Robert J. Helberg (1906 – 1967) was an American aeronautical engineer who worked on several development projects for

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Early life and education

He was born in

Watonga, Oklahoma Watonga is a city in Blaine County, Oklahoma, Blaine County, Oklahoma. It is 70 miles northwest of Oklahoma City. The population was 2,690 as of the 2020 United States census. It is the county seat of Blaine County. History Watonga is located ...

. In 1932, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

Career

After graduation, he worked at the Goss Humidity Control Company in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

. Three years later he left to work for the

company. Helberg's first work at Boeing was on the early YB-17 model of the Flying Fortress. He followed this by work on the

Boeing 307 Stratoliner The Boeing Model 307 Stratoliner (or Strato-Clipper in Pan American Airways, Pan American service, or C-75 in United States Army Air Forces, USAAF service) is an American stressed-skin four-engine low-wing Conventional landing gear, tailwheel mo ...

airliner, then on additional models of the

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during ...

. In 1942 he became group engineer on the

B-29 The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined Propeller (aeronautics), propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to ...

's electrical systems. By 1946 he was senior group engineer, working on the

C-97 Stratofreighter The Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter is a long-range heavy military cargo aircraft developed from the B-29 and B-50 bombers. Design work began in 1942, the first of three prototype XC-97s flew on 9 November 1944 and the first of six service-test YC- ...

's electrical systems. In 1950, he received a promotion to project engineer on an experimental version of a pilotless

B-47 The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long- range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft ...

Stratojet. (This program was designated ''

Project Brass Ring Project Brass Ring was a 1950 United States Air Force project designed to deliver an early hydrogen bomb to within of a target using a drone version of the B-47 Stratojet, which would be guided by a mother ship and destroyed in the detonation. Thi ...

''.) Around 1955 he joined the

Bomarc Missile Program The Boeing CIM-10 Bomarc ("Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center") (IM-99 Weapon System prior to September 1962) was a supersonic ramjet powered long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) used during the Cold War for the air defense of Nor ...

, a pilotless interceptor. He worked on this program as assistant project engineer, focused on the guidance and data systems. He later became lead engineer for production, and then head of the Bomarc operation. Helberg was awarded a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

for an ''automatic control cable tensioner''. This device was used in Boeing-built

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

s. In 1965 he was placed in charge of the company's

Lunar Orbiter The Lunar Orbiter program was a series of five uncrewed lunar orbiter missions launched by the United States in 1966 and 1967. Intended to help select Apollo landing sites by mapping the Moon's surface, they provided the first photographs from ...

Program Office, as an assistant division manager in the Spacecraft Systems of the Boeing Space Division. He helped co-design two of the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft.

Personal life

By 1966 Helberg had developed a heart condition and was taking

nitroglycerin Nitroglycerin (NG) (alternative spelling nitroglycerine), also known as trinitroglycerol (TNG), nitro, glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), or 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane, is a dense, colorless or pale yellow, oily, explosive liquid most commonly produced by ...

tablets to treat the symptoms. In his later years, he lived with his wife Helen on a farm in the

area. His hobbies included fishing,

duck hunting Waterfowl hunting is the practice of hunting aquatic birds such as ducks, geese and other waterfowls or shorebirds for sport and meat. Waterfowl are hunted in crop fields where they feed, or in areas with bodies of water such as rivers, lakes ...

, poker, gardening, and raising trees at a nearby tree farm. He died of a heart attack in

in 1967.

Honors

* For his contributions to the success of the Lunar Orbiter, he received the

NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal NASA's Exceptional Public Service Medal is a United States government award awarded to any non-Government individual or to an individual who was not a Government employee during the period in which the service was performed for sustained performa ...

* Astronautics Engineer Award given by the National Space Club in 1966 * The crater

Helberg Helberg is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Claus Helberg (1919–2003), Norwegian resistance fighter and mountain guide * Robert J. Helberg (1906–1967), American aeronautical engineer *Sandy Helberg (born 1949), German Ameri ...

on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

is named after him.

References

* Robert J. Sterling, ''Legend and Legacy'',

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, St. Martin's Press, .

External links

SP-4308 Spaceflight Revolution
— ''see'' chapter 10. {{DEFAULTSORT:Helberg, Robert J. 1906 births 1967 deaths People from Watonga, Oklahoma 20th-century American engineers University of Washington College of Engineering alumni Engineers from Seattle Boeing people