Robert Channing Seamans Jr. (October 30, 1918 – June 28, 2008) was an MIT professor who served as NASA Deputy Administrator and 9th United States Secretary of the Air Force.

From 1941 to 1955 he held teaching and project positions at MIT during which time he worked on aeronautical problems, including instrumentation and control of airplanes and missiles.

During his years at NASA he worked closely with the Department of Defense in research and engineering programs and served as Co-chairman of the Astronautics Coordinating Board.

In January 1968 he resigned from NASA to become a visiting professor at MIT and in July 1968 was appointed to the Jerome Clarke Hunsaker professorship, an MIT-endowed visiting professorship in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, named in honor of the founder of the Aeronautical Engineering Department.

In 1969, Seamans was appointed by President Richard Nixon to the position of Secretary of the United States Air Force.

He recognized that despite funding reductions, the Air Force needed to modernize its aircraft technology in order to prepare against unknowable future threats.

To meet the need for financially efficient modernization of the fleet, Seamans implemented an innovative program utilizing technological research to provide a range of development options.