Customer Reviews

On the Cutting Edge: Tales of a Cold War Engineer at the Dawn of the Nuclear, Guided Missile, Computer, and Space Ages

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Written by engineer, educator, and arms race/spacecraft design pioneer Dr. Robert F. Brodsky, On the Cutting Edge: Tales of a Cold War Engineer at the Dawn of the Nuclear, Guided Missile, Computer and Space Ages is a collection of true tales of the author's professional experiences. Active in the atomic and space race from 1950 to 1988, and not really retired up to even the present day, Brodsky gives an insider's view of everything from the creation and fixing of the first externally carried A-Bomb (the Mark 7) to the inception of the Space Age to how astronautics became an accredited curriculum to Brodsky's visions of a hydrogen-fuel based economy in the future. An engaging chronicle of deadly weapons, technological marvels, and the quirky human personalities behind the military and space age science that transformed the modern world, accessible to readers of all backgrounds and highly recommended.

The book is a collection of anecdotes and snippets from Brodsky's long professional life, commencing during World War 2 and proceeding past the end of the Cold War. He gives an insider's look at what it was like to work in the American defense industry. Notably the aerospace milieu of southern California. But also in the nuclear weapons program at Sandia, New Mexico. Having worked briefly at Los Alamos, but decades after he was at Sandia, his accounts brought back fond memories of New Mexico.

He was also involved in some of the earlier postwar uses of computers. Like programming ENIAC for the first Computational Fluid Dynamics calculations. A total dinosaur of a machine by current standards. But truly cutting edge at the time.

There is a brief mention of wind tunnel tests he did in Pasadena, Los Angeles. How times change. That wind tunnel building is now the south campus of the Arts Center College of Design. I was there recently for a reception. Few of the current students appreciate the history of that building, and its crucial contributions to the US war effort during World War 2, and later in the Cold War.

Very interesting and entertaining set of career experiences as told by one of the greatest engineer's ever. Probably not for everyone, but anyone who has been a part of the Aerospace industry would enjoy the telling of Dr. Bob's career. Well writen, articulate and informative. I purchased four more copies for gifts to young engineers that might write something similar in 50 or so years.

Informative, with a healthy dash of humor. This is no dry, historical recounting. And, of course, it's educational to be allowed behind the scientific communities' curtain...