Word: raborn
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...construction. Her reactor and control-room sections were nearly completed. By chopping that 250-ft vessel in half and inserting a 130-ft missile bay in her midriff, she could be commissioned in two years as a Polaris submarine. But though he knew his scheme was technically possible, Raborn still had to convince himself that U.S. industry would work as hard as his new schedule required...
...Raborn's request, the top men from all his important contractors-Lockheed, G.E., General Dynamics, M.I.T.-were summoned to a meeting in Washington. In a speech that was part locker-room pep talk, part sermon, part Navy enlistment appeal, part Arthur Godfrey commercial, they were asked if they were willing to proceed on "wartime urgency with wartime dedication." If the answer was yes, said Raborn, "I want the word of your company in bond that you will...
...silence in the room when he was finished, remembers Raborn, "was like the silence after a talk by an evangelist. It was the silence before you heard the shuffle on the sawdust." Lockheed Vice President L. E. Root turned to his boss, Bob Gross, and whispered something, the sibilants resounding across the quiet room. When Root was finished. Bob Gross walked to the blackboard and wrote "Lockheed." General Electric's Ralph Cordiner stood up and said: "Give us the money and stay out of our hair." Everyone else simply nodded. The next day a Marine courier arrived...
Fragrant Memory. Raborn got his program moving at flank speed. Somehow, in record time, every phase of the mission had to be worked out in theory and tested in practice. Dummy birds of everything from redwood to cement were fired at installations from San Clemente Island to Cape Canaveral. There were test shots from a converted Mariner-class ship, Observation Island. There were tethered shots, shots that were grabbed by hooks, and buoyant birds netted in the water. All helped give basic information...
...missile's propellant was painstakingly perfected as the chemistry of high-energy fuels was tested at half a dozen laboratories. At one point, Raborn's talent scouts had to track down an expatriate German, descendant of a long line of armor makers, who could work the heat-resistant beryllium parts for the missile's control vanes. They found him in Ohio, in a backyard auto garage...