Benjamin H. Hadley; Air and Space Industrialist

Benjamin H. “Bud” Hadley, 83, who perfected the cryogenic valves critical to the U.S. space program. A native of Corona who grew up in Pomona, Hadley studied aviation mechanics at Pomona Junior College and then started his first business, a mobile aircraft service operation. He also earned certification as a pioneering aircraft mechanic, and taught aviation mechanics at the Curtis-Wright Technical School and Pomona Junior College. After making parts for military planes during World War II, Hadley established B.H. Hadley Inc., which supplied parts for aircraft companies, scooters and motorbikes. In the mid-1950s, his company was the first to perfect the operation and manufacture of cryogenic valves to control the flow of super-chilled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen in Atlas rockets. After selling that company, he started Schwien Engineering, now based in Pomona, to supply avionics calibration equipment to the military and to airplane manufacturers worldwide. Hadley was co-chairman of the board of the Galileo Society of Harvey Mudd College. On Monday in Claremont of heart failure.