Walter Rutledge Senior Technical Advisor CENTRA Technologies

Walter Rutledge has over 40 years of experience in the field of aerospace technology. His expertise ranges from Aerosciences R&D to flight test mission operations to kinetic warhead technologies. With over 25 years in management, he has a unique experience base consisting of technical and organizational leadership.

Dr. Rutledge began his career with the Naval Surface Weapons Center in Dahlgren, VA where he conducted research and analysis of future Navy hypersonic missile concepts as well high-speed cluster munitions. In 1983 Dr. Rutledge joined Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM where he conducted research on several hypersonic concepts by combining M&S, ground testing, and flight testing.

As a Sandia Senior Manager he provided technical and programmatic leadership in areas such as computational & experimental aerodynamics/compressible gas dynamics, flight mechanics, aerothermodynamics, range safety analysis, high-speed penetration technologies, and applied explosives systems technologies. Dr. Rutledge has spent most of the last ten years at OSD as Technical Advisor to the Conventional Prompt Strike national hypersonic program. Dr. Rutledge retired from Sandia in 2020 and joined CENTRA Technologies, where he currently serves as the Senior Technical Advisor for DoD’s Principal Director for Hypersonics in OSD(R&E).

Dr. Rutledge received his Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Auburn University and his PhD in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Texas. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and is a member of the AIAA HyTSAP Program Committee.