Yvonne Brill

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Yvonne Brill (2011)

Yvonne Madelaine Brill , born as Yvonne Claeys (born December 30, 1924 in Winnipeg , † March 27, 2013 in Princeton , New Jersey ) was an American missile technician of Canadian origin. Among other things, she developed a new type of rocket engine that became the standard for communications satellites .

Life

Yvonne Madelaine Brill came as the daughter of the carpenter August Claeys and his wife Julienne, b. Carette, in the Canadian city of Winnipeg . She grew up in the suburb of St. Vital . Her parents were originally from Belgium ( Flanders ) and had a relatively low level of education. Brill studied mathematics at the University of Manitoba until 1945 . She then worked in California for the aircraft manufacturer Douglas Aircraft Company , with a special interest in fuel . At the same time, she obtained a Masters in Chemistry from the University of Southern California .

During her studies she met her future husband, the two years older chemist William Franklin Brill († 2010). On May 11, 1951, a Los Angeles court granted her citizenship of the United States. On December 15 of the same year she married William Brill. The marriage resulted in two sons and a daughter. The couple moved east to Princeton near Princeton for professional reasons . When she was pregnant with her first child in the late 1950s, Yvonne Brill interrupted her full-time work as an engineer and only worked as a consultant.

In 1966, Brill resumed her career with RCA Astro Electronics. In the following year, she developed the Hydrazine Resistojet or Electrothermal Hydrazine Thruster (EHT), a type of propulsion used in communication and observation satellites. The EHT heated the rocket fuel hydrazine electrically and was characterized by a 30 percent increase in efficiency, which was achieved with the help of additional heating of the fuel-burning components. This increase in efficiency made it possible to reduce the weight of satellites that previously required more fuel to stay in orbit. In 1972, Brill patented its dual thrust level monopropellant spacecraft propulsion system . The EHT was first used in an RCA spacecraft in 1983 and became an industry standard used in communications satellites by companies such as General Electric , Lockheed Martin, and Orbital Sciences Corporation .

From 1981 Brill worked for two years at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC in the solid rocket technology division . From 1986 she worked for the International Maritime Satellite Organization in London. In 1987 she was one of the few women of the time to become a member of the National Academy of Engineering .

In 2002 the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics presented Brill with the Wyld Propulsion Award . In 2010 she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame . For her innovative improvements to the rocket propulsion systems of geosynchronous and LEO communication satellites, she was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation , which her US President Barack Obama presented on October 21, 2011 in the White House .

At 88, Brill died of breast cancer in a Princeton hospital .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexandra Paul: Rocket pioneer has city roots. ( Memento of May 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: Winnipeg Free Press, October 27, 2011. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
  2. ^ A b Yvonne Madelaine Claeys, "California, County Marriages, 1850-1952" familysearch.org, accessed April 1, 2013.
  3. ↑ a b c d Martin Weil: Yvonne Brill, pioneer in spacecraft propulsion, dies at 88. In: The Washington Post April 1, 2013. Retrieved April 1, 2013.
  4. ^ Yvonne Madelaine Claeys, California, Southern District Court (Central) Naturalization Index, 1915-1976, familysearch.org, accessed April 1, 2013.
  5. ↑ Dual thrust level monopropellant spacecraft propulsion system, United States Patent 3807657 patent.ipexl.com, accessed April 1, 2013.
  6. ↑ a b Inventor Profile: Yvonne Brill ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. invent.org, accessed April 1, 2013.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.invent.org
  7. ↑ Wyld Propulsion Award Recipients ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. aiaa.org, accessed April 1, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.aiaa.org
  8. ^ The National Medal of Technology and Innovation Recipients uspto.gov, accessed April 1, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Brill, Yvonne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brill, Yvonne Madelaine (full name); Claeys, Yvonne (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American rocket technician of Canadian origin
DATE OF BIRTH December 30, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Winnipeg
DATE OF DEATH March 27, 2013
Place of death Princeton , New Jersey