Lovell Lawrence Jr. (1915 – 1971) was an American

rocket scientist A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

who developed the first engine to break the

sound barrier The sound barrier or sonic barrier is the large increase in aerodynamic drag and other undesirable effects experienced by an aircraft or other object when it approaches the speed of sound. When aircraft first approached the speed of sound, th ...

while working with Reaction Motors, Inc.

Biography

Lovell Lawrence Jr. was born in 1915 to mining engineer, Lovell Lawrence Sr. and Ellen Lawrence in

Pompton Lakes, New Jersey Pompton Lakes is a borough in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 11,127, an increase of 30 (+0.3%) from the 2010 census count of 11,097, which in turn reflected an ...

. Lawrence had two brothers, Robert M. Lawrence and Edmund Pond Lawrence. In 1942, three years before he would make significant breakthroughs in rocketry, Lawrence experience the death of his father, then living in Tucson, Arizona, at 54 years of age. Lawrence Jr. died from cancer on January 24, 1971, at St. John's Hospital at 55 years of age.

Career

Lovell Lawrence Jr. was a founding member of the

American Rocket Society The American Rocket Society (ARS) began its existence on 4 April 1930, under the name of the American Interplanetary Society. It was founded by science fiction writers G. Edward Pendray, David Lasser, Laurence Manning, Nathan Schachner, and ot ...

in the 1930s and erelong was named President in 1946. Between 1943 and 1941, Lawrence worked as assistant to the Chief Engineer of

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

. In 1941, Lawrence founded Reaction Motors, Inc. with John Shesta, James Wylde, and Hugh Franklin Pierce in order to secure an offered $5,000 Navy contract for rocket development. Reaction Motors, Inc. continued under the aegis of Lawrence until his departure in 1953 to pursue a variety of positions with

Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...

, culminating in his promotion to Chief Research Engineer in 1964.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence Jr., Lawrence 1915 births 1977 deaths People from Pompton Lakes, New Jersey Rocket scientists