Chuck Longton

Chuck Longton is a Senior Structural Design Specialist managing a design group responsible for structural systems integration, tooling and fixture design for the nation’s nuclear submarine fleet for the United States Navy. Chuck first became interested in spaceflight when he listened to the radio signals of the Russian Sputnik in 1957 with his father. After high school he joined the Air Force and was initially assigned to rocket engine propulsion systems on the Atlas and then the Titan ICBM’s. After leaving the Air Force, he went to work for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft as a structural designer where his first assignment was creating turbine exhaust vanes for the JT9D engine, the world’s first turbofan engine, which powered the Boeing 747 Jumbo jet. Being from a Navy town, he eventually went to work at Electric Boat in Groton, Connecticut, where he had become fascinated by the design challenges involved in creating a machine, a nuclear powered submarine, with such constricted space available, inside which over 100 men would live and work, under the ocean surface, for up to six months at a time without ever coming to the surface. He has been involved in submarine design for 20 years. But while continuing this work, he maintained his interests and professional involvement in spaceflight technology throughout his career thru his contacts in the industry. A member of the AIAA, Chuck brings a total of over 40 years of structural design experience to his life-long love of manned spacecraft. Chuck has been married for 41 years to a woman he met while in the Air Force, has 5 children and 13 grandchildren, two of whom share his passion for manned spaceflight.