He resigned from Standard Oil in 1938, and became an independent aviation consultant. He was a passenger on the first transatlantic round trip of the dirigible Hindenburg. He became an executive at Standard Oil, where he contributed to books and papers on aerodynamics, metallurgy, airplane structures and aviation fuels. He briefly became a stockbroker, but sold all his stocks in August 1929, just two months before the Wall Street Crash of 1929 in order to buy a grand three-storey, seven bedroom house in Montclair, New Jersey. On 15 February 1929, he became a major in the United States Army Air Corps Reserve. Now a captain, Aldrin resigned his commission in the Air Corps on 12 November 1928. in aeronautical engineering from MIT in 1928, writing a thesis on " Dynamical analysis of the spinning of airplanes" under the supervision of William G. He knew aviation pioneer Orville Wright, and Jimmy Doolittle was an occasional visitor to his house. Moon, whom he had met in the Philippines while serving as aide-de-camp to Billy Mitchell. He was assistant commandant of the Army's first test pilot school at McCook Field, Ohio, from 1919 to 1922. Between the wars Īldrin completed flight training in February 1919, and was transferred to the United States Army Air Service on 1 July 1920. degree in aeronautical engineering in 1918, writing his thesis on an " Investigation of behavior of electrically heated wires with varying inclination to wind stream as applied to anemometer development" and the " Relationship of telephone transmitter resistance with diaphragm displacement - particularly to ascertain applicability as indicator for internal combustion engines", under the supervision of Arthur E. In June 1918, Aldrin went to the School of Aeronautical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was awarded an M.S. After training at the Coast Artillery School at Fort Monroe, Virginia, he was posted to the 11th Coast Artillery Company at Fort McKinley, Maine, in April 1918, and then to the 72nd Coast Artillery Company at Fort Preble, Maine, in May 1918. On 16 November 1917, with the United States at war during World War I, he was commissioned in the United States Army as a second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps. At Clark he studied rocketry under Robert H. He was educated at Clark University, from which he graduated in 1916, and at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, from which he graduated the following year. Edwin Eugene (Gene) Aldrin Sr., was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on 12 April 1896 to Swedish immigrants from Värmland, Sweden.