"...and to think they did it all with slide rules!" is perhaps the most predictable comment when people today talk about aerospace engineering of the 1950s-60s.

"...and to think they did it all with slide rules!" is perhaps the most predictable comment when people today talk about aerospace engineering of the 1950s-60s. I've read a fair amount of reports and autobiographical accounts from that period and what has really struck me is how few of the engineers had graduate degrees. Instead of saying, "Wow, and they just had slide rules," say "Wow, and they just had B.S. degrees."