APRIL 2016 | 41 hours and was a possible spinoff of the National Aerospace Plane—had a profound effect on Bowcutt. In the aftermath, the young researcher was sought out to do a national TV news interview as one of the only people actively conducting hypersonics research. He discovered that one of his former college professors, Fred Billig, a pioneer of scramjet engine development, was a technical adviser to the National Aerospace Plane program. Billig helped Bowcutt land his first engineering job at Rockwell International and join in that work. For eight years, Bowcutt and hundreds of engineers worked on a scramjet-powered space plane before the program ended; he was handpicked to serve on two national teams that made last-ditch efforts Photos: (Top) Kevin Bowcutt, Boeing’s chief scientist of hypersonics, wants to build a space plane. PAUL PINNER | BOEING (Bottom) Boeing hypersonics advisory board members, from left, Mark Nugent, Bill Bozich, Bowcutt, Jeff Erickson and Mark Ganda display a model of the X-51A WaveRider hypersonics vehicle in 2003, 10 years before its first and only flight. DANA REIMER | BOEING
Frontiers April 2016 Issue
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