"A slide rule, a wind tunnel and a dream. That's all they had." Computers as we know them today were thirty years away,and so was the internet. This team of brilliant engineers invented the technology that catapaulted astronauts into manned space travel and lunar exploration in1969 and beyond. This is Bill Reed's story.

Born September 24,1925 in Wellsville, Missouri, Wilmer Handy Reed III (Bill), whose life's work revolutionized the study of wind tunnel modern flight dynamics passed away on Thursday evening August 26, 2021 in Destin, Florida. He was 95. His leadership, work ethic, inventive curiosity and genius was instrumental in empowering the development of breakthrough technologies in aeronautical engineering that literally changed the world.

He was a one of a kind tour de force, who became a Chief Scientist at NASA contributing 28 Global Patents, publishing 40 Scientific Articles, parenting aeronautical invention that spearheaded our "Giant Leap For Mankind" in the Apollo , Saturn 5 Rocket , and early Space Shuttle programs, among others. He specialized in Aeroelacticity and Load analysis, creating engineering solutions that made super sonic flight and space exploration possible and more efficient, by streamlining and redesigning rocket and wing configurations and damping vibration (flutter). In other words, he was the go-to guy who made rockets and aircraft fly. His numerous contributions earned Bill NASA's career Exceptional Service Medal and 8 NASA Special Achievement Awards . He was an integral part of possibly the greatest team of engineers and scientists ever assembled.They were heroes whose combined inventive genius launched the space age at the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA). He collaborated and published with Dr.John Houbolt (Lunar Orbit Rendezvous) ,William Hewitt Phillips and  others who created the Apollo Moon Landing Missions.

At the age of nine, his aunt gave hime a model airplane and helped him build it. His infatuation with aircraft and flying became his life's journey from that day forward. In his early teens he became an Eagle Scout. After high school he enlisted in the Navy, became a Naval Aviator, earned his B.S. Aeronautical Engineering at Auburn and was hired directly by NACA at Langley Research Center as an Aeronautical Research Engineer in 1948. While attending Auburn he met Mary Catherine Draughon at Huntington College on a blind date. For the next 66 years of happily married life they built their home, raised a family of three, and were pillars of the First United Methodist Church in Hampton. His Masters of Science Aeronautical Engineering was conferred by the University of Virginia in 1953.