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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. Louis J. Poehlman

Colonel Poehlman initiated a long career in aviation and space when he entered aviation cadets in 1954.
He became an Air Force navigator, where his duties sparked a lifelong interest in celestial mechanics and space. He demonstrated this interest at the Air Force Institute of Technology with a Master’s Thesis titled The Effects of Tidal Friction on the Evolution of the Martian Moon, Phobos. To prove his thesis, he pioneered the use of digital computations using fourier techniques for the numerical integration of celestial mechanics equations.
Following his Air Force career, he led the technical verification and validation of The Advanced Orbital Ephemeris System as an Aerospace Corporation Staff member. In addition to successfully deploying the orbit software in support of DoD satellites, he pioneered database requirements management.