Don Jaekle
 
Thanks

I began designing and analyzing PMDs under the tutelage of Bob Grove in 1983 at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, Inc. Bob was the pioneer in the field and I was fortunate to have such a great teacher. When I left LMSC in 1985, Bob already had designed over a dozen different PMDs and had hundreds flying - all analyzed only with a slide rule. After leaving Lockheed, I attended MIT where I received a Master's degree and began provided PMDs independently with Pressure Systems, Inc. For 24 Years, I provided PMDs exclusively with Pressure Systems, Inc. (now ATK Space Systems).

in 2011, PMD Technology became fully independent providing PMD services to all users and manufacturers of PMDs.

In the past 25+ years, I have been fortunate to have had a great number of supporters in the aerospace industry without whom my business would not have done so well. I am sure I will forget somebody important but those whom I am most indebted include Bob Grove, Jim Rollins, Don Kohorst, Mike Hersh, Alex Roberts, Mike Debreceni, Joe Lewis, Tso Ping Yeh, John Ellison, Joe Vas, GP Purohit, Mr. Seki, Mr. Izumisawa, Mr. Yamaguchi, Walter Tam, Gary Kawahara, and Ian Ballinger. Thank you.


PMD Technology was founded in 1986 by Don Jaekle.  After receiving a B.S. from Yale University, Don began his career in 1983 at Lockheed and mentored under the most prolific Propellant Management Device (PMD) designer of his time, Bob Grove.  Bob was the designer of the first flying PMD and he established the PMD as the preferred method of propellant access.  At his retirement, Bob had designed nearly 20 PMDs and had over 325 flying. 

After leaving Lockheed, Don received a master's degree from MIT and founded PMD Technology.  At this time, PMD design and analysis was considered a black art with many skeptics in industry.  Don took Bob's proven approach and extended it to today's spacecraft using today's computational tools (no slight intended to Bob's ubiquitous slide rule).  As a result of modern analysis and visualization, PMDs are accepted as low risk technology by nearly everyone in industry today.  So far, Don has over 35 qualified PMD designs with over 500 flying.  This is more than all current PMD designers combined.