Dr. Harrell is currently retired, and volunteers time to the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola, Florida. Until 1997, he was President and Founder (1979) of Rensselaer Learning Systems, Inc., a New York engineering consulting corporation, with offices in Rochester, New York.  Dr. Harrell retired from Xerox in 1987 as Manager of Technical Training. While at Xerox, he managed U.S. and international projects in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia and was the Technical Education Manager. Prior to that, he was the Chief Planning Engineer for the Grumman Corporation with a major responsibility for the planning of the Lunar Module of Project Apollo, and was the Project Administrator of the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory.

EDUCATION:

AVIATION/MILITARY EXPERIENCE:

Dr. Harrell, or Bud as he prefers, is an ex-U.S. Navy Airman who served in the Korean Conflict on patrol duty in PBM's in 1952-54. The photo below, shows Bud in the Philippines, 1953. Graduate of several Navy aviation schools, including aircraft maintenance. Bud worked for Grumman Aircraft as an engineer. He holds a a Commercial Pilots license with CFI and CFII ratings with a Gold Seal. He was on the board of directors of FAST (1994 to 2000), which is the governing body for the Formation And Safety Team. He has over 3,000 hours of flying experience. His prior aircraft includes a 1977 Yak-50 (N63RA) which underwent a complete IRAN (pictured below), and a Nanchang CJ-6A (Yak-18A variant) that was completely rebuilt in 1992/3 (photo above). He was the first person to install an M-14P in a CJ-6A. Bud was the Adjutant Officer, and a charter member, of EAA Warbird Squadron No. 9 in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada until 1998.

In 1993, Dr. Harrell wrote the first Yak Driver newsletter. That first year, there were  30 members of the newly formed YAK Pilots' Club. At the insistence of a Yak-11 owner, the membership was opened to all types of Yakovlev-designed aircraft. In 1999, there were over 450 members in 21 countries, including Russia and China, when the club was reformed as the Yak Pilots Association, and a new president was appointed. He retired from the Yak Pilots' Club in 2000. Subsequently, the organization was renamed Red Star Pilots Association. Red Star can be found at: http://www.flyredstar.org/RPAdotNET/login.aspx
 

 
 

 

 

 

PUBLISHED ARTICLES:         Aviation Articles Editor and writer of the quarterly Yak Driver newsletter for eight years ending in 2000. "Amid the Ascent of the Jet Age, North Korean Airmen Harassed United Nations Forces with Flying Anachronisms," Military History magazine, March 1998. "Formation Clinics," EAA Warbirds, Co-authored with Carl Schmieder, April, 1997. "The Yaks Are Coming," General Aviation News & Flyer, December 8, 1996. "I Learned The Hard Way," EAA Warbirds, December 1995. "My Warbird Dreams Come True," EAA Warbirds, February 1995. The Radial Engine Handbook for Pilots, 2001. Engineering/Project Management  "Heuristic Planning," Electronic Design magazine, April, 1996. "Tame Project Management Software," Electronic Design magazine, 14 October, 1994 (with 4 graphics). "Breaking the Communications Barrier With a WBS," PMNetwork magazine, August 1994 (with graphics). Editor and Writer of the Project Scene, a quarterly newsletter for Project Managers, over 600 subscribers, suspended publication after three years in 1992. "Sure-Handed Project Management," Computer Decisions magazine (article about Risk Management), November 1983. "Maintaining A Healthy Data Base," Business Automation magazine, February 1972. "How To Chart A Pipe Dream," Journal of Data Management magazine (DPMA), January 1970.