Early Life and NACA Career
Glynn Lunney grew up in the coal city of Old Forge, Pennsylvania. He was the eldest son of William Lunney, a welder and former miner who encouraged his son to get an education and to find a job beyond the mines. A childhood interest in model airplanes prompted Lunney to study engineering in college. After attending the University of Scranton from 1953 through 1955, he transferred to the University of Detroit, where he enrolled in the cooperative training program run by the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The center was a part of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a United States federal agency founded to promote aeronautical research. Cooperative students at NACA took part in a program that combined work and study, providing a way for them to fund their college degrees while gaining experience in aeronautics. Lunney graduated from college in June 1958, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering.
After graduation, Lunney remained with NACA. His first job was as a researcher in aerospace dynamics at Lewis Research Center, where he worked with a team studying the thermodynamics of vehicles during high-speed reentry. Using a B-57 bomber, the team sent small rockets high into the atmosphere in order to measure their heating profile.
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