Ricardo “Ric” Roy was recently inducted into the New Mexico Aerospace Hall of Fame. The induction was on the 20th anniversary of the flight of the Delta Clipper. The Delta Clipper, also known as DC-X/XA, was the first vertical take-off and vertical landing rocket. Roy was part the McDonnell-Douglas team which flew the enhanced version of the DC-X rocket. This enhanced version included the first flight of the composite Liquid Hydrogen (LH2 tank).

This team included participants from McDonnell-Douglas (prime contractor), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARP and NASA. Roy was responsible for the flight mass properties (mass, center of gravities and inertias) of the launch vehicle from take-off through landing.

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Roy is the son of Beatrice and the late Romeo Roy, of Winslow. In 1966, he graduated from St. John’s Catholic School, in Winslow, and is a 1970 Winslow High School graduate. In 1972, he received an associate of civil engineering degree from the University of Maine-Bangor. Upon graduation, he was employed by Blue Rock Industries, in Westbrook. In 1980, he received a bachelor of civil engineering technology degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, in New York.

He and his wife, Lisa, currently reside in Castle Rock, Colo.

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