Word: convairs
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...delta-winged, wasp-waisted Convair F106 interceptor, piloted by Major Joseph W. Rogers of Worthington, Ohio, took off from Edwards Air Force Base and climbed to 40,000 ft. (jets are slow at low altitude). Air conditions were ideal; the aircraft and its Pratt & Whitney J-75 engine were new but carefully chosen. In earlier tests, the engine had been revved up until its temperature reached the highest permissible level, and the fuel-input control was set at that point...
...stupid" and "naive" in the planning of its moonshot program. He was right. But much of the stupidity and naivete lay with the high official's cohorts, who have yet to speed up the Atlas production line-still proceeding at a leisurely 50% of capacity at the Convair plants in San Diego...
...whom he would be paid while on the job. Reason: at Defense Secretary Neil McElroy's urging, Critchfield was to be a "WOC," serve "without compensation" from the U.S. and keep on drawing his pay of about $40,000 a year from California's missile-making Convair Division of General Dynamics Corp...
Among Congressional Democrats, the "without compensation" arrangement raised cries of conflict-of-interest despite Critchfield's promise to take no hand in decisions on Convair projects ($4,000,000 of ARPA's $500 million budget). Among hard-pressed military missilemen, Critchfield raised hopes of at last finding a boss who knows his way around with two kinds of rare birds: missiles and scientists. Critchfield knows his way around in still another way that should stand him in good stead in the Pentagon: he is a shrewd and lucky poker player with a tested wizardry for figuring the odds...
...Ueltschi estimates that Flight Safety's charges are one-tenth of what it would cost a company to maintain sufficient instructors, equipment and flight procedures. In addition, the pilots put in time (cost to the companies: $50 an hour) in a twin-engine translator and a just purchased Convair 340-440 simulator that can simulate every possible flight condition from ice to fire to mechanical malfunction. "There is not a pilot anywhere we could not drive to the breaking point," says Ueltschi. "We hold funeral services every afternoon...