Robert F. Brodsky

Biography

Following his 'final' retirement from Industry (1988) and Academia (1996), Dr. Robert F. Brodsky began documenting high lights from his long and distinguished career in the aerospace engineering field, and in traditional jazz music. He has now published five books and several short stories - all aimed at showing how exciting a career in both music and in engineering could be; as the successive ages of atomic weapons, missiles, space, and computers whizzed by.

Dr. RF (Bob) Brodsky, retired from TRW Space and Technology (1988) and from the University of Southern California's Astronautical Engineering Department (1996), is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a national Outstanding Aerospace Educator Award winner. His 46 year career in aerospace consisted of approximately equal parts of working in industry and university teaching. His first job was at Sandia Corporation in Albuquerque, where he was responsible for the aerodynamic design of most of our early atomic bombs and the first H-bomb. He was Chief of Aerodynamics at Convair/Pomona (Calif.) which specialized in guided missilery ; Chief Engineer of Space-General in Los Angeles and Paris-based Manager of European Operations for Aerojet-General working in advanced space programs; and before joining TRW, where he was Director of Technology Planning at their Redondo Beach, California, campus, he was Professor and Head of the Aerospace Engineering Department at Iowa State University in Ames.

He has a BME degree from Cornell University, an MS Math from the University of New Mexico, an M.Aeron.E. from NYU, and a Doctor of Science in Engineering degree from NYU (1950). He has been listed in "Who's Who in America" since the 60's after being the subject of an article in TIME magazine. This is the 1963 article which introduced the idea of the Space Lifeboat for rescue from a space station. He is also listed in "Who's Who in - American Education;- in Science and Engineering; and - in the World".

As of the end of 2013, he had published 5 books: "On the Cutting Edge"; "Songs My Mother Never Sang To Me";"A Pilgrim Muddles Through"; "The World in a Jug" and "Catch a Rocket Plane". The author has a few copies of "Songs My Mother Never Sang To Me" available for loan - rfoxbro@aol.com. His 6th book, in collaboration with his wife, is about their several world wide homes and round-the-world excursions: "Pat and Bob TRIP the Light Fantastic".It was published in October, 2014.