The perfect team —

Ed Blalock, President & Managing Member

Clayton E. Blalock is a 1979 graduate of the University of Central Florida, with a B.A. in Education.  Ed taught public school until 1983, in Brevard County, Florida.

In 1983, he began his career at Kennedy Space Center as a propellants mechanic for Boeing Aerospace Operations, at Space Shuttle Launch Pad 39B, validating, and testing ground support fluid systems. When Pad B went operational in 1985, he went to work as a Space Shuttle Technician for Lockheed Space Operations Company.

After the Challenger accident in 1986, Ed spent two years as a technical instructor again for Lockheed, developing and teaching courses in Cryogenic and High-pressure Gas Safety, Shuttle External Tank Mechanical/Propulsion Systems, Liquid Oxygen/Liquid Hydrogen Storage Systems Familiarization, Fuel Cell Servicing System Familiarization, Red Crew Training, and Certification Training for Self-Contained Atmospheric Protective Ensembles (SCAPE).

For the past 26 years, he has been intimately involved with cryogenic propellants at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. His extensive and varied experience has put him in a unique position to see the enormous market potential for the use of cryogenic liquid air.

James England, Member & Chief Engineer

Since graduating in 1965 from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, James England has been employed with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center until his retirement in July, 2006. early in his career from 1965 -1976, he worked in the operations side of the launch as high-pressure pneumatic systems engineer and then as engineer in the Mechanical and Propulsion Branch for the SII stage of the Saturn V vehicle in support of the Apollo Lunar Program.

In 1976 he was transferred to the Design Directorate and was responsible for the design of the hydraulic GSE for the Orbiter and SRB Shuttle Systems. While in this capacity he was also given assignments in dealing with other fluid systems in high-pressure gases, cryogenic oxygen and hydrogen, and thermal conditioning systems as well as his hydraulic systems design. In 1991 he was promoted to Section Chief for the Hydraulics and Pneumatics Design until it was combined in 1997 with the Propellants and Life Support Systems Design to form the Fluids and Propellants Office. Here he was the Lead of the Fluids Group within that office.

Until his retirement in 2006, he was responsible for the design efforts of various engineers working to develop designs for fluids and propellant systems including hydraulic, hypergolic, thermal systems, high-pressure pneumatics, compressed air, life support systems, cryogenics, vacuum chambers, and propellant systems and interfaces.