November 1968
From The Space Library
Milton Alberstadt reviewed 25-yr history of MSFC's Michoud Assembly Facility. U.S. Government built plant (dedicated Oct. 24, 1943) on Michoud sugar mill site during World War II to assemble Curtiss C-46 Caravan transports. After C-46 contract was canceled, "Flying Dutchman," air-sea rescue boat carried under belly of Boeing B-17 bomber, was developed. Michoud plant was reactivated during Korean War by Chrysler Corp. to produce 810-hp engines for Patton tanks. It was selected by NASA in 1961 as site to build Saturn rocket to put man on moon. (Boeing Magazine, 11/68, 8-9)
In Air Force and Space Digest interview General Electric Co. Vice President Gerhard Neumann, head of GE Aircraft Engine Group, said postponement of essential R&D during past several years had "mortgaged" nation's techological future. He saw hazards in current DOD contracting policies which kept industry from taking "reasonable risks" because they imposed implacable performance guarantees. He blamed parsimonious funding on Vietnam War requirements and urged lost ground be regained as soon as priorities permitted. In era of R&D austerity, Neumann advocated "lot more" work in advanced-engine research by NASA. (AF /SD, SD, 11/68, 58)
Secretary of Defense Clark M. Clifford wrote in Air Force and Space Digest: "Not too many years ago, the War and Navy Departments were concerned almost exclusively with men and simple machines. Defense industries were regarded as mere munitions-makers.. . . We now have a military-industrial team with unique resources of experience, engineering talent, management and problem-solving capacities, [and it] must be used to help find the answers to complex domestic problems as it has found the answers to complex weapon systems. Those answers can be put to good use by our cities and our states, by our schools, by large and small businesses alike. The nation will be the better and the stronger." (AF/SD, 11/68, 76-7)
In Air Force and Space Digest Capt. Gerald T. Rudolph (USAF) of AFSC Space and Missiles Systems Organization scored lack of progress in adopting systems technology to solve "nation's mounting social problems." He found two major reasons for lag: "the public does not entirely understand [it], largely because the aerospace industry has been unable to define it adequately and explain how it is used. And . . . American society has always been reluctant to accept the kind of centralized authority required to implement systems solutions, especially at the community and regional levels." Every effort should be made, he said, to surmount obstacles because "it is the judgment of many experts that systems technology will prove to be the most valuable parcel of knowledge to come out of present day space technology." (AF/SD, 11/68, 79-81)
J. S. Butz, Jr., in Air Force and Space Digest article "The Men Behind Soviet Aircraft Design" wrote: "Top Russian designers are exuberant realists; and they operate under a 'prototype' system of development that is probably the most competitive and technically stimulating in the world. This system is similar to the one employed in the United States until the mid-1950s and the odds appear strong that the U.S. will return to such an approach in the 1970s, rejecting the strong dependence on 'systems analysis' and 'cost-effectiveness' studies that characterized the 1960s." (AF /SD, 11/68, 62-7)
- November
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
