John Wickman
Mr. John Wickman is President of Wickman Spacecraft & Propulsion Company in Casper, Wyoming. He started his career in 1972 at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft designing the JT9D jet engine burners used on the initial Boeing 747 airliners and other jumbo jets. After a couple of years at Pratt & Whitney, he left to work on rocket engines at Aerojet in Sacramento, California as one of the key analysts and designers on the MX missile second stage. He later became a principal investigator for Aerojet on a variety of research and development projects such as air launched ICBMs and extendible exit cones. Mr. Wickman also wrote a monthly newsletter for Aerojet corporate management on emerging and advanced propulsion concepts such as anti-matter, nuclear fission and fusion, solar and ion propulsion. In 1985, Mr. Wickman left Aerojet to work for his own company, Wickman Spacecraft & Propulsion Company. In 1986, he took on a partner, Dr. Adolf Oberth, son of German rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth. One of the company's first major contracts was the development of a new ammonium nitrate oxidizer and space booster propellant using ammonium nitrate. Under NASA contract, Mr. Wickman has invented several new space propulsion technologies including Liquid Oxygen Monopropellants and rocket and jet engines that burn directly the Martian atmosphere of carbon dioxide. In 1993, the company moved from California to Casper in order to expand into larger projects. His company is currently developing a new pintle nozzle for the Army and a low cost, small launch vehicle for the Air Force. In mid 1990’s, Mr. Wickman formed a new company CP Technologies that sells amateur rocket books, videos and software to people and universities around the world.