29 Facts About Bradford Parkinson

Bradford Parkinson is an American engineer and inventor, retired United States Air Force Colonel and Emeritus Professor at Stanford University.

Bradford Parkinson is best known as the lead architect, advocate and developer, with early contributions from Ivan Getting and Roger Easton, of the Air Force NAVSTAR program, better known as Global Positioning System.

Bradford Parkinson was the co-principal investigator and program manager on Gravity Probe B, which tested gravitomagnetism and was the first direct mechanical test of Einstein's General Relativity.

In 2019, Bradford Parkinson shared the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering with three other GPS pioneers.

Bradford Parkinson has credited his experiences at the Breck School for inspiring in him an early love of math and science, an interest which eventually became his life's calling.

Bradford Parkinson was a distinguished graduate of the United States Naval Academy, graduating in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering.

Fortunately, one of Bradford Parkinson's Electrical Engineering professors was an Air Force officer who urged him to consider being commissioned in the Air Force rather than the Navy.

Bradford Parkinson then was sponsored by USAF to attend MIT, studying controls engineering, inertial guidance, astronautics and electrical engineering.

Bradford Parkinson was then assigned to work at the Central Inertial Guidance Test Facility at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

In 1964, after three years at Holloman, Bradford Parkinson was assigned to a Ph.

Bradford Parkinson served two years as Chief Communications-Electronics officer at an early warning station In Washington State.

Bradford Parkinson was chief academic instructor to a class of USAF Astronauts, including many who later joined NASA and flew on the Space Shuttle.

Bradford Parkinson then attended the Air Force Command and Staff College for a year where he became a Distinguished Graduate.

Bradford Parkinson next was a student at the Naval War College, in Newport, Rhode Island, for a year where he graduated with distinction and was followed by a brief assignment as the Chief Engineer of the Advanced Ballistic Re-Entry System project, at Los Angeles Air Force Station.

Bradford Parkinson quickly recruited a small cadre of highly competent Air Force Officer-Engineers, with Masters and PhDs from top universities.

Bradford Parkinson then assumed lead responsibility to sell the new configuration to the Air Force and to top Pentagon Officials.

Bradford Parkinson then assumed full, direct control of the development of the demonstration system, which included satellites, a global ground control system, nine types of user receivers, and an extensive land, sea and air test program.

In 1978, Bradford Parkinson was the launch Commander for the first prototype GPS satellite to be launched.

Bradford Parkinson was then offered a job as the Air Force aid to the Secretary of Defense.

Bradford Parkinson was heavily involved in the company's initial public offering in 1982.

Bradford Parkinson then returned to his faculty position at Stanford.

Bradford Parkinson has been on many corporate and governmental boards and recently stepped down as Chairman of Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Advisory Council after thirteen years in the position, long past the usual two-year tenure.

Bradford Parkinson still serves as Co-Chair for the National Executive Committee for Space-Based PNT Advisory Board.

Bradford Parkinson was met with extreme resistance, but used small-scale prototypes sell what would go on to become GPS.

Bradford Parkinson has received numerous awards and honors from private organizations, the military, and government bodies, largely for his work on GPS.

Bradford Parkinson is an honorary fellow of the Royal institute of Navigation and the AIAA.

Bradford Parkinson was born in Madison, Wisconsin on February 16,1935, but grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Bradford Parkinson is the only son of Herbert Parkinson, an architect who was an alumnus of MIT.

Bradford Parkinson is married to Virginia Parkinson, with whom he has one son, Jared.