Charles Hoult, a longtime Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering mentor, has passed away after a short illness. Hoult shared a half-century of rocketry experience with students involved with the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA). Students plan to pay tribute to their beloved mentor by propelling some of his ashes skyward during their next rocket launch.
Hoult first began working with research rockets in 1958 while an Air Force 2nd lieutenant assigned to the Cambridge Research Lab in Bedford, Mass. He continued working at the lab for a decade, seven years after he left the service. While there, he performed systems engineering and flight testing on a variety of research, or sounding, rockets, from the Nike-Cajun thru the Aerolab Argo D-4.
After leaving the lab, Hoult worked for El Monte-based Space General on the Aerobee and Astrobee rockets; Space Vector Corp. of Canoga Park on the Aries guided sounding rocket and guidance and attitude control systems; and in the late 1970s as a consultant. Continue reading “MAE Remembers Dedicated Mentor Who Shared His Love of Rockets”