Charles E. Bartley () was an American

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosoph ...

, known for developing the first

elastomeric An elastomer is a polymer with viscoelasticity (i.e. both viscosity and elasticity) and with weak intermolecular forces, generally low Young's modulus and high failure strain compared with other materials. The term, a portmanteau of ''elastic p ...

solid rocket propellant formula, at the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

(JPL), now part of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

, in Pasadena, California, in the late 1940s. Bartley founded

Grand Central Rocket Company The Lockheed Propulsion Company was a division of the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation located at 1500 Crafton Avenue in the Mentone, California area northeast of Redlands, California, adjacent to the Santa Ana River, from 1961 to 1975. It developed, ...

in Redlands, California in 1952. Six years later, his company provided the fuel for the third stage of Explorer 1, America's first satellite. Bartley eventually sold Grand Central and founded two other solid propellant rocket companies specializing in weather rockets and ejection seats for jets: Rocket Power, which he formed in Mesa, Arizona, in 1959, and Universal Propulsion Co., which he established in Phœnix in 1963. He was elected to the American Rocket Society (now the

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of ...

) in 1951. In 1953, he was given a society award for outstanding contributions. John Bluth interviewed Bartley over the course of two days in 1994 for the JPL archives.

References

1921 births 1996 deaths Members of the American Rocket Society Rocket scientists {{US-scientist-stub