A Tribute to Glen May 

Glen May

With a dog named "Rebel," it should be obvious to anyone that Glen May was a true Southerner. His gentle drawl and welcoming smile conveyed the "down-home" friendliness that was at the essence of him.

Glen grew up on a large farm in Tennessee. From his earliest days, he had a fascination with guns and rockets. As a child, Glen would build model rockets. Living close to Huntsville, AL, Glen was able to make trips to visit some of the modern pioneers of rocketry. He came to know many people with the same passion, including Tim Pickens, who became a very close personal friend.

With Tim, Glen began to look at possibilities for "home-built" rockets. Bikes, go-carts and canoes became part of their family of launch platforms as they experimented and found new, fun uses for their propulsion devices. The go-carts and canoes proved to be less stable than the bicycles. A go-cart was hard to control at super-high speeds (he guessed 80 mph), and the canoe just didn't seem to want to stay in the water, but rather attempted vertical flight. So Glen decided to focus his rocket-hobby attentions on bikes. Many successes and "not-quite-there" failures followed with Glen earning the well-respected title of "Rocketbiker."

In 2001, Glen followed his friend Tim Pickens to Mojave, CA, to work on the SpaceShipOne program. He joined the Scaled team in July of that year, working as a propulsion technician.

Throughout the Tier One program, Glen played an integral role in the development of the rocket motors for SS1. He was part of the core team recognized in St. Louis for winning the Ansari X-Prize when SS1 rocketed to space in 2004.

While at Scaled, Glen continued to pursue his hobby of rocket-biking. He would work on his rocket motors, strap them to the bike, don his helmet and heat suit and attempt to zoom down the flight line. After a fizzle or two, he was successful in rocketing his bike in front of his admiring Scaled audience.

Glen's adventures were not limited to his pursuits in rocketry. He loved sky diving, deep-sea diving, hang gliding, motorcycling, canoeing, camping and hunting. On his excursions, Glen was often accompanied by his companion of 16 years, Rebel, a black and white herding dog who shared Glen's spirit of exploration.

Glen also had a passion for history. He devoured books about the Confederacy. After relocating to the California desert, he studied quite a bit about the history of some of the abandoned mines and towns of the Mojave area.

Besides being a Southern gentleman, Glen was fiercely patriotic. He served his country as a paratrooper and when the tests started for the SpaceShipOne rocket motors, an American flag appeared at the test site. All who knew Glen well were not surprised to learn he had put it there. He considered himself a man with a great purpose, and he found subtle ways of extending that mission to encompass much more than the task at hand.

Glen left Scaled for a short time in mid-2006 to work for another space-oriented company. When he returned after 14 months, he was welcomed back into the Scaled fold with open arms and ready smiles. We were excited to have him back with us.

The loss to the Scaled family is deeply felt with the passing of Glen May. He was such a special man and his contributions to rocketry are extensive. We will miss our "Rocketbiker."