ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- Looking at his resume, one could surmise Dale Bradley was a veritable jack of all trades in the realm of analysis and evaluation.
His numerous accolades show that he was a master of them, too.
Throughout his decorated 33 years at Arnold Air Force Base, headquarters of Arnold Engineering Development Complex, Bradley had a hand in a wide variety of pursuits, ranging from rocket exhaust to cryogenics.
Among a number of roles and duties he held during his AEDC career, Bradley served as technical director of the 718th Test Squadron; director of the Plume Data Center, now known as the Advanced Missile Signature Center; director of Propulsion for Rockets; and as a general engineer in Corporate Planning.
Bradley will be remembered for his contributions to AEDC following his passing on June 30 at the age of 84.
A native of Cottontown, Tenn., Bradley attended the University of Maryland to pursue a bachelor’s in aeronautical engineering. He got his first taste of federal service while seeking his degree. He worked as a summer student employee for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics.
After his graduation in June 1961, Bradley went to work as an aerodynamic design engineer for the Navy at the David Taylor Model Basin, a test facility located in Maryland.
According to his obituary, Bradley co-developed a low aspect ratio missile aerodynamic predication code later adapted for the Army missile intelligence command for the prediction of foreign missile aerodynamics.
Bradley had an eye on the stars and, in 1966, left the Navy for involvement in the burgeoning space program. He worked at the Chrysler Corporation Space Division. He had a role in the Saturn V launch vehicle program developed for Project Apollo, which put the first men on the moon in July 1969.
Afterward, Bradley went to the Lockheed Missile and Space Center. His work there included the design and testing of fly-back booster designs for the NASA Space Shuttle and the Improved Hawk Missile Airframe Development for the Army Missile Command.
Bradley began his tenure at AEDC in 1975. Relatively early in his career, Bradley was involved with a project to study the impact a varied wing camber would have on aerodynamic performance. Camber refers to the complexity of the airfoil.
Later, Bradley served as director of the Plume Data Center, or PDC, at Arnold. The purpose of the PDC was to provide a permanent data center for the collection, characterization, safeguarding and distribution of missile rocket plume signature data. It also functioned to provide consultation on plume signature measurements to aid in the design and analysis of defense systems and architectures.
“The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization selected AEDC as the location for one of the nation’s three phenomenology data centers because of the expertise and access to plume data gathered from experiments at AEDC as well as elsewhere,” Bradley said at the time.
Another project with which Bradley was involved was preparing Arnold for the resurrection of its cryogenic testing capability to respond to an increasing emphasis on liquid rocket engines from both military and commercial customers. Around the early 1990s, AEDC acquired cryogenic hardware excessed by the NASA Lewis Research Center.
“This is the first step in an attempt to get AEDC back into the cryogenic testing arena,” Bradley said at the time.
The cryogenic capability made its return in the latter half of the 1990s. Prior to this, the last time the capability was used was in 1976.
In the late 1990s, Bradley played a significant part in an experiment conducted with the assistance of the Mir space station. AEDC scientists and engineers worked closely with several Russian organizations to obtain previously-unavailable data on a liquid propellant rocket engine in space.
“The Air Force Office of Scientific Research is providing a unique opportunity through the New World Vistas program for cooperative research between the United States and Russia,” Bradley said at the time. “The plume measurement activity to be conducted from the Mir space station will add to the efforts already in progress between the [AEDC Advanced Missile Signature Center] and the European Office of Advanced Research and Development with the same group of Russian scientists.
“We are finding that we have many mutual interests in the field of plume physics, and the working relationships have been truly rewarding, not only from a technical basis but also from the development of personal friendships.”
The experiment called for the recording of a Russian supply ship rocket as it passed within 120 feet of Mir using special ultraviolet cameras aboard the space station. A unique ultraviolet spectrometer provided by AEDC Advanced Missile Signature Center and Propulsion Diagnostic employees was to record data on the color of light generated as the rocket engine fired.
The data and images were intended to provide scientific information on the interaction of the rocket exhaust within the upper atmosphere and provide the Air Force with data on high-altitude exhaust plume phenomena.
As technical director for the 718th Test Squadron, Bradley was responsible for directing a plethora of activities within AEDC, including those related to hypersonics, rockets testing and space simulation. He was part of the 718 TS when he retired in January 2008.
Bradley was the recipient of several awards and recognitions during his AEDC career. Among his performance-related honors, Bradley received a Civil Service incentive award in 1981. He received further recognition through the Air Force Incentive Awards Program around four years later.
Bradley was among six nominees chosen to represent AEDC in the first annual High Tech Regional Awards in 1987. Prior to this, Bradley was honored as an AEDC Federal Employee of the Year. Bradley was part of the AEDC corporate planning office when it received the Air Force System Command annual award for most outstanding corporate planning office in the command in the early 1980s. He was also part of the group recognized with the AEDC Team Excellence Award in the mid-2000s for its work on the Mark I Space Chamber at Arnold.
He was also chosen to receive the meritorious civilian service medal, one of the highest honors bestowed upon a member of the federal service. The award is presented only to those in federal service whose work is deemed outstanding enough to merit recognition by a major Air Force commander or the Chief of Staff.
During a ceremony that took place in the late 1980s, the meritorious civilian service medal was presented to Bradley on behalf of the late Gen. Bernard Randolph, then commander of Air Force Systems Command. The citation from Randolph to Bradley read in part:
“His superior support of new corporate planning initiatives, outstanding technical leadership in long range planning studies, superb management participation in the test investment planning process and untiring service as a focal point for new programs have greatly contributed to accomplishment of the Center’s mission.”