Richard Harbert Smith (15 January 1894, Dillsboro, Indiana – 6 July 1957, Alexandria, Virginia) was a professor and researcher of aeronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), from 1929 to 1945. His academic education was developed at the Moores Hill College (BS, 1915), Indiana (today, University of Evansville); the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (SB, 1918), Cambridge (Greater Boston), Massachusetts; and the Johns Hopkins University (MA, 1928; PhD, 1929), Baltimore, Maryland.