Engineering Scientist sounds like a good description of what a lot of us did
in the early aerospace and energy fields. In my case it was one of inventing
solutions to problems and loosely defined objectives confronting NASA, AEC,
the
Department of Energy, and the military services: getting my ideas built into
competitive bid Requests for Proposals; and winning the subsequent
contracts. Didn't win or build every one, some were classified and/or very
far out, but it sure was an interesting and rewarding life.
Mayf, if it was the early days of the space age, I'm assuming you met Jerome
Weisner, Pres. Kennedy's science advisor. At the live televised news
conference at Cape Canaveral following John Glenn's Mercury flight, Weisner
got into a loud and vigorous argument with Gilruth, Webb, and other NASA
people and Kennedy himself had to shut them up. I met Weisner a few years
later at an Artificial Internal Organs conference and had a long chat with
him about a bunch of stuff and the Canaveral argument. It turns out he was
still very angry that
four NASA centers fudged the failure mode analysis to favor the Lunar Orbit
rendezvous mission profile as opposed to Earth Orbit rendezvous option which
he considered a lot safer (probably only Mayf and the rest of us old guys
remember the Apollo mission alternatives). Weisner was so angry that Kennedy
finally had to tell him "Jerry, those guys are the ones that have to do the
job, so let them do it their way" (guess Kennedy knew who the real hot
rodders were).
What's wrong with those white lab coats? When I was a "kid" working in the
Combustion Lab, we wore them all the time because setting up those jet
engine combustors and afterburners was messy. We started decorating the lab
coats with Magic Markers and that stuff didn't wash out when the lab coats
were laundered and redistributed throughout the Westinghouse Research Labs.
Was kinda funny seeing elderly, very senior corporate scientists wearing
white lab coats with "winged fingers" or "Sal Mineo Fan Club" on their
backs.
Lance
----- Original Message -----
From: "DrMayf" <drmayf@teknett.com>
To: <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 12:54 PM
Subject: Engineers and Scientists...Mayf's Perspective
> Well, folks, I consider myself in a special category. Engineering
Scientist.
|