Thomas J. Kelly (aerospace engineer)

• 1. The Boy Who Never Got A C

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  Thomas Joseph Kelly was born on the 14th of June 1929 in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in Merrick, a middle-class neighborhood where parents compared their children's grades to his own. Teachers at Wellington C. Mepham High School remembered him for his genial nature and impish smile. He played the trumpet and could ace every test he took. His local peers called him Tom, and they knew he would never get a C. Even with all that brilliance, he showed no arrogance. He remained a very likeable and popular child throughout his school years. He eventually graduated as valedictorian from Mepham.

• 2. Grumman Scholarships And Early Missiles

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  In 1946, Kelly attended Cornell University under a Grumman scholarship. During this time he worked his summers at Grumman Aircraft. He earned himself a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering by 1951. That same year he received a Reserve Officers' Training Corps commission. He started working at Grumman as a propulsion engineer immediately after graduation. He worked under the Rigel Missile Program from 1951 to 1953. After this project, he moved to the F-11 Tiger program. He was later promoted to group leader on that aircraft.

• 3. Air Force Duty And Lockheed Tenure

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  In 1956, Kelly was called into active duty by the United States Air Force. He was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. During his service, he served as a performance engineer on several major aircraft. These included the B-58 Hustler, the F-105 Thunderchief, and the AGM-28 Hound Dog missile. Two years of service passed before he was discharged in 1958. For a short time, Kelly worked at Lockheed Corporation on their missile division. He led rocket propulsion development engineering there until 1959. He returned to Grumman shortly after leaving Lockheed.

• 4. Leading Seven Thousand Engineers

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  Kelly took up the position of assistant chief in propulsion from 1959 to 1960. He then moved to Grumman's Apollo and Lunar Module proposals. In late 1962, Grumman won a $2-billion government contract from NASA. Kelly was promoted to lead the design team for the Lunar Excursion Module. He managed more than 7,000 employees in design and building the spacecraft. His group came up with the idea of a two-stage spacecraft. This ascent and descent stage would take two astronauts to the Moon's surface while a third stayed in lunar orbit. He had just turned 40 when Neil Armstrong took his first historic step on the Moon the 20th of July 1969.

• 5. The Ice That Clogged The Fuel Line

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  During the landing, ice formed in a fuel line and clogged it completely. If heat from the engine defrosted the clog, the fuel could detonate instantly. Luckily for Kelly and the Grumman crew, the problem corrected itself before disaster struck. The crew was able to relax and realize what they had accomplished. In an interview in 1998 Kelly stated that it was the greatest thing in his career. He added that in hindsight, it was even more significant than they thought at the time. However, the experience was not without strain and stress. It manifested as a nervous tic he developed during the project.

• 6. Retirement And Long Island Legacy

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  Kelly retired from Grumman in 1992 after spending 38 years with the company. Soon after his retirement, Grumman merged with Northrop to form Northrop Grumman Corporation. This merger dispersed its operations from Long Island. In the year 2000's Long Island: Our Past poll, Kelly was selected as the fourth favorite person from history. He followed behind Robert Moses, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Levitt. Thomas Joseph Kelly died on the 23rd of March 2002. His work remains among the most significant accomplishments in aerospace history.