Joe


Joe

Our little team of experimentalists was soon to be disbanded, but it would be thoughtless of me to omit some words about the members of the team. My two primary colleagues were Joe Brooks and Bill Beasley. Joe had been at NACA for about ten years when I arrived. His career had not been impressive because he didn’t have the background for theoretical research and his wind tunnel work suffered from a lack of analytical insight into the significance of the data.

However, in our lab he blossomed. His enthusiasm for high-tech equipment was unmatched. When we bought the most up-to-date Tektronix oscilloscope model, he took the operating manual home over the weekend and came in on Monday, bubbling over with knowledge of the amazing things that we could do with it. And he was that way throughout our years in the lab, whether he was working with custom made generators or power supplies, or micro-projectiles, or a “home-made” helium gun, he could make it yield its optimum performance. He had an outgoing personality, which enabled him to work smoothly with machinists and other technicians when we needed their expertise.

When our team was disbanded he and Bill were assigned to routine wind tunnel work. They did not have the theoretical background to undertake theoretical work, as I had. But eventually Joe’s talents gained some recognition. When one of the wind tunnels needed to be restructured for a different type of testing he and another engineer (whose name was, coincidentally, also Brooks) were placed in charge of the project. After that project was well in hand, he was assigned to an engineer who had an idea for an innovative low-turbulence supersonic “blow down” tunnel. A small prototype tunnel had been authorized and a contract let for its construction. When it was finally delivered, Joe was given the job of overseeing its installation, together with its data collection system, and initial test runs. One day shortly after its delivery, I was sitting in my office poring over equations, when Joe walked in with a look of child-like excitement. He said, “You ought to come over and take a look at that thing. It’s cute as the devil!” That remark characterized him completely. No one else in the entire world would ever think to call a wind tunnel “cute”.

Return to table of contents for this label:

Table of Contents for Memories Label (augustmarsblog.blogspot.com)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Arts: Music

  The Arts: Music When I was telling about my learning to appreciate great music, I referred to that experience as an investment. Over the years (and there have been many) that investment has paid off, as my love for, and even dependence on, that music has grown steadily. There were times when I would be mentally exhausted after hours of study and focusing my mind on a mathematical problem, throw myself flat on my bed and listen to a Brahms symphony. It was the mental equivalent of getting a long, cool drink of spring water, sprawled in a shady, breezy grove after hours of work in the hot sun. It seemed that there was almost always a need to match or heal a specific mood, and there is considerable variety of moods. A Beethoven symphony expressed that pent up, repressed energy that often needed to be released; or I might sit at the piano and pound away at one of his sonatas. Somewhere among the movements of his sonatas, symphonies, or concertos I could experience profound c
Read more

SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS

  SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS For many years I was under the impression that if someone’s knowledge had acquired recognition – in the form of university tenure, awards, publications, a position of authority, or respect of his peers – then that knowledge was beyond question, and I could accept that person’s teachings as “gospel”. That trust in expert knowledge was rapidly dissipated when I entered into a career as a NASA research scientist. Within the first few months of my employment, I was called into a presentation on helicopter aerodynamics to be given by the head of the chemistry department of a large eastern university. He proceeded to inform us with a straight face that helicopter lift was actually due to an agitation of air similar to the water motion induced by the agitator in a clothes washer, while he displayed a series of equations to support his theory. Apparently, he did not realize that the theory of helicopter aero
Read more

Reincarnation

  Reincarnation One of the controversial subjects that plays a part in most mystical religions and philosophies is reincarnation. So, we may as well take a brief look at it. I came across the subject when I was still a teenager and took a temporary interest in it. I decided that it wasn't worth thinking about. My reasoning was that it didn't make any difference whether I would be reincarnated or not because that next incarnation was essentially a different person. If there was no memory of this life, then there was no continuity from one life to the next. I read the argument that an individual gradually becomes a better person over a series of lifetimes, until he can no longer benefit from being incarnated, at which point he attains permanently a higher state of existence. I had several problems with this doctrine. It didn't seem reasonable to expect someone to change for the better if he had no
Read more