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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. Rick Edelman

The love of aviation blossomed early with Rick. He was born on 2 August, 1944 at Mitchell Field AAFB and has early memories of touring a C-46 as a toddler. Another vivid memory was observing a flight of B-36's lumbering overhead one day during the mid 1950's. Rick grew up building and flying model airplanes, by watching and photographing the real ones and by reading everything available about them.
This continued through high school with the advent of the space age. He got a firsthand view of this when he worked as a co-op student at NASA, Wallops Island, Va. while in pursuit of a BS in Aerospace Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Following graduation, Rick, along with his new bride Mary Pat, moved to Seattle, WA to start a 34 year career with The Boeing Company. He began at the wind tunnel complex, and then moved to B737 performance analysis, while obtaining a Masters degree from the University of Southern California in Aerospace Systems Management. Subsequently, he worked as an engineer then manager on programs including the B-l, B-52, B-2, F-22, Darkstar, and the JSF. Rick was the Boeing avionics manager during the F-22 Dem/Val and initial EMD phases. During the JSF program, he initially managed the X-35 demonstrator development and later the production configuration development for the JSF EMD proposal.
Rick now spends his time in retirement trying to instill his love of aviation in his grandchildren, Ethan and Elianna.