John Wickman, founder and president of Wickman Spacecraft and Propulsion, Inc. (WS&P), Casper is a remarkable entrepreneur who has set his goals high (mostly no pun intended) as many of his competitors are the big names in the aerospace industry. He founded his company in California following a pioneering career as a missile propulsion specialist with Aerojet Corporation at their facitlity near Sacramento. In the early 1990's John decided to move his company to Casper where he is located at the Casper airport in one of the buildings built during WWII as a part of an Army Air Corps training facility.

WS&P has been a very successful participant in the Wyoming Phase 0 as well as the federal SBIR programs. The most recent of three Phase 0 projects received funding in December 2001 for a proposed DOD/DARPA project “Retrofitting Turbojet Engines For Hypersonic, Upper Atmospheric Flight”. The company has an excellent record in the SBIR program having been successful in receiving Phase I & II SBIR awards from both NASA and DOD/Air Force. (One is tempted to observe that you may not have to be a rocket scientist to be successful in the SBIR program but it apparently doesn't hurt either.)

These successes have been recognized both at the national and state levels. WS&P was a recipient of a 1996 Small Business Administration Tibbetts Award and also received a WSSI Busch award in 2001. Congratulations John, and good luck in your most recent SBIR submission.