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This collection contains of a draft of a proposal, "Concept Proposal for Preservation of Aerospace Technology Project (PAT) [Improving Technology Preservation Processes]" written by former NASA aerospace engineer C. Wayne Ottinger and others for what would become PAT Projects, Inc. It also includes an executive summary, cover letter, and slides of proposal presentation. The proposal suggests the need for documenting aerospace history. Primary goals of the project include providing "a lead role in improving and developing processes to identify, prioritize, acquire, preserve, and communicate information and artifacts that constitute Endangered Information in aerospace technology" and creating "a consensus for the establishment of an aerospace history discipline center."

This collection contains NASA and NACA materials and papers related to Francis Edward McLean's work in aerospace engineering.

The Henry J. Kelley Papers include correspondence, notes, drafts and offprints of publications, teaching materials, and research reports from 1948-1988 documenting the career of Kelley (1926-1988), an aerospace engineer and authority on flight optimization. The majority of the collection consists topic based subject/research files, files on individuals (correspondence, resumes, and papers), teaching/course materials, and conference/professional organizational files. There are drafts and final copies of papers by Kelley and others on a range of aerospace and other engineering topics. The collection also includes slides and transparencies, most of which depict equations, charts, graphs, and occasional text.

This collection contains materials related to Hugh P. and Ethel C. Kelly, including a scrapbook, portrait, Telstar artifact, and a medal. Hugh P. Kelly earned a bachelor's and master's degree in engineering from Virginia Tech in 1937 and 1938. He worked on the Telstar project in the 1960s, and Mrs. Kelly later established the Hugh P. and Ethel C. Kelly Professorship in the VT College of Engineering.

THe John V. Becker Papers include correspondence, notes, memoranda and other materials related to NACA and NASA programs with which Becker was associated, including the X-1, X-15, X-20 (or Dyna-Soar) programs; research files for The High-Speed Frontier; transcripts of oral history interviews; and copies of publications and lectures by Becker, created between 1936 and 1980.

Marjorie Rhodes Townsend (1930-2015) was the first women to earn an engineering degree at George Washington University, receiving her Bachelor of Electrical Engineering in 1951. After eight years at the Naval Research Laboratory, she moved to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Goddard Space Flight Center in 1959, where she worked until 1980. Townsend was project manager for three Small Astronomy Satellites (SAS, 1966-1975) and for Applications Explorer Missions (1975-1976), and later had responsibility for all advanced mission planning for future scientific and applications satellites as well as NOAA's meteorological satellites. Townsend's papers, 1960-1994, n.d., focus on her professional career in aerospace engineering at NASA and include some of her later consulting work, mainly consisting of correspondence, meeting notes, project documents, and publications that Townsend wrote or that relate to her work. There are also materials about her numerous speaking engagements and articles about Townsend's professional accomplishments.

The collection consists of Robert R. Gilruth's papers, notes, records, articles, photographs, awards, degrees, certificates, and artifacts from 1936-1989.

Samuel Herrick was an astronomer who specialized in celestial mechanics, generally recognized as the founder of the field of astrodynamics. His papers consist of correspondence, notes, drafts of publications, files relating to students and courses, and reprints of the works of others in astronomy and space sciences. Other highlights include Herrick's consulting files for projects such as NASA's Project Mercury, the film ""The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), and private industry. This collection is part of the Archives of American Aerospace Exploration at Virginia Tech.