmetric missiles or the prediction of their flight should benefit from this course. Students should refresh their knowledge of the algebra of complex numbers and elementary differential equations. Specific stability examples will involve the angular motion of artillery projectiles. Most of the materiel of the course is based on original work of C. H. Murphy

Topics included in the course include: drag and effect of yaw induced drag; roll moments and roll equation; small amplitude linear motion of nonspinning missiles; linear motion of spinning missiles; gyroscopic stability; dynamic stability; motion of slightly asymmetric missiles; resonant spin and spin-yaw lockin; effect of cubic static moment; quasilinear theory and amplitude planes; nonlinear Magnus moment; nonlinear damping moments; nonlinear motion of slightly asymmetric missiles; effect of moving internal parts; motion of spinning liquid filled projectiles; aeroelastic motion of finned projectiles.