{{Short description|American aerospace engineer (1925–1995)}} {{Infobox person | name = Bill Tindall | image = Bill Tindall in 1965.jpg | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = Tindall in 1965 | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name --> | birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|02|20}} | birth_place = [[New York City]], U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1995|11|20|1925|02|20}} | death_place = | other_names = Howard Wilson "Bill" Tindall, Jr. | alma_mater = [[Brown University]], B.S. 1948 | occupation = Aerospace engineer and early expert in orbital mechanics | years_active = 1950s-1980s | known_for = Chief of Apollo Data Priority Coordination | notable_works = "Tindallgrams" }} [[File:Bill Tindall (left) and Gene Kranz in Mission Control during Apollo 11.png|thumb|Bill Tindall (left) and [[Gene Kranz]] in Mission Control during [[Apollo 11]].]] '''Howard Wilson''' "'''Bill'''" '''Tindall, Jr.''' (February 20, 1925 – November 20, 1995) was an American aerospace engineer, [[NASA]] engineer and manager. He was an early expert in orbital mechanics and coordinated mission techniques during the [[Project Apollo|Apollo program]]. In the words of flight director Gene Kranz, Tindall "was pretty much the architect for all of the techniques that we used to go down to the surface of the Moon."<ref>Kranz, Oral History, January 8, 1999, p. 23</ref>
Born in [[New York City]] in 1925, Tindall grew up in [[Scituate, Massachusetts]] and graduated from [[Scituate High School (Massachusetts)|Scituate High School]] in 1943. He enlisted in the Navy and served on destroyers in the Pacific, where he became interested in engineering. Tindall earned a [[Bachelor of Science]] degree from [[Brown University]] in 1948.<ref>{{cite news |title=Rendezvous Planner |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=December 16, 1965 |page=29 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1965/12/16/archives/rendezvous-planner-howard-wilson-tindall-jr.html }}</ref>
On graduating, Tindall took a job at the [[Langley Research Center]] in [[Hampton, Virginia]], which was part of the [[National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics]], a government agency devoted to aeronautical research. Tindall worked on wind tunnel instrumentation.
Tindall's entry into the field of aerospace engineering came when he took a position working on [[Project Echo]], an early communications satellite. He became an expert in the field of orbital mechanics, helping to determine trajectories during [[Project Mercury]] and to plan rendezvous techniques during [[Project Gemini]].
During the [[Project Apollo|Apollo program]], Tindall was appointed Chief of Apollo Data Priority Coordination. [[Catherine Osgood]], an aerospace engineer who worked with Tindall at NASA, noted that "Bill would just dive into any problem he found, no matter where it was".<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Atkinson |first=Nancy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GxV8DwAAQBAJ&q=osgood |title=Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions |date=2019-07-02 |publisher=Page Street Publishing |isbn=978-1-62414-491-2 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=39}} In practice, Tindall's responsibilities were wide-ranging. He chaired meetings between astronauts, mission controllers, design engineers, contractors, and other relevant parties, adjudicating disagreements and overseeing the details of planning mission techniques.
Tindall was known for the colloquial and entertaining tone of his memos, which were widely referred to as "Tindallgrams."<ref>Mattingly, Oral History, November 6, 2001, pp. 21-23.</ref> One memo was simply titled "Vent bent descent, lament."<ref>Murray and Cox, ''Apollo'', p. 296.</ref>
Tindall died November 20, 1995, at the age of 70.
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== * {{cite web | url = http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/KranzEF/EFK_1-8-99.pdf | title =Kranz, Gene | date = January 8, 1999 | work = NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project | accessdate = 2008-12-23 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20170201074348/https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/KranzEF/EFK_1-8-99.pdf | archivedate = February 1, 2017}} *{{cite news | title =Rendezvous Planner: Howard Wilson Tindall, Jr. | work=The New York Times | pages =29 | date =December 16, 1965}} * {{cite web | url = http://history.spacebusiness.com/files/Mattingly-2001.pdf | title = Mattingly II, Thomas K. | date = November 6, 2001 | work = NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project | accessdate = 2008-12-23 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20110817224659/http://history.spacebusiness.com/files/Mattingly-2001.pdf| archivedate = August 17, 2011}}
* {{cite book| first = Charles | last = Murray |author2=Catherine Bly Cox | title = Apollo: The Race to the Moon | location = New York | publisher = [[Simon and Schuster]] | year = 1989 | isbn = 0-671-61101-1}}
==External links== *{{cite web | title = Tindallgram collections | publisher = www.collectspace.com | url = http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum29/HTML/000815.html#tindallgrams | accessdate = 2008-12-23 }}
* {{Cite web |title=Tindallgrams |url=http://tindallgrams.net/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140521223745/http://tindallgrams.net/ |archive-date=May 21, 2014 |access-date=December 19, 2023 }}
* [https://i0.wp.com/finleyquality.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Bill-Tindall-from-Moon-Machines-Ep.-3.jpg Photo of Tindall] from the blog post [http://finleyquality.net/the-thousand-ring-circus/ The thousand-ring circus] published 16 July 2019.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tindall, Bill}} [[Category:1925 births]] [[Category:1995 deaths]] [[Category:American aerospace engineers]] [[Category:NASA people|Tindall, Bill]] [[Category:People from Scituate, Massachusetts]] [[Category:Engineers from New York City]] [[Category:20th-century American engineers]] [[Category:Brown University School of Engineering alumni]]