This is an edited transcript of an oral history interview of Elliott Katz conducted by Peter J. Westwick. Topics covered in the interview include: Security clearance and classification; Transition from aircraft to spacecraft; Role of local universities ; Relation between physics and engineering; Fast diagnostics and instrument industry; Political environment in Orange County and aerospace; Intelligence on the Soviet Union; Aerospace diversification into energy research; Strategic Petroleum Reserve; Strategic Defense Initiative; End of the Cold War; Women in aerospace engineering; Unions in aerospace. Elliott Katz was born in Paterson, NJ in 1923. He studied engineering at Purdue, with his studies interrupted by World War II, when he flew with the Army Air Corps as a navigator on bombing missions and then trained as a pilot. After the war he returned to Purdue and finished his degree in mechanical engineering, then in 1954 received his PhD in applied physics (conferred in engineering). He then went to work for Convair in San Diego on the Atlas missile. In 1958 he went to work for Martin in Denver on the Titan, then in 1960 to Ford Aeronutronics in Newport Beach working on countermeasures (e.g. missile decoys), then to Electro Optical Systems in Pasadena on countermeasures and ion propulsion. Then, circa 1965, he went to the Aerospace Corporation, working on the ABRES reentry system and, in the 1970s, on energy and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in New Orleans. In 1976 he went to work for Perkin-Elmer for several months, then returned to Aerospace Corp. until his retirement. [Object file name], Aerospace Oral History Project, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
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