Professor Emeritus Francis J. Hale  Inducted Into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame
August 3, 2006

Colonel Hale, MAE professor emeritus, served as deputy director of the Thor missile program beginning in January 1956, and successfully advocated for eliminating radio-inertial guidance and concentrating on all-inertial guidance. He became the first plans and programs officer, then deputy director, of the Minuteman ICBM program. He earned his Master and Doctorate of Science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, accomplishing his doctoral thesis on the boundary layers of an accelerator for use in space propulsion. Colonel Hale was a professor and head of the astronautics department at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and before retiring from active duty in 1965, he worked in the Pentagon on various advanced aerospace projects.