Frederick Clark Durant III (1916-2015) was an American rocketry pioneer and space historian. A propulsion engineer and former naval test pilot, he served as president of the American Rocket Society (1948) and of the International Astronautical Federation (1953-1956). From 1965 to 1980 he was assistant director for astronautics at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. A recognised authority on the history of rocketry and on space art (notably the work of Chesley Bonestell, whose collection he helped promote and preserve), he wrote the introduction to the French edition Histoire mondiale de l'astronautique (1968).