Engineering the Space Age - A Rocket Scientist Remembers

Lt Col Robert V. Brulle, USAF, retired, was born in Belgium and immigrated with his parents to America in 1929 when he was six years old. He grew up in the Chicago area and became a P-47 fighter pilot in the US Army Air Force during World War II, flying 70 combat missions in Europe. Following the war, he acquired a bachelor of science degree from Aeronautical University in Chicago in 1948 and a master of science degree from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 1952, both in aeronautical engineering. He began PhD studies at Ohio State University while teaching at AFIT but never completed the degree. He returned to active duty in the Air Force, where his assignments ranged from a junior engineer to a weapons system project officer to an assistant professor of aeronautical engineering at AFIT. Colonel Brulle left active duty in 1957 and joined McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri, where he researched and designed aircraft, missiles, spaceflight vehicles, and novel alternative-energy wind and water current turbines. During the Gemini manned orbiter program, he was appointed to the NASA Spaceflight Committee as a member of the Trajectory and Orbits, Guidance and Control, Rendezvous, and Abort Panels. While working at McDonnell, he also taught as an adjunct associate professor of mechanical engineering for the University of Missouri Graduate Engineering Center in St. Louis. He was licensed as a professional engineer in Missouri and Ohio, holds two US patents, and maintained membership in numerous professional organizations. Retiring to southern Florida in 1988, Colonel Brulle has since published about a dozen aviation and historical articles in various magazines. His first book, Angels Zero-P-47 Close Air Support in Europe, was published by the Smithsonian Institution Press in 2000. Many of the numerous technical manuals he has authored are listed in the bibliography of this text. He was married for 60 years to his late wife, Margaret, and has four children.