Dryden History; 1He Shuttle Years
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poken Word Ill: Dryden History; 1he Shuttle Years edited by Christian Gelzer NASA SP-2013-4552 MoNOGRAPHs IN AEROSPACE HISTORY #52 The Spoken Word Ill: Recollections of Dryden's History; The Shuttle Years edited by Christian Gelzer Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The spoken word III: recollections of Dryden history: the shuttle years I edited by Christian Gelzer. p.cm. "NASA SP-2011-4552." 1. NASA Dryden Flight Research Center--History. 2. Astronautics--Research--California--Rogers Lake (Kern County)--History. 3. Oral history. 4. Aerospace engineers--United States--Interviews. 5. Astronauts -United States--Interviews. I. Peebles, Curtis. TL568.N23S66 2007 629.1072 '4--dc22 2007047436 11 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ... .. .......................... .. ... ... .. .... ..... ........... .. ... .... .... .... ..... ....... .... ...................... iv Prologue .......... ....... ... .... .. .... ................ .. .......................... ..... ........... .. .. ............ ......... ......... .......... v Glossary .............................. .. .................. ... ... .. ................... ..... .... ......... .. .... .. ..... ..... .................. .. vi Johnny Armstrong ..................................................... .. .... ................... .................. ........ .. ... .. .... .... 1 Bob Baron ................................................................................................................................... 5 Rick Brewer ................... ,.......................................................................................................... 11 Joe D' Agostino ...................... .............................. .... ... .......... ... .. ............................................... 25 Gordon Fullerton ...... .... .......... .. ... .. .... ... ... .. ............................ .. ... .. ............................................ 43 George Grimshaw ........................ .. .... ..................................................................... .. ................ 53 John McKay ........ ...... ......................... ....................... .. ............................. .. ... .......... .................. 63 Thomas C. McMurtry and Joseph H. Engle ........................................... .. ... ............................. 81 John McTigue ........................................................................................................................... 89 Robert R. Meyer, Jr ................................................................................................................. l01 Pete Seidl ......................... ... ......................... ..... ............................... .. ..................................... 105 William T. "Bill" Shelton and Harry Talbot ............. .. ... .. ....................... .. .............................. 131 Kenneth J. Szalai ...................................................... .. ............................................................ 143 Ill Acknowledgements George Grimshaw endorsed this project from the start and made it possible; without his support it would not have happened. He and Shirley King began directing me to past and present employees who might tell their story. Steve Parcel of Dryden TV was always quick to accommodate the interviewees, something quite helpful when sched ules sometimes posed challenges. The Dryden Photo Lab produced incredible imagery, as always, in the hunt for pictures that enhance these accounts. Erika Fedorko conducted a series of oral histories for Dryden History Office, many of which helped this book directly, as did Guy Noffsinger of NASA HQ, albeit for a separate project; he was kind enough to allow me to make use of his work. Rebecca Wright and Sandra Johnson of the Johnson Space Center history Office, which has the agency's premier oral history collection, conducted interviews they did not know I would use, and I thank them. Terri Lyon took on the task of transcribing many of the interviews at a time when she was already heavily burdened with other work, and like other ele ments in such a project, without her effort there would have been no book. As editor, Elizabeth Kissling poured over the interviews with care and patience, making the final product a delight to read; she did far more than was asked and I am indebted to her. Steve Lighthilllaid out the book with a flair I have come to take for granted, which is a mistake; one day it won't be available and I shall deeply miss it. Finally, my peer reviewers gave the manuscript an extraordinary and thoughtful read, stealing time from other obligations (one from a human spaceflight project) to help sharpen and polish this book. I thank them deeply. Any remaining errors of omission or commission are mine alone. Christian Gelzer NASA Dryden Edwards, California IV Prologue This is the third in a series of oral histories about NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. This volume focuses on the space shuttle program and thus spans nearly three decades. Since the creation ofthe center's history office in 1996, coincident with the 50th anniversary of the center itself, the office has collected oral histories from the cen ter's workforce. The benefit is more than a publication such as this: it's the compilation of corporate memory, which is invaluable. Volume three ostensibly covers the shuttle years- a period starting with the Ap proach and Landing Tests in 1977- but in fact the story begins earlier than that, with the first lifting bodies and the X-15s, both critical antecedents to the space shuttle. Because the shuttles were prepared for flight at, and launched from, the Kennedy Space Center, and the astronaut office is at the Johnson Space Center, it is easy to forget that other NASA centers were involved in the shuttle program, but they were. In fact, Dryden and the Air Force had been flying piloted rocket planes into the stratosphere from an enormous dry lake bed in the California High Desert before NASA existed as an agency. Eight of the twelve X-15 pilots earned astronaut wings in the 1960s flying from that same location, piloting the world's first reusable space plane in the process. Both Dryden and the Air Force were integral to the shuttle program from the begin ning. Here then, in their own words, are participants in the shuttle story. Christian Gelzer Chief Historian Jacobs/TYBRIN NASA Dryden Flight Research Center 2013 v Glossary 534 and 508: Purge and cooling units attached by tubes to the back of the shuttle after landing ALT: Approach and Landing Test AP: Air Police APU: Auxiliary Power Unit DFRC: Dryden Flight Research Center DoD: Department of Defense FRC: Flight Research Center (now Dryden Flight Research Center) JSC: Johnson Space Center KSC: Kennedy Space Center LaRC: Langley Research Center MDD: Mate Demate Device MIPR: Military Interdepartmental Purchase Request MSBLS: Microwave Scanning Beam Landing System NASA 25: Dryden's mobile command vehicle for shuttle landings (a modified motorhome) OMS: Orbital Maneuvering System OV: Orbiter Vehicle (OV-099, 101, 102, etc.) PAPI: Precision Approach Path Indicator PIO: Pilot Induced Oscillation SCA: Shuttle Carrier Aircraft SPORT: FAA air traffic control center at Edwards AFB TBO: Time Before Overhaul SLF: Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC STA: Shuttle Training Aircraft STS: Space Transport System TACAN: Tactical Air Navigation X-68: Former FAA designation for the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC VI Johnny Armstrong Johnny Armstrong first worked for the government at the Army's Redstone Arsenal, in Hunstville, AL, in 1953. He joined the USAF in 1956 and was assigned to the Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base where he spent the balance of his career with a brief stint at NASA in Hunstville again. As a civilian at Edwards he worked on lifting bodies and hypersonic vehicles, including the X-15, space shuttle, and the X-51. He authored more than 20 papers. Armstrong retired in 2012. Johnny Armstrong, interviewed by Guy T. Noffsinger, Shuttle Documentary Inter views, October 2010. When John Manke Noffsinger: Can you give me your name and your previous title? climbed into the cockpit of the Armstrong: I'm Johnny Armstrong. I worked for the Air Force Flight Test Center. I X-248 for the first have been doing that for about 52 years. I was privileged to be able to work the X-15 flight he found a note taped to the and the lifting bodies with NASA Dryden, which was an obvious extension when the intrument panel: shuttle came along, to continue to work with them with our good working relationship "Honestly now, we had all those years. have you read the instructions?" Noffsinger: What did you do? Armstrong: During the X-15 program I was one ofthe flight planners, as well as training pilots in the simulator. That kind of extended into the lifting body program, as well as into the shuttle program. Very few people realize that the Air Force Flight Test Center had a shuttle simulation that was used for the early studies of both the Approach and Landing Test and the orbital flight test landing phase. Joe Engle came here because we had worked with him on the X-15 and actually built the data maneuvers that he performed during the re-entry. You gotta remember that Joe was the only individual that ever flew the shuttle hands-on all the way from de-orbit bum through landing. In that flight plan he did data maneuvers by kicking the rudder and the ailerons and pitch axis to get the data, maneuvers that we later extracted