Trevor Gardner

Trevor Gardner (24 August 1915 - 28 September 1963) was Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force for Research and Development during the early 1950s.

Together with Bernard Schriever, the Air Staff's Assistant for Development Planning, Gardner was one of the prime movers of the U.S. ICBM program and was also involved in the U-2 program.

Gardner was born in Cardiff, Wales, on 24 August 1915.

He moved to the United States in 1928 and became a naturalized citizen in 1937.

He received a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of Southern California in 1937.

He returned to the University of Southern California to teach freshman mathematics while obtaining his master's degree in business administration which he was awarded in 1939.

During World War II Gardner's work at the California Institute of Technology focused on rocket and atomic bomb projects for the Office of Scientific Research and Development.

With the end of World War II, Gardner became associated with General Tire and Rubber Company of California as general manager and executive vice president.

Three years later he left to found Hycon Manufacturing Co., an electronics manufacturer.

1951, was America's best hope, however its development had been constrained by the Air

Force due to the belief that missiles required too great an investment in systems that

seemed "impossible' "Impatient, Gardner requested a scientific review of all Air Force

He was president of Hycon until February 1953 when he became the Secretary of the Air Force's Special Assistant for Research and Development.

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower began his first term by initiating a defense policy that sought to significantly reduce spending.

Gardner was asked to lead a committee and implement an economy program to reduce missile development activities.

Its final report recommended

that promising missile projects should be continued.

The Atlas, under development since

missile programs in April 1953.

The impetus came from two directions.

First, he was

concerned over the growing Soviet threat and, in August 1953, they exploded a hydrogen

bomb.

The other trend was the development of lighter nuclear weapons.

The "impossible"

ICBM was now much more possible.

In October 1953 Gardner established a second

committee — the Teapot Committee — to review the Air Force's strategic missiles — the Snark, Navaho, and Atlas.

He directed the committee to find ways to accelerate the development of the Atlas.

The

committee issued its report on 10 February 1954.

Its thrust called for a "radical reorganization of the ...[Atlas] project considerably transcending the Convair framework"

In early 1955 most of the Eisenhower administration assumed that America had a strong

lead over the Soviet Union in strategic technology and felt no particular urgency for the

ICBM programs.

The Killian Report indicated that America was becoming vulnerable and

that the ICBM should be given the "highest priority."

While an Air Force priority, he believed that ICBMs must also be a national priority.

He indicated that the U. S. could

Gardner developed a five-year plan to accelerate the Atlas which would yield a "preliminary capability" by June 1958.