A study of the reading rate and comprehension of 10 aerospace engineers and analysis of the readability of sample company communications were undertaken. The Nelson-Denny Reading Test comprehension scores for the engineers, when compared with scores of a norm group provided by the Nelson-Denny Test Manual, were nearly the same in mean and standard deviation as those for college seniors. The engineers understood about two-thirds of what they read. No significant difference was found between the reading rates of the two groups. However, the mean of the test group vocabulary scores was significantly higher than the norm group mean. The Flesch Readability Formula revealed that all of the documents analyzed had a lower reading ease score (were more difficult) than the Nelson-Denny Reading Test. It was concluded (1) that important information must be repeated; (2) that all engineers should receive instruction in report writing; and (3) that reading efficiency in engineers could be greatly increased by instituting reading improvement programs. Tables and references are included. (CM)