Bradford Parkinson

Bradford Wells Parkinson ( born February 16, 1935 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American aerospace engineer, university professor, business manager and a former colonel in the U.S. Air Force, which is considered the father of the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Life

Military career and development of the GPS

After the completion of the Breck School in Minneapolis in 1952, he began studying engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science (BS Engineering ) from. He then joined the U.S. Air Force and then completed a postgraduate degree in aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which he finished in 1961 with a Master of Science (MS Aeronautics ). In 1966, he finally earned a Philosophiae Doctor ( Ph.D.) at Stanford University in the subject of aeronautics and astronautics. In the following years he not only 1969, the Bronze Star, but also the Air Medal was awarded.

In 1973 he was appointed director of the United military program to coordinate applied navigation systems in the Defense of the United States. This program is summed up thus together the previously separate part made ​​by the armed forces of the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force and other services developments of navigation systems.

Thus, Parkinson was responsible for the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS), a coordinated array of 24 satellites, the signals from earth stations and mobile receivers sent and received, and the military target acquisition enabled with an accuracy of ten meters.

During his active military service, he was most recently promoted to colonel and finished his military service in the U.S. Air Force in 1978.

High school teacher and business manager

After his retirement from active military service, he was first in 1978 professor of mechanical engineering at Colorado State University, but switched in 1979 to the private sector, where he was until 1984 Vice President of the field of space systems at Rockwell Automation, the world's largest specialized manufacturer of automation - and information solutions for the industrial production. At the same time he was between 1980 and 1984 Vice- President of Inter Metrics.

Subsequently, he was a lecturer in 1984, first of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, before there who was a professor of aeronautics and astronautics from 1989 to 2002. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of The Aerospace Corporation since 1997.

For his contributions to the invention and application of GPS Parkinson was honored several times and although the the Charles Stark Draper Prize, in 2004 the Medal of Honor in 1997 with Roger Easton with the Magellanic Premium of the American Philosophical Society, 2003 together with Ivan A. Getting American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME ) and 2012 with the Eduard Rhein Award.

On 21 September 2002, the asteroid ( 10041 ) Parkinson was named after him.

In addition, Parkinson, who is also a member of the Royal Institute of Navigation and the National Academy of Engineering was incorporated into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2004.

Publications

His thoughts and experiences on the Global Position System published Parkinson beyond in the following books:

  • An Approach Guidance System for side-firing Tactical Aircraft (1970, co-authors Edward J. Bauman and Jack C. Henry)
  • The Global Positioning System: Theory and Applications (1996, co-author James J. Spilker )

External links and sources

  • Bradford W. Parkinson in the Notable Names Database (English)
  • Aerospace Engineer
  • Inventor
  • University teachers (Colorado State University)
  • University teachers (Stanford )
  • Manager
  • Colonel (United States Air Force)
  • Carriers of the Bronze Star
  • Americans
  • Born in 1935
  • Man
Madison (Wisconsin) Bronze Star Medal Docent Roger L. Easton
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