•


Table of Contents

Preface i

Introduction 1

Establishment of the NACA Muroc Flight Test Unit 1

Women's Involvement from 1946 to the Early 1950s 4

Working Environment Change in the Early 1950s 16

Women Authors from 1949 to 1960 20

Work Environment Changes in the 1960s 20

Women in Technical Areas from 1960s to Present.. 22

Notes 25

Appendix A: 10th Anniversary - Supersonic Flight X-Press 29

Appendix B: Data Reduction and Instrumentation Before Digital Computers 45

Appendix C: Women in the Engineering Field 65

Appendix D: Number of Women by Job Cotegory, 1960 to 1995 69

Index 71

List of Figures 74

List of Tables 75


wear dresses (or skirts) and shoes with

heels and hose. Slacks were permissible

only for velY rare occasions. This unwritten dress code made it more difficult to do

tasks that were easy for the men, such as

climbing a ladder to examine the pressure

orifices on the top surface of a wing.

Today, casual slacks and jeans are as

acceptable as more formal dress.

Social attitudes restricted non-work

activities as well. One woman, who

graduated from college in the late 1950s,

told me how concern about reputation had

adversely affected her non-work activities.

She, her boyfriend and another couple

who were also dating wanted to go on a

camping trip. But, there was no married

couple who could act as chaperones. She

decided the trip would be too great a risk

to her reputation and did not go. She

regretted that decision and wished that she

had gone camping. The other woman (not

a NASA employee) did go. The woman

telling me was considered by all to be very

staid and proper. I don't know anyone

who could have conceived of her doing

anything wild and foolish. By the late

1970s to early 1980s, the attitudes had

definitely changed. I remember one story

about a young woman of that time who

worked at NASA for a few years. The stOlY

concerned her and her boyfriend who was

a skydiver. On this particular dive, he was

attempting to hit a marked ground target.

To provide added incentive for him, she

stripped and lay in the center of the target.

I never heard how close he actually came

to the target. I don't even know for surethat the story was true. However, because

I knew her, I believe the stOlY. Another

change in social attitude concerns women

working after marriage. During the early

years, most women who married when

they were working were expected to quit

their jobs soon after, and most did. That

isn't true today.

individual photographs by organization),

old issues of the Dryden in-house newsletter and the memories of people who

worked here during that time. I apologize

to any of the women I may have omitted.

The additional information resources from

1963 to the present included my memories

and the memories of those still working at

Dryden.

I would like to thank all the people

who shared their memories and experiences with me. In particular, I would like

to thank Mary V. Little Kuhl, Mary (Tut)

Hedgepeth, Betty Scott Love, Walter C.

Williams and Terry J. Larson for their

memories of the early days at Dryden and

to thank Edwin J. Saltzman and Lannie

Dean Webb for sharing their memories and

keepsakes from earlier days. Other people

who were especially helpful in filling in

gaps were Thomas R. Sisk, Johnnye Green

Sisk, Gene 1. Waltman, Lawrence J.

Schilling, Albert E. Kuhl, Wilson E.

Vandiver, Cleo M. Maxwell, Paul F. Harney,

John W. Smith, Roy G. Bryant, Erma J.

Cox, Elizabeth W. Davis, Donald E.

Borchers and the Dryden History Committee.

Sheryll Goecke Powers

Dlyden Flight Research Center

June 1996
Barstow

+ Fremont Peak

,##' .-' .....

___

(, Searles

\ I Lake

, - - (dry)

China

China Lake

Navel

Weapons

Center

40km

obtain research data in the transonic Mach

number region (Mach 0.7 to 1.3). The data

were needed to build the next generation

of aircraft. This decision was made because the wind tunnels at that time could

not reliably obtain the data needed for

transonic and supersonic speeds. Also, the

interim "short-cut" flight programs of that

time, which included air drops of weighted

models, launches of models from rockets,

and test models mounted on aircraft

wings, could not provide all the needed

information.

Certain requirements for the flight test

area had to be met. One was that the area

had to be remote for safety reasons, which

included increased landing site availability

for the pilot and lessened risk from crashes

for the general public. A remote area

would also reduce unwanted observation.

As is common with most aeronautical

advances, there was concern about

protecting this research and technology

from foreign observers. Another requireNorth

1

Willow Springs

I I I

10 20 30

Establishment of the NACA

Muroc Flight Test Unit

14

Women have been involved with flight

research at NASA Dryden Flight Research

Center since its inception as the site for

flight research on advanced, high-speed

aircraft. The first research involved transonic aircraft, including the X-I, the first

piloted aircraft to exceed the speed of

sound (exceed a Mach number of 1.0).

The working environment for the women

in the engineering field was influenced by

several factors. One factor was the growth

of Dryden from 13 or 14 employees (2 of

them women) at the end of 19461 to the

December 1995 size of approximately 450

employees. Other factors include the effect

of World War II on the availability of

engineers and the advent of digital computers. This monograph describes the

working and living environment for the

women during the late 1940s and early

1950s. The number of women engineers,

their work and the airplanes they worked

on from 1960 to December 1995 are also

discussed. In order to better understand

the labor intensive data gathering and

analysis procedures before the age of

digital computers, typical instrumentation

used on the X-series aircraft from the X-I

through the X-15 is shown. The data

reduction technique to obtain the Mach

number position error curve for the X-I

aircraft, used to document the

historic first flight to exceed the

speed of sound, is discussed. A

Mach number and altitude plot from

an X-15 flight is also shown. The

author, employed at Dryden since

1963, used available records along

with memory to document the

number of women in engineering at

Dryden, comment about observed

trends, and make personal observations.

Introduction
tt

A brief discussion of

the flight testing of the

X-I aircraft at Muroc is

found in Appendix A,

which includes a copy of

a special edition of the

X-PRESS, a publication

by and for the employees of the NACA High

Speed Flight Station, as

Dlyden was then

designated. The special

(or "extra") edition,

dated 14 October 1957,

was for the 10th

anniversary of the first

supersonic flight.

t Edwards was named

for Captain Glen

Edwards 0918-1948),

who was killed in the

crash of a Northrop YB49 Flying Wing.

Rogers Lake

(Dry)

North

Base --../

/

••

the X-I and D-558-1 aircraft included the

typical flight test studies of wing pressure

distributions, lift and drag, stability and

control, and handling qualities. Additional

testing on the X-I included the effects of

two different wing thickness-to-chord

ratios (8% and 10%) and the first use ofrocket reaction control jets, which are now

used to provide control on all spacecraft

including the space shuttle. Additional

testing on the D-558-1 Skystreak aircraft

included determining the effectiveness of

wing vortex generators in improving

stability and control and handling qualities.

Another version of the D-558 series aircraft

(D-558-2) was the 35° leading-edge

sweptback-wing Skyrocket aircraft. The

Skyrocket was used to test the effectiveness of a sweptback-wing aircraft in the

transonic and supersonic flight regimes.

One Skyrocket aircraft was powered by

both a turbojet engine and a rocket engine

and took off under its own power from

the ground. An all-rocket engine Skyrocket

aircraft was air-launched from a B-29. The

third version of the Skyrocket aircraft was

also air-launched from a B-29 but had botha turbojet engine and a rocket engine.

In the fall of 1946, NACA Langley

began sending people to Muroc. The test

Dryden Flight

Research Center \

•

ment was that the test area have good

flying conditions (few cloudy days)

because previous NACA Langley flight tests

had demonstrated the difficulty in visually

tracking aircraft in cloudy skies. The

previous flight tests had also shown that

these new test aircraft needed long

runways for takeoff and landing.

The air-launched X-Itt· series

aircraft were flight tested from

1946 to 1958 and the D-558 series

aircraft from 1947 to 1956. The

turbojet engine D-558 Skystreak

(D-558-1) aircraft took off under its

These needs led to the selection of

Muroc Army Airfield, which became Muroc

Air Force Base in February of 1948 and

was renamed Edwardst Air Force Base in

December of 1949, as the site for the flight

tests. Muroc, in the Mojave desert, met the

remote location, good flying conditions,

and long runways requirements. In

addition to the concrete runways, the dry

lakebeds at Muroc provided large, natural

landing areas. Muroc had two additional

advantages. One was that the Army Air

Forces, with which the NACA was working, had established Muroc as a wartime

center for advanced aircraft testing. The

other was the proximity of Muroc to the

leading aircraft industries in the Los

Angeles area (fig. 1). The employees at the

Muroc test site were to conduct flight tests

and analyze the data for the rocketpowered XS-1 and the jet-powered and

rocket-powered D-558 series of aircraft. 2

The primary purpose of the initial tests

was to determine whether the straightwing XS-1 aircraft and the straightwing, turbojet-powered D-558

Skystreak aircraft were controllable

through the transonic flight regime.

The XS-1 aircraft designation, short

for Experimental Sonic-I, was

renamed the X-Ion 11 June 1948.3
Table 1. - Muroc/Dryden Name Changes

The history of the establishment of the

NACA Muroc site from its beginning in

1946 to 1981 has previously been documented. 4 From 1946 to the present, the

name for the Muroc site changed several

times. Table 1 shows the different names

NameNACA Muroc unittttNACA Muroc Flight Test Unit5

t The NACA High Speed

Flight Research Station, as

the later Dryden Flight

Research Center (DFRC)

was then designated,

moved to its present location in 1954. By the late

1950s, the base flight test

activities, formerly conducted at the South Base,

moved to between the

main runway and DFRC.

In the late 1950s, two of

the South Base hangers

were moved to the main

base. The South Base is

still occasionally used. For

instance, the Northrop B2 was being flight tested

at South Base when these

lines were written.

tt Rogers Dry Lake has an

irregular, rectangular

shape with the longest dimension of approximately

10 miles in the north-south

direction and the smallest

east-west dimension being

approximately 2 miles

across. The present main

base's paved runway is

approximately 2 miles

north of the South Base.

The dimensions and distances were obtained from

an aerial-view map of the

base compiled in March

1979 that shows the runways, facilities along the

western shore of the

lakebed, and other prominent features such as hills,

main roads, railroad

tracks, and a precision

impact (bombing) range.

Maps like these were used

to plot the radar track of

an airplane. This partiClllar map, 30"

X 30" with a

scale of 1 to 36,000,

showed only part of

Edwards Air Force Base.ttt This was not an official name.

*

There are no known

sources for the number of

facility location was at the South Baset (fig.

2) which was located on the western side

of Rogers Dry Lake.tt

A contingent of five

men arrived on 30 September 1946. Six

more men arrived two days before the first

glide flight at Muroc of the XS-1 aircraft on

11 October 1946. The first two women,

Roxanah B. Yancey and Isabell K. Martin,

arrived in December of 1946. The team

now consisted primarily of engineers,

computers (people who computed), and

instrument and telemetry technicians. The

computers, following the standard practice

of the day, were the two women. In the

Federal government's scientific community,

almost without exception, the computers

were women.

In early September of 1947, NACA

decided that the unit at Muroc (now

comprised of 27 persons) would function

as a permanent facility. The faCility, called

the NACA Muroc Flight Test Unit, was

managed by NACA Langley. On 14 October 1947, the XS-1 aircraft on its ninth

powered flight at Muroc became the first

piloted aircraft to fly faster than the speed

of sound. This historic flight was followed

on 25 November 1947 by the first NACA

flight of the D-558-1 aircraft. These flights

meant that the people at the NACA Muroc

site were now officially involved in the

flight testing of both the XS-1 and the

D-558 series aircraft.

Date

30 September 1946

7 September 1947

and the dates of change. Note that on 1

October 1958, NACA became the National

Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA). The formation of NASA from

NACA was a result of the launch of the

first earth satellite, Sputnik 1, on 4 October

1957 by the Union of Soviet Socialist

Republics (U.S.S.R.). In addition to the

NACA responsibilities, NASA had responsibility for the civilian space program.

The name changes during the early

years, particularly 1946 to 1954, were an

indication of the increasing number of

both programs and people at the Muroc

site. The maximum number of civil service

personnel working at Muroc/Dryden was

in the mid-1960s (669 in 1965).6 In mid1996, there were approximately 450 civil

service employees and approximately that

many contractor support personnel.* The

name changes also reflect the increasing

autonomy of the Muroc site. The three

factors of increased programs, people and

autonomy directly affected the working

environment for the women in the engineering field.

The discussion that follows concerns

the changes in the environment for the

women in the engineering field at Muroc/

Dryden. Only the NACA/NASA civil service

women are discussed; records were not

available for women who worked for

contractors. During the early days at

Muroc/Dryden, until about 1954, the

women who worked as computers were

treated as junior engineers both in the

tasks they were assigned and in their

working relationship with the male engineers. The data gathering and analysis
procedures before the age of digital

computers was labor intensive. To provide

a better understanding of the labor involved, typical instrumentation used on

the X-series aircraft from the X-I throughthe X-1St is shown in Appendix B. Also

discussed in Appendix

B is the data

reduction technique for the Mach number

position error curve for the historic first

flight to exceed the speed of sound with

the X-I aircraft.

A Mach number and

altitude plot from an X-IS flight is also

shown.

Women's Involvement from 1946 to

the Early 1950s

The women and probably many of the

men sent from Langley had volunteered

for the assignments at the Muroc site. The

length of the assignments varied considerably, anywhere from four months to two

years with one year being the most

common. Some of the engineers were

borrowed on contract for one or two years

from the other NACA laboratories (Ames

or Lewis). The first two women (the

computers) assigned to the Muroc site can

be seen in the group photograph taken in

late 1946 (fig. 3). The policy at Langley at

that time was to hire women with math

degrees to be computers. Roxanah Yancey,

who had a math degree, remained at the

Muroc site until her retirement in 1973.

Isabell Martin, who also had a math

degree, had left the Muroc site by early

1947.

By October of 1947, 27 persons were

working at the Muroc site. The group

photograph (fig. 4) shows 24 persons, 4

of them women. Roxanah Yancey, Phyllis

Rogers Actis and Dorothy Clift Hughes

were the woman computers at that time.

Naomi Wimmer was secretary to Walter

(Walt) Williams, head of the NACA Muroc

Flight Test Unit. An interesting aside is that

2 persons (Gerald Truszynski and Clyde

Bailey) were not in the original photograph. Images from other photographs

were pasted in to obtain this second group

photograph. The original negatives are

not available for either of these group

photographs.

t This was a rocketpowered aircraft that

was air-launched from a

B-52 airplane. There

were three X-IS aircraft

flown between 1959 and

1968. The X-IS extended

piloted f1ight to a

maximum Mach number

of 6.67 (4520 mph) and

to a maximum altitude of

354,200 feet. It was the

first aircraft to use

thrusters for pitch, yaw,

and roll control on the

fringes of the atmosphere. Data collected

from the various studies,

including heating,

materials, pressures,

stability, and f1ight

control, were important

in the development of

spacecraft as well as

today's operational

aircraft. Besides Hallion,

On the Frontier, pp. 101-

129, Milton O. Thompson, At the Edge ofSpace:

The X-i5 Flight Program

(Washington, D,C.:

Smithsonian Institution

Press, 1992) and Wendell

H. Stillwell, X-i5

Research Results

(Washington, D.C.:

NASA sp-60, 1965)

provide further

information on this

hypersonic aircraft and

the f1ight research

conducted with it.
Figure 4. Group photograph in front of the B-29, October 1947. Standing left to right: Charles

Hamilton, Milton McLaughlin, Joseph Vensel, Herbert Hoover, Roxanah Yancey, Hubert Drake,

Phyllis Rogers Actis, Howard Lilly, Naomi C. Wimmer, Frank Hughes, Dorothy Clift Hughes,

Arthur William (Bill) Vernon, Gerald Truszynski, Walter Williams, Clyde Bailey and Harold

Goodman. Kneeling from left to right: LeRoy Proctor, Jr., Donald Borchers, Harold Nemecek,

Elmer Bigg, John Gardner, De E. Beeler, John Mayer and Eugene Beckwith. (NASA Photo

E21431)

The number of people at the NACA Muroc

site almost doubled each year from 1947 to

1950. There were 40 persons in May of

1948, 60 in January of 1949, and 132 in

January of 1950. The group photograph

taken in 1950 (fig. 5) shows that the

number of women had increased significantly from the four of 1947.

Until 1957, the single women and men

could live in NACA dormitories on the

base. The original dormitories, at least for
the women, were makeshift facilities.

From December of 1946 to the spring of

1949, the women's dormitory appears to

have been a series of different buildings.

The following quotationt mentions

several of the women's living areas:

Upon arriving at Muroc in December 1946, Roxie began at Kerosene

Flats (so named because of the

heating method) what was to be a

nomadic existence. From Kerosene Flats, she went to housing

opened in the hospital area by the

Air Force-then to the Air Force

nurses' quarters, made available to

Civil Service personnel for a

limited time-next, to the "Guest

House" for three days-and for 5

years, to the NACA Women's

Dorm.

One of the buildings used by the

women in the spring of 1949 was the Red

Cross building at the South Base. This

building was near the hangar NACA used

until late 1948 (remembered as being

approximately 500 ft away). The men

could live in the Bachelor Officer Quarters

(BOQ) but faced the possibility of being

displaced by military men who needed a

room for a night or more.

By 1948, the unsatisfactory conditions

of the original dormitories and the work

facilities were seriously affecting morale

and making it difficult to recruit people.

A

dormitory was considered essential in the

recruiting of single women (and important

in the recruiting of single men) because of

the remote location of the work site. The

nearest town of any size was approximately 30 miles away. There was not a

public transportation system, and most of

the women did not own cars. (Some, like

Roxanah Yancey, learned to drive after

coming to Muroc.) Some of the women did

had been loaned to the Muroc site by the

Ames Laboratoly. The Gray Ghost apparently was a basic transportation vehicle; in

other words, it was better than no car at

all. Figure 6 is a photograph of Roxanah

Yancey with the Gray Ghost. The living

conditions at Muroc were bleak and the

following three quotations give a feeling

for the living and working conditions in

1947 and 1948. The first quotation is from

Appendix A:

Muroc in 1947... a land of

plentiful sunshine, warm dry air,

the wide open spaces with

unlimited visibility and ceiling

conditions. Muroc in 1947... a

wind-swept, flat desert area with

winds reaching 50 mph creating

dust and sandstorms that reduce

both visibility and ceiling conditions to 400 feet. An area capable

of producing temperatures from 5°

F to 115° F. Muroc in 1947...

manbuilt structures that provided

a bare minimum in living comfort

by any standards of the day.tt

The second quotation is from Richard

Hallion's On the Frontier7:

Muroc Air Force Base in early

1948 was not only remote, it was

bleak. In December 1947, NACA's

work came to a standstill as

personnel scrambled away to

celebrate the holidays in more

appealing sections of the country.

Indeed, one reason for the

impressive amount of work that

got done might have been sociological: there was little else to do.

Even by automobile, a trip to Los

Angeles was a chore; without one,

the remaining choice was the

afternoon Stage Linesttt bus that

left Muroc for Los Angeles at

t This is from Appendix

A in the Personalities

section of the 10th

anniversmy X-PRESS.

This includes brief

profiles of each of the 10

people who were at

Muroc for the first

supersonic flight in 1947

and were still working at

the High Speed Flight

Station in 1957. Roxie

refers to Roxanah

Yancey, the only woman

in the group of 10. Brief

job descriptions

accompany the profiles

for the 9 men.

tt This was written by

De E. Beeler and

continues with a

discussion of the

importance of the X-I

aircraft tests as the

reason the people

stayed. He also refers to

the housing facilities in a

later paragraph as

"equivalent to high-type

stables."

ttt The actual name was

the Trona Stage. The

route for this bus

originated in Trona,

which is near Death

Valley (between China

Lake Naval Weapons

Center and the northwest edge of Searles

Lake shown in fig. 1),

and ended at the

Greyhound Bus station

in Los Angeles. The

following day, the bus

would return to Trona,

according to the

recollections of Mary

Little Kuhl on 5 April

1994.
t The tests involved

removing the propeller

from the P-51, towing it

to between 25,000 and

30,000 feet with a P-61

(twin-engine Black

Widow), cutting loose at

the desired altitude, and

then diving to a glide

landing. Engineers

compared the data from

these full-scale tests with

data from a P-51 windtunnel model (with no

propellers).

tt Tut Hedgepeth, a

woman computer,

remembered her starting

salary in 1948 as being

$2,300 (interview on 28

October 1992). Walt

Williams, head of the

Muroc unit, remembered

his starting salary as

$2,000 in 1940, with a

subsequent raise to

$2,600. By the late

1940s, he was earning

$3,200 (interview on 17

September 1993).

Figure 6. Roxanah Yancey with the NACA Dodge carryall named the Gray Ghost, late 19405 or

early 19505. (NASA Photo E96 4340331)

of 1944 when NACA Ames Laboratory

(near San Francisco, California) was

conducting tests on the P-51 Mustang

airplanet :

A place in which these daring tests

could be made in privacy was

desired, and the Army offered the

primarily from the NACA Langley (Hampton, Virginia) and Lewis Laboratories

(Cleveland, Ohio).

Another factor that increased the

recruiting difficulties was that during the

summer of 1947 Langley decided to

establish the test team permanently as the
Figure 7. Aerial views of the women's dormitory at the south base. (a. above) July 1951; women's

dormitory with respect to NACA site (NASA Photo E499). (b. below) Late 1949 or early 1950showing the area around the women's dormitory.

would be $120 extra. This amount would

indeed be a significant supplement to an

income.

The NACA decided that in order to

recruit people to work at the Muroc site, it

was necessary to improve the dormitories

and the work facilities. The NACA Ames

Laboratory provided personnel, including

model makers, to support the construction

work on the new dormitories and other

NACA Muroc facilities (existing buildings

being modified). The shops and offices were

completed in November of 1948 and the

dormitories in the spring of 1949. An aerial

photograph taken in 1951 [fig. 7 (a)] shows

the location of the NACA work site with

respect to the women's dormitory. The

NACA work site was at this location from

late 1948 until mid-1954. Note how close the

work site is to the runway.t Figure 7 (b)

shows a closer view of the women's dormitory.tt While the women's dormitory remained at the South Base, the men's dormit The runway is 30 degrees from being in an east-west direction. Usmg the standard convention of north being 0 degrees and south at 180 degrees, the east end of the runway is 60 degrees from the north and the west end, 240 degrees from the north. The hangars are on the nOi th side of the runway.

it Some of the photographs used in this

document came from

otigmal NACA negatives

and some were fromcopies of photographs

111e NACA Photo Log, a

negative summalY,

includes negative number,

a few descriptive words,

name of person requesting

the photograph, date

when the photograph was

taken and date completed.

The elate completed

corresponds to when the

pnnts were available.

Some of the early

negatives listed in the

NACA photo Log have

disappeared The otiginal

negative for this photograph was probably from a

seties of five aerial view

negatives, none of which

are m the negative fIle.

These negatives did not

have dates for when the

photographs were taken,

but the completion elates

for the negatives preceding

and following the aetial

view negatives were 8

June 1950 and 26 July

1950, respectively.
tIn 1953 and 1954, the

men's dormitOly cost $3.69

evelY two weeks for a

double room and $6.00 for

a single room. The

dormitory cost, which was

deducted from the biweekly paycheck, also

included janitor service.

For comparison, a one

bedroom, one batlu'oom

apartment with a kitchenand a living room rented

for $75 to $100 per month

in Lrncaster in 1956.

(Recollections of Terry

L'uson on 11 May 1994.)

The women's dormitory in

1952 and 1953, which had

only single rooms, cost

$3.46 weekly ($6.92 every

two weeks). The

dormitory cost, which

included maid (janitor)

service, was deducted

from the paycheck. In

1954, the starting salary for

an engineer graduating

from college witll a

bachelor degree was

$3410. (Recollections of

Harriet Srnitll on 13 June

1996)

tory was at the North Base (fig. 2), an

approximately 8 mile drive. The men's

dormitory, because of its distance from the

base eating areas, had a kitchen and a cook

to prepare meals.t

The one-story, two-wing women's

dormitory had room for 10 and was near the

base cafeteria, chapel, and theater (fig. 7).

One wing had four rooms and the other had

(a) Front door entrance. (NASA Photo E96

43403-8)

six rooms. Each wing had a bathroom. The

bathroom in the six-room wing had two

shower stalls; the one in the four-room wing

had one shower stall. The communal living

area included a kitchen, complete with stove

and refrigerator; a living room that also

contained the dining room table; and a

laundry room containing one washing

machine and one dryer. Each of the women

had an evaporative cooler in her room.

(b) Parking area and exterior side view. Gray

Ghost (Dodge carryall) in background. Evaporative coolers are mounted at windows. (NASA

Photo E96 43403-7)
Because the humidity is usually low, the

evaporative coolers were quite effective in

providing cooling. However, they made

the room and everything in it very damp

which is why they are also called swamp

coolers. Figure 8t shows exterior and

interior views of the NACA woman's

dormitory. The front porch [fig. 8 (a)] faced

the street. The evaporative coolers are

seen in Figure 8 (b). Note the Gray Ghost

in the background. The minimallandscaping seen in the photographs was typical

for the South Base at that time. The most

extensive landscaping, a few trees and

some grass, was for the base headquarters

[fig. 7 (a)].

A bedroom, the dining area, the

laundry room and the kitchen stove are

shown in Figures 8 (c) through 8 CD,

respectively. Note the fire extinguisher by

the kitchen stove [fig. 8 (D] and by the

front door [fig. 8 (a)].

The late 1940s saw increased flight

activity, and more women computers (selfdubbed the Muroc Computers) were

needed at the NACA Muroc Flight Test

Unit.

A call went out to the NACA Langley,

Lewis and Ames laboratories for more

women computers. In response to that

call, Lilly Ann Bajus, Dorothy (Dottie)

Crawford and Gertrude (Trudy) Wilken

from Lewis and Angel Dunn, Mary (Tut)

Hedgepeth, Mary Little and Beverly Smith

from Langley came to NACA Muroc. Figure

9 shows some of these woman in a group

photograph taken at the work site in late

1948tt (probably November or December).

The women computers in the photograph

are Roxanah Yancey, Mary (Tut)

Hedgepeth, Dorothy Crawford Roth,

Dorothy Clift Hughes, Lilly Ann Bajus,

Gertrude (Trudy) Wilken Valentine, Angel

Dunn and Emily Stephens. Also photographed were Jane Collons who worked in

procurement, and Leona Corbett who, at

least when she first came, was secretary to

the head of the unit at Muroc, Walter

(Walt) Williams.

Most of the women who worked at

the NACA Muroc site in the late 1940s had

left by the early 1950s. Three womenRoxanah, Mary Little and Leona-remained

working at the NACA site until their

retirements. Leona was working in the

personnel branch (head of the Civil

t The photographs in

figures 6 and 8 were

copied from photographs belonging to

MalY Little Kuhl.

tt There was no date in

the NACA Photo Log

negative files, but the

negative was one of 115

listed without dates

between negatives dated

as taken 13 October

1949 and 13 December1949. The 1949 date

does not agree with

what some of the

women remembered.

Some of those in the

photograph were not at

Muroc in 1949. The most

credible recollection (of

Mary Little Kuhl on 20

November 1992) placed

the snow as occurring

during 1948. Even

though the winters in the

area are cold, big

snows-indeed, any

snow-are infrequent

(years apart) and

remembered for a long

time.
I MalY is mentioned in

the profile for Richard

Payne in the PERSONALITIES section of the

10th anniversaly XPRESS in Appendix A.

Ii" These comments are

from recollections of Tut

Hedgepeth on 28

October 1992. To

provide a feeling for

living expenses, Walt

Williams recalled on 17

September 1993 not only

the salary figures given

in the note on page 7

but the fact that in 1949

he bought a new

Oldsmobile model 98 for

$2,800. He considered a

Lincoln Continental, but

it cost $3,000. He

remembers thinking "that

was a lot for a car." By

picking up his new car

in Michigan, he saved

$300. Terry Larson

recalled on 11 May 1994

that his starting salary in

1953 after his graduation

from college was $3,500.

At that time, gasoline

cost 28 to 29 cents per

gallon, bread was 15

cents per loaf, bowling

25 cents a line and

movies also cost a

quarter.

Service Board of Examiners) when she

retired in late 1966. There were many

reasons the women left. Two returned to

their former worksite (Emily to Langley

and Lilly Ann to Lewis). Some left when

they had children. For example, Mary M.

Payne, also a woman computer from 1948

to 1951, came to NACA Muroc as a bride

and quit work when her first child was

born.I Some of the women married men

who worked at NACA Muroc or in the

local area and left when their husbands

did. One interesting stOly about this

concerns Beverly Smith. It seems that the

women previewed the records of any new

arrivals. Beverly was around 5 ft 9 in. to 5

ft 10 in. tall. One of the new arrivals was

Larry Smith, who was single and 6 ft 2 in.

tall. The women decided he should be the

one for Beverly to marry, and, as it happened, she did marry him.

Some women came to work at the

Muroc site because their husbands did.

Two of these women were Angel Dunn

and Mary (Tut) Hedgepeth, both from

NACA Langley. Angel and her husband left

the NACA Muroc unit after a few years.

Tut arrived in November of 1948 with her

husband, who started and worked for

several years in the photography lab at the

NACA Muroc unit. Tut left the NACA

Muroc unit in 1953 to work for the Air

Force on the base. She started work at

NACA Langley in 1948 for an annual salary

of $2300 after graduation from college.Ii"

Her father said that was more money than

he had ever earned in a year (but he did

put three daughters through college).

Recruiting visits and word of mouth

were also useful in finding woman computers. Beverly Swanson Cothren, who

worked at Langley, was recruited by

Roxanah Yancey in 1949. When she first

came, there was so much work that for the

first six weeks she also worked weekends.

Employees were also sought from the

California colleges and from the local area.

Harriet DeVries Smith began working with

the women computers in the summer of

1952 as a co-op student. following a

recruiting visit by De E. Beeler, one of the

early Muroc employees mentioned in

Appendix A. After graduation she returned

as an engineer. She had some problems

being accepted as an engineer for a year

or two because of her previous work with

the women computers. One of the men

engineers, in particular, wanted her to

continue to work as a woman computer.

Word of mouth was how Betty Love, who
Figure 10b. Viewed from buildings to runway, July 1951. (NASA Photo E501)

lived in the local area, heard of positions

for woman computers. She applied and

began working as a woman computer in

1952.1°

Figure 10 shows two aerial views of

the NACA Muroc site. Figure 10 (a), a

photograph taken in the late 1940s, shows

the site from the runway direction. Figure

10 (b), which was taken in 1951,t shows

the NACA work site from a different

direction. The photograph shows the

paved runway ending at the edge of

Rogers Dry Lake.tt Note that the airplanes

at the Republic hangar had to taxi on the

road to get to the runway.

Figures 7, 8 (a), 8 (b) and 10 also

show the desert vegetation and indicate

how different the climate was for the

fly to the NACA Muroc unit only when he

was scheduled to pilot the X-I. Between

test flights, he would fly a C-47 aircraft

back to Langley (a 2 day trip each way of

6 to 7 hours each day).l1

The aircraft being tested, such as the

X-I and the D-558, were at the leading

edge of technology. The information and

data obtained from these aircraft would

significantly affect the future of aviation.

For some, working on these aircraft was

reason enough to stay. One example of

the leading-edge data obtained is the

noseboom pressure traces (fig. 11) from

the historic flight of the X-I airplane flown

by Charles E. Yeager on 14 October 1947.

These pressure traces are a record of the

Mach jump from the first piloted airplane

flight to exceed the speed of sound

t Figures 7 (a) and 10

(b) are from a sequence

of nine aerial photographs taken, according

to the NACA Photo Log,

on 12 July 1951.

tt The Rogers DIy

lakebed is part of the

runway system (with

Rosamond Dry Lake also

available for landings but

primarily as a backup).

The paved runways are

preferred because the

lakebed is velY dusty.

Occasionally, there has

actually been enough

rain that the Rogers

lakebed has been wet

and unusable. Some

flight programs, such as

that for the X-15, could

only land on Rogers

lakehed. When heavy

rain precluded its use,

the programs were

delayed until the

lakehed dried out.

ttt The pressure traces

are for the impact

pressure, qc, and the

static pressure, p. The

total head pressure, PT,

is the sum of these

pressures + p).

PT remains unaffected

by the passage of the

shock. The impact

pressure is the pressure

differential between the

static pressure and the

total pressure. Thus,

when the static pressure

"jumps," the impact

pressure will "jump" an

equal amount (the same

pressure change) in the

opposite direction. The

amount of movement of

the two traces is

different because of

sensitivity differences

(amount of pressure

change per inch of

'movement) between the

two traces. After

applying calibrations
was one of the tasks of the women

computers. Other tasks included plotting

calibration cUIVes and data and calculating

for the fuel usage, weight and balance,

and center of gravity position for the

airplanes. Translating the traces on the

oscillograph film into usable data required

considerable effort. Figure 12 shows a roll

of a photo-sensitive paper copy of the

oscillograph film, and two of the tools

used in the data analysis process, a film

scale and a slide rule. The horizontal traces

on the oscillograph film were either

reference traces or data traces. The vertical

lines were the time scale. A film scale was

used to read the difference (delta) between

a data trace and its reference trace at the

desired time. This process was commonly

referred to as reading the film. The engineering value for each delta was then read

--------/

150 160

Static pressure ------

Figure 11. XS-1 and film pressure traces from first airplane flight to exceed the speed of sound.

Flown by Charles Yeager on 14 October 1947.
from the corresponding calibration plot.

After the engineering values were obtained, the desired parameters were

calculated using the appropriate tools

(slide rule, mechanical calculator, standard

atmosphere tables, sine and cosine tables,

etc.). This procedure is discussed in more

detail in Appendix

B where the data

workup and plot are presented for the

indicated and corrected Mach number

comparison from the flights leading to and

including the first piloted flight to exceed

the speed of sound.

Appendix

B also includes a brief

discussion about the film recorder system,

the tools used by the women computers

and engineers, and a time history plot

showing the altitude, velocity, dynamic

pressure, and Mach number for an X-IS

airplane flight. The X-IS was the last Xseries airplane to use oscillograph film for

the primary data recording system. The

X-IS was also the first X-series airplane to

use a pulse code modulation (PCM)

system for the data recording system.t

The engineers did some film reading,

calculations, and plotting, but most of this

work was done by the computers. This

tedious and time-consuming work required

a great deal of patience. Men were not

thought to have the patience to do this

work, so almost all computers were

women. The following quotation briefly

describes the work involved in reading

film.

Though equipment changed over

the years and most computers

eventually found themselves

programming and operating

electronic computers, as well as

doing other data processing tasks,

being a computer initially meant

long hours with a slide rule,

hunched over illuminated light

boxes measuring line traces from

grainy and obscure strips of

oscillograph film. Computers

suffered terrible eyestrain and

those who didn't begin by wearing glasses did so after a few

years. 12

The quotation mistakenly mentions a slide

rule; in fact, a film scale with marked

divisions to 0.02 inches was used to read

the film. However, slide rules and also

mechanical calculators were used for

doing calculations before the days of

digital computers.tt

t The checkout flights for the

rCM system were flown on

one of the 1'-104 aircraft at

Dryden. When the system

was deemed ready, it was installed in the X-15 #3 aircraft.

The first X-15 flight with the

rCM system occurred on 26

April 1967. Unfortunately, on

15 November 1967 (the

eighth flight using the rCM

system), the X-15 #3 aircraft

was destroyed in an accident

that also resulted in the death

of the pilot. In a rCM system,

the signal for a measurement,

for example from a pressure

transducer or a thermocouple, is sampled and then

encoded into a binary number whose value is proportional to the amplitude of the

signal. The measurements

from several transducers are

obtained by taking a sample

from each transducer in sequence and encoding the

measurement from each

transducer in the same sequence. The encoded signals

are sent in a sequel stream

(say, pressure 1, pressure 2,

temperature 1, pressure 3,

temperature 2, etc.) in which

the signals in each sequential stream have a common

sampling rate per second.

Some commonly used sampling rates are 20 samples per

second (sps), 40 sps, and 200

sps. The sequel output of the

rCM system could be sent to

a tape recorder on the airplane or radioed to a ground

station, or both. The outputsignal from the PCM is thenseparated into the individual

measurements and translated

into engineering units, for example pressures or temperatures.

A rCM system for a

small aircraft typically

handles 50 to 200 measurements while a PCM system

for a large aircraft could

handle from 400 to 2,000

measurements. For details

about PCM systems, see o.

J. Strock, Telemetry Computer

Systems, the New Generation

(Instrument Society of

America, 1988).
Figure 13b. Note cover on Friden calculator. Left side, front to back, Mary (Tut) Hedgepeth, John

Mayer and Emily Stephens. Right side, front to back. Lilly Ann Bajus, Roxanah Yancey/Gertrude

(Trudy) Valentine (behind Roxanah) and Ilene Alexander. (NASA Photo E54)

t Both a calibration plot and a

time history plot are shown in

Appendix B. The time history

plot is for an X-IS tlight.

tt There was no date in the

Dryden negative files but these

were 2 ofthe 67 negatives listed

without dates between the

negatives dated as taken 10

October 1949 and 13 October

1949. 111e October date does

not agree with the memories

ofthe women. 111ey said it was

taken earlier in 1949. The

mond1 and year ofthe daendar

on the wall in Figure 13 (b) is

not legible. However, me calendar is for a 3(klay mond1 d1at

began on a Friday and ends

on a Saturday. For 1949, this

tUlTIS out to be April. 111e doming is consistent with the late

spring or early summer, so I

decided to date d1e photograph

as spring. 111e work environment for d1e women computers was tightly controlled. 111e

women were expected to be

at their desks working with

very little time allowed for

breaks. One accepted break

was to get coffee, which required walking through the

hanger. Some of the women

who weren't coffee drinkers

became coffee drinkers after

starting work because going for

colfee gave them a chance to

get away li'om their desks. For

special events, such as d1e landing of X-planes, they were allowed to open the blinds at the

window and watch the landing. Going outside to watch dIe

event was considered too long

a break. (Recollections of

Beverly Cothren, HarTiet Smith

and Betty Love on 13June 1996

about the work envoronment.)

The work environment for the

men may have also been tighdy

controlled but I suspect d1ere

was much more leeway from

some of the tales I have heard

of the early days.

ttt I could not find the negative for d1is photograph. An attempt to enlarge d1e area ofthe

negative used for the photograph in Figure 13 (b) was

unsuccessful; the Dryden

Other sources of eyestrain were

plotting and reading values from plots; for

example, calibration of X-IS time histOly

plots.t The X-IS time history plots were

used by engineers and probably some of

the woman computers to obtain the Mach

number, velocity, altitude, and dynamic

pressure for the required times. Figure 13

shows two views of "Muroc computers" at

work during what appears to have been

the spring of 1949.tt Figure 13 (a) showsthe calculators on the left side of the

desks. The two women at the center desks

in the back are working with film. Trudy is

reading film traces from a photosensitive

paper copy of the film. Dorothy is looking

any available opening during high winds

or sandstorms. Also note the photographs

on the support beam. The middle photograph shows seven women in slacks and

wearing parachutes.ttt They were probably

dressed to ride in the airplane (probably a

Douglas DC-3) behind them in the photograph.

The working environment for the

women computers during the early days at

the Muroc site was influenced by several

factors. Two of these were the small

numbers of people working there and the

remote location. The small numbers meant

that evelyone was well-known by all in
was a consequence of World War II (WW

II). In November of 1942, NACA Langley

announced that women would be hired

for "vital war work" and hold jobs formerly

only held by men. 13 During the war,

women college students were encouraged

to enter engineering. The following

quotation, from an Iowa State University

alumni newspaper, was entitled "WW II

Propels Women Into Engineering." The

Ames mentioned is the location of Iowa

State College (presently Iowa State University).

"Nearly half of the students enrolled

in the college's aeronautical engineering department in 1943 were

women. They were part of a unique

training program sponsored by

Curtiss Wright Corporation, an

aircraft manufacturer. "In 10 months

time, we had been 'spoon fed' the

equivalent of two years of engineering, so that we would be able to

replace the junior engineers that

were being drafted to serve in WW

II," said Jean (Nickerson) Patterson

of Clinton, Iowa. "We were there for

such a shOlt time that you may

never have heard of us."

The 97 women came to Ames from

22 states to be among the 711

"Curtiss Wright Engineering

Cadettes" studying on seven campuses. Most were college juniors,

majoring in evelything from chemistly to alt. For 40 hours each week,

they attended classes and labs in

math, mechanics, aerodynamics,

aircraft structures, drafting, and

manufacturing materials and processes. After completing the training,

they worked for Curtiss Wright in St.

Louis, Dayton, or Buffalo. The

program had an immense impact on

their lives, Patterson said. Followingthe war, many completed their

degrees and most "used some form

of their Curtiss Wright training in

their professionallives."14

A photograph included with the alticle

shows two women welding with a caption

saying, "As palt of their lO-month waltime

training program, the Curtiss Wright Cadettes

mastered the welding torch in preparation

for work as junior engineers in the aircraft

industry."

The tasks for the woman computers at

the NACA Muroc site were certainly different

from those of the CUltiss Wright Cadettes,

but both groups were working as junior

engineers. This meant that the computers

worked closely with the engineers and were

often co-authors on technical reports. This

working environment existed until the early

1950s.

Working Environment Change in the

Early 19505

Several changes occurred in the early

1950s that affected the working environment for the women. The changes were

good for the Muroc unit but not necessarily for the women, especially the women
t The X-5, flight tested

fi'om 1952 to 1955, was

the first aircraft to have a

variable sweep wing.

The wing sweep could

be varied from 20 to 59

degrees. In addition, the

wings translated (moved

fore and aft) to keep the

center of gravity and

aerodynamic center in

the proper relationship.

The XF-92A, flight tested

in 1953, was a delta

wing airplane, and the

X-4, flight tested from

1950 to 1953, was a

semi-tailless aircraft.

computers. These changes, discussed in

more detail in the following paragraphs,

were the increase in number of aircraft

being tested, organizational changes,

autonomy from Langley, the move to a

larger building and the increase in science

and engineering graduates because of the

GI Bill.

The increase in the number of aircraft

being tested directly translated into a need

for more people. Figure 14 shows the

aircraft being tested in the late 1940s or

early 1950s. The Xes painted on the sides

there were no women in the ground

support crews. The computers, research

engineers, and administration, reproduction and library personnel were in the

building seen on the right that is connected by a walkway to the hangar. Figure

10 shows this building labeled as the

NACA Office Building. The machine shop

was in the narrow building (actually a

lean-to) attached to the hangar on the left

side. The instrumentation people were in a

building across the street, and Figure 7 (a)

shows the site where the radar people

were located.

Figure 15. Flight support required for 0-558-2 air launch flight, taken 17 January 1954. 0-558-2

(white airplane in front), two F-86 chase aircraft and 8-29 (carrier aircraft). Scott Crossfield, 0-

558-2 pilot, standing at nose of 0-558-2. (NASA Photo E1152)

of the aircraft (all except the Bell X-5; most

noticeable on the Bell X-I, XF-92A and X4) in the photograph were used for one of

The increase in people (because of the

number of aircraft being tested) changed

the small, intimate group working environHead Computer reporting to the Head of

Engineering. The Project Engineers for

each of the six airplane projects also

reported to the Head of Engineering. Each

of the six airplane projects have separate

"boxes" with the names of the project

engineer, engineer, and computers assigned to the project. Several of the boxes,

especially for the computers, do not have

names. Computers D. Clift and M. M.

Payne were assigned to the X-I #1 aircraft,

P. Rogers to the X-I #2, and H. Wall to the

D-558-1 #2 aircraft. By the early to mid1950s, the women computers began

working in a computer group that was

supervised by Roxanah Yancey. The

organization chart for July 1954 shows

"boxes" for the different functions but no

names. The computers, now in an organization called Computing Service, constituted a separate function in the Research

Division. The Research Division also

included the Stability and Control Branch,

NATlONAL 1,PYlE,ony CO),\),I!'CTEE

fOR /.EHOr<A'JTIC5

Loads Branch, and Performance Branch.

The next organizational chart is for July

1960. The Research Division still eXisted,

but the computers were now in the

Simulation and Computation Branch of the

Data Systems Division. Thus, the change

for the computers from 1948 to 1960 wasfrom working directly with the engineers

to forming a service organization in a

different division.

Another change, which also had a

significant effect on the working environment for the women in the engineering

field, was that in March 1954, the NACA

High-Speed Flight Research Station

(HSFRS) became the NACA High-Speed

Flight Station (HSFS). The HSFS was now

autonomous, which meant that Langley

was no longer responsible for management or staffing. This autonomy resulted in

a change in the technical background of

the women in the computer group. Most

J2rom" C. Hunsak",r, sc. lJ_,

Deilev W. Bronk. rho D" 1,.":<':0 Ch:1.irrr.;\n

P ..\c;,.ms, "'L, D.

Allen V. Ph. D.

Prest')" R. VassE'tt, M. A.

L,eo,,,:.rd Ph.. D.

R:l ijlh 3. Cotman, D. Eel!;.

,f"ml:':; H. O..,ol'lll .... Sc. D

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H(,'\:lld M. tla"lCrr, D. S.

;:ice Adm. fla11111 A. 0["1;", CS:\

Lt. Gen. J.)(l]l:ll,i L. VIII.t, LISA lDOJ1,J.!d A. Quarles, 0. Eng.

Adlur D.

PraLlet::; W. Reichelderfer, Sc. D.

Oswal:i Ii 1''' "". LL, D.

Ge:l. N:l.than F. Twi",ing, USAF

Hugh I.. Dryo.lf>n, Ph. n .. Dlr8CI'lr

Jell'" r. V'"tory. LL. r:., ExeC.lltl\',.

W. Cr(l·.... II'l', Jr., I:l,S" II" r"r H .. "

E. H, (;h",y,berlin, E",ecu,ivB .cfllccr

II. J E. Reld. 1). Enl' •.

A",.Ollalltical Lahol·J.t'Jrv

L';llg11'l' Fi .. lu. Viq;id ..

Smith J. C'eFr:llICQ, D. Er,g., Dir<?ct<i:

Allies ACII;>n;;'Jtical LaCQrs.:ory

Moffet! Field, Co.:iforuia

Ellward R. S:l<1rp, Sr, D., Dir"dol

Fiil'ht

ZlllOr H"'1flkp:l rk d

ClevE 'HI, 01'11(\

Walte:- C. WilLitlms, B.S.,

F1il;hl

Edwards, CalilOl-nia.

HOUSE WARMING

National Advisory Committee

for Aeronautics

High-Speed Flight Station

Edward" California

Jlltle 26, 1954

Front and back cover

of announcement.

(Ilford print)

NATIONAL ADVlSOR'i COMMIT'l'.ld::: FUH AJ::HONAU'l'lCS

Inside pages of

announcement. (Ilford

print) ·,'r:'·'-''-,nO. Dor", Cl-."irmiln JOI",W, RLlsspll, CD-Chair"',\11

H[(:H FLIGHT 5TATlO:-f

Program

:'!ll:!iP E. Wa:l'cr.

Kilttmrin<.: I\rmi$tcarl,

TOAST\IASTCI1

Hug-h 1.. Drp:lell 
Figure 17. Group photograph in front of the new building, main base, 1954. (NASA Photo

E33718)

of the women assigned from Langley had

math degrees. Most of the computers hired

from the local area by the HSFRS and the

HSFS did not have college degrees. This

change led to the working assignments

becoming more routine.

Also in June 1954, the HSFS personnel

(now numbering 250 people) and airplanes moved from the South Base into a

new, larger building on the main base.

This structure, Building 4800, has been

added to over the years and is still in use.

To celebrate the move into the new

building, a housewarming party, including

a band for dancing, was held in one of the

two hangars of the new complex. Figure

16 shows an announcement for the party.

This document was an approximately 8- by

10-inch sheet that was folded to make an

longer sat close to each other, or in other

words, were separated from each other.

The last change that occurred during

the late 1940s and early 1950s resulted

from the end of World War II in 1945 and

the introduction of the GI Bill. The GI Bill,

passed shortly after the armistice, paid the

tuition for the GIs who wanted to attend

college. The GIs also received some

money for liVing expenses. When they

began graduating, men with science and

engineering degrees were available for

hire. The shortage of men with science

and engineering degrees no longer eXisted,

so the need for women to work as junior

engineers was no longer there.

The end result of these changes was

that the interaction between the women
co-authors on reports; and that there were

fewer opportunities for women, even with

degrees, to work in the technical engineering areas. The status of the women

computers had changed from being, in

effect, junior engineers who worked

closely with the engineers to being part of

a service organization with almost no

direct interaction with the engineers.

Because of the difference in the task, the

women computers who began working

after 1954 are not included in the discussions here. All the women computers

listed as co-authors of reports began

working at Muroc in 1952 or earlier.

Women Authors from 1949 to 1960

From 1950 to 1960, four women

engineers worked at the Muroc unit. Two

of them, Joan Childs Dahlen and Harriet

DeVries Smith, were authors of NACA

reports. Two of them, Anne Baldwin and

Bertha Ryan began working in the unit

around 1960. Anne worked only a short

time at the unit (probably from late 1959

or early 1960 until early 1962) and was not

an author on a report. Bertha worked at

the unit from 1960 until 1966 - 1967 and

produced two reports. Joan Childs was the

first woman to write a technical report at

the Muroc site. The report, NACA RM

L52K13b, published in 1953, was about the

stability characteristics of the Bell X-5

airplane16 Joan Childs, who had an

engineering degree, started as a computer.

When Walt Williams (chief of the NACA

unit at Muroc) learned about her engineering degree, he began the process to have

her reclassified. Because of his efforts, she

was classified as an engineer and assigned

to the engineering group.17 She was at the

Muroc site approximately two to three

years, married an engineer, Theodore

Dahlen, who also worked at the Muroc

site, and left when he did. Harriet DeVries

began working at the Muroc site in the

f 1952 

d

t Af

woman computers were co-authors. The

reports from 1948 to 1958 were about

experiments on the X-I, X-3,tt X-5, D-558,

and B-52 airplanes. The number of

computers as co-authors was determined

by looking through a card file of reportsby Muroc/Dryden authors. The computers

were always the last author listed on

multiple author reports (usually two or

three authors). During the period from

1946 to 1954, there were 29 woman

computers whom I was able to identify.HI

Appendix

C contains the names of the

women identified as being computers and

co-authors from 1946 to 1954.

Work Environment Changes in the

1960s

The next change in the hiring and job

requirements for women occurred during

the early-to-mid-1960s. This change was

caused by the development of digital

computers and the need for people with

college degrees to program them. One of

the new people hired to work with the

digital computers (at that time changing

from an IBM 650 dlUm computer to an

IBM 704 that used vacuum tubes) was a

woman, Beverly Strickland (Klein). Her

primary duties appear to have been

computer programming, which initially

required a degree. The digital computers

with their capacity for rapid data reduction

began to replace the hand calculations.

During the early years of the digital

computers, most engineers relied on

computer programmers to write the data

reduction programs required to calculate

the desired parameters. Two women

programmers, Constance Eaton (Harney)

and Elsie McGowan, were hired during

this time.

Onboard magnetic tape recording

systems began to be used in the late

1960s. The oscillograph film recording

l

d b

h

t The co-op program for

engineering students is,

as the name would

suggest, a cooperative

work-study program

between the NACA or

(later) NASA and

different universities.

Engineering students

alternate between work

periods at a NASA

(NACA until October

1958) site and their

course work at the

university.

tt The X-3, flight tested

from 1954 to 1956, had a

low-aspect-ratio, thin

wing.

ttt Some women stayed

only a few months. I did

not tty to identify them.

*

However, the

oscillographs were still

used for years on some

individual experiments.
t Katharine was

sometimes called Kay

and Roxanah sometimes

called Roxie, especially

by friends near their age

and time at Dryden, I

usually called them by

their full names,

Katharine and Roxanah,

however.

H The primary test

involved an anti-misting

fuel additive that was

supposed to eliminate

rapid burning following

an airplane crash, The

Boeing 720 was flown

by remote control during

the controlled impact

(crash) demonstration

flight. The large fireball

and burning after the

crash demonstrated that

the anti-misting fuel was

not as effective as had

been expected,

ttt ERAST is a program

for remotely piloted

aircraft that tests aircraft

intended ultimately to

operate at altitudes up to

100,000 feet for

environmental sampling

missions of a week or

more,

former women computers, Roxanah

Yancey, Katharine Armistead,t and Betty

Scott Love, moved to engineering positions

at this time, Roxanah had a math degree,

Katharine a degree in education, and Betty

did not have a degree. The remaining

women computers eventually quit, retired,

or were reassigned to other jobs.

Roxanah and Betty had a relatively

easy transition to the engineering field;

Katharine did not. By relatively easy

transition, I mean that they seemed happy

with their work and their promotions.

Katharine seemed frustrated, had a difficult

time getting promoted, and never did

reach the same promotion level as

Roxanah or Betty. Some of Katharine's

difficulties may have been due to the lack

of a strong mentor. Toward the end of her

career, Katharine was the lead author on a

report. Being a lead author was a source of

pride for her.

The next change in the hiring and job

requirements for women was also related to

digital computers. As the digital computers

became more powerful, they were used to

run the airplane simulators. The early

simulators were based on analog systems,

and the programs used to drive them were

maintained and run by men. The programming function for the analog computers was

literally wired by the programmers into the

desired configuration. Analog circuit diagrams were used to plan the wiring configuration, which used circuit components such

as resistors, capacitors or diodes to obtain

the desired response. Examples of desired

responses are summing, integrating, and

multiplying. However, the programming

function for the digital computers operated

using lines of code. Initially, these lines of

code were entered into the computer by

using computer cards, Each computer card

C7 3/8 by 3 1/4 inches) had one line of code

(maximum 80 characters) that was entered

on the card with a keypunch machine. The

keyboard for the keypunch was similar to a

typewriter keyboard. A digital program

contained several hundred to a thousand or

more lines of code. As digital computers

began to replace the analog systems, women

were hired to run and maintain simulation

programs. Martha Evans was the first woman

hired to work with the simulation programs,

Hybrid analog-digital simulations were used

for a few years (for example, the X-15-2

simulation). The first all-digital simulation

was for the 3/8-scale F-15 Remotely Piloted

Research Vehicle (RPRV). Computer simulation programs require much attention to

detail and this need provided an opening for

women to work in the simulation area.

Women were more easily accepted in any

engineering position where the chief requireTable 2. Number of Women In Technical Fields and Airplane Projects from 1960s to

December 1995

Period Number

1960 -1969 14

1970 - 1979 17

1980 - 1989 26

Major Aircraft Projects

Lifting bodies (M2-F2, HL-10), Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV), X-15,

XB-70 Valkyrie (Mach 3 bomber design)

F-111 Integrated Propulsion Control System (IPCS), F-111 Transonic AirCraft

Technology (TACT), F-8 Digital Fly-by-Wire (DFBW), F-8 Supercritical Wing,

Highly Maneuverable Aircraft Technology Remotely Piloted Research Vehicle

(HiMAT RPRV), KC-135 Winglets, Lifting bodies (M2-F3, HL-10, X-24A, X-24B),

3/8-scale F-15 (RPRV), Shuttle Orbiter approach and landing tests, YF-12

Blackbird (Mach 3+, evolved into SR-71)Boeing 720 Controlled Impact Demonstration (CIDtt), F-111 Mission Adaptive

Wing (MAW), F-111 TACT, F-15 Highly Integrated Digital Electronic Controls
Figure 18. Airplanes in hanger in late 1966. From front to rear: left side, lifting bodies HL-10, M2-

F2, M2-F1; F-4; F-5D; F-104; and DC-3; right side, X-15-1 , X-15-3, and X-15-2. (NASA Photo

EC661461)

ment was attention to detail. The attitude

that women were best suited for work that

required attention to detail was also found

in other scientific fields. An example of this

is provided by the following quotation:

"Until the second half of this century, male

astronomers (with a few exceptions)

generally assumed that their female colleagues were better at tedious data inspection than at creative thinking."18

Women in Technical Areas from 1960s

to Present

The women computers of the late 1940s

and early 1950s worked closely with the

engineers, almost as though they were

junior engineers. By the early 1960s, this

working relationship, with four exceptions,

no longer existed. These four woman (three

retired in 1973, one in 1979) are included in

Table 2 in the numbers of woment from

1960 to December 1995. The 24 women for

March 1994 represent 13% of the engineering work force and the 21 women for

15, shows no women working on the

planes.

In the 1970s, women began working

on the aircraft maintenance crews (usually

only one or two women). Presently three

women (two, mechanics; one in avionics)

work on these crews. In general, the

women had great difficulty fitting in and

until the mid- to late 1980s, none continued to work on the crews. (One changed

to a job she liked better, one went to

college, but most left because of a difficult

working environment.) One obvious

difficulty for these women was working in

a traditional male job. Another was that

while most men develop their mechanical

skills at an early age, many women do not.

This means that using even simple tools,

such as pliers or a screwdriver, is not

second nature to many women. Those

women with limited mechanical skills had

an especially difficult time. Most women

began working on the aircraft maintenance

crews because the upward mobility

t From 1963 to the

present, I have personal

knowledge of the

women who worked in

technical fields at

Dryden. Discussions

with coworkers ensured

I hadn't forgotten

anyone. I arrived at

dates by asking the

women who were still

here when those who

had left came to Dryden,

from my own and my

coworkers memories

about when women

were at Dryden, and

from Frank William (Bill)

Burcham's collection of

Dryden telephone books

from 1966 to the

present.

tt The purpose of the

upward mobility

programs was to provide

lower paid employees

with positions that had

career development

opportunities into higher

paying jobs. The

applicants did not have

to meet standard

requirements for the job

because they were to

receive on-the-job

training.
Figure 19. Airplanes on ramp, 1988. From front to back and left to right: X-29, AD-1, PA-30,

HiMAT, F-104, F-8 DFBW, F-16AFTI, T-38, F-18, F-18, F-111 MAW, F-15, Rotor Systems

Research Aircraft, B-52, Jetstar and 747 shuttle carrier aircraft. (NASA Photo EC88 0042-1)

airplane simulation, 4 were in program

management (l was the acting deputy

chief for the division responsible for

program management and 1 was also a

flight test engineer on the SR-71 crew), 3

were in nondisciplinary management, and

1 was deputy chief of the division responsible for computer systems, flight control

rooms, and information networks. By

December 1995, the numbers of women
working in the technical field had decreased to 21. The deputy chief of the

division responsible for computer systems,

flight control rooms, and information

networks, Connie Harney, had retired and

the acting deputy chief for program

management had returned to her former

position. of the 21 women working in the

technical field in December 1995, 11 were

in the engineering disciplines, 1 was in

airplane simulation, 3 were in program

management (l, Marta Bolm-Meyer,

continues as a flight test engineer on the

SR-71 crew), and 6 were in nondisciplinalY

management.

Appendix

C contains the names of the

women who worked at NASA Dryden

from 1960 to December 1995. It was

difficult to determine the period when

women had worked at Dlyden. What

added to the problem for the women from

1946 to 1954 was that women often

change their last name after marriage.

Sometimes, what seemed to be two

different women were actually the same

person. From 1960 on, the name changes

were not a problem for me. The name

changes could certainly be confusing for

somebody who did not personally know

most of these women. Because of this, I

have included the names found as authors

or in documentst that included the women

working at Dlyden. As a point of interest,

six of the women presently working at

Dryden in the technical field were in its

co-op program. Throughout the years,

quite a few women have been in the coop program, but I do not know the

number. Some of the co-ops, both women

and men, were authors or co-authors on

reports. Being an author depended on

several factors, including the policy at that

time about co-ops being authors and the

availability of a suitable project during the

co-op period. The only women co-ops

included in Appendix

C are those who

t These documents

included the 1954 Air

Force yearbook for

Edwards, old Dlyden

telephone directories.

and the Dryden in-house

newspaper, the X-Press.
Notes

1 The number of employees at Muroc from September 1946 to the end of 1946 is not easily determined. The

edition of the in-house newsletter, the X-PRESS (as the X-Press was then designated), published for the 10th

Anniversaly of the first flight to exceed the speed of sound, indicates that 13 persons arrived at Muroc on 30

September 1946. However, an anonymous, undated chronology whose last entry was was January 1954 states

that the group started with five men on 30 September 1946 and that the first two women employees arrived in

December 1946. To further add to the confusion, the X-PRESS for the 25th anniversary of the first flight to

exceed the speed of sound states that the X-I was shipped to Muroc accompanied by 14 employees and shows

a photograph of 14 employees. (The photograph's date was not given in the title but was given as late 1946 in

a Dryden historical photograph display. The original negative is not in the Dryden negative files.) The title for

the photograph says that 8 (including the 2 women) of the original 14 Muroc employees are in the photograph.

The amount of travel between Muroc and Langley during this period makes it difficult to determine who and

how many persons were at Muroc at any given time, but Richard P. Hallion, On the Frontier: Flight Research at

Dryden, 1946-1981 (Washington, D.C.: NASA SP-4303, 1984), p. 9, accepts the facts stated in the anonymous

chronology, that the first 13 employees arrived in three separate increments between 30 September 1946 and

December of that year.

2 More discussion of the flight tests of these two series of aircraft is found in Hallion, On the Frontier, pp. 6-85

and 285-314, and in Richard P. Hallion, Supersonic Flight: Breaking the Sound Barrier, The Story ofthe Bell X-1

and Douglas D-558 (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972).

3 The "XS" became "X" after June 11, 1948, as a result of a change in Air Force designation policy. The four

aircraft series, XS-1, XS-2, XS-3, and XS-4, affected by this change became X-I, X-2, X-3, and X-4 after this date.

See Hallion, On the Frontier, pp. 30-31. For the definition for the acronym "XS," see Hallion, Supersonic Flight,

p.41.

4 Hallion, On the Frontier.

5 The original team of people were sent to Muroc to participate in the XS-1 and D-558 research programs. As

time passed, it became apparent that these research programs would last a long time. In addition, other programs were starting and more programs were being considered. Then, on 2 September 1947, Hugh Latimer

Dryden became the NACA's director of research. Among his first actions was a directive that made the NACA

Muroc unit a permanent facility on 7 September 1947, known as the NACA Muroc Flight Test Unit and managed

by the Langley Memorial Aeronautical LaboratolY. See Hallion, On the Frontier, p. 14.

6 See Hallion, On the Frontier, p. 273.

7 Hallion, On the Frontier, p. 23. He credited the comment about the stage line to an intelview with Katharine

(Kay) H. Armistead. Katharine (originally from Langley) was one of the people who had concerns about

making her career at Muroc. She returned to the Langley area for approximately two years and then came back

to Muroc. She stayed the second time until her retirement, whereupon she returned to the Langley area to be

near her family.

8 See George W. Gray, Frontiers ofFlight: The Story ofNACA Research (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948), pp.

57-60.
11 Interview, author with Walt Williams, 17 September 1993. The shortest stay I heard about concerned an

engineer from an area with many trees and much grass (east or mid-west) who had just graduated from college.

This story was usually told to new engineers from green areas (such as Iowa) when they commented about

how different the desert was from home. Nobody ever remembered his name and they weren't sure of the date

but it was sometime in the 1950s. The young man reported to work in the morning, was given a tour and

shown where he would be sitting. By noon, he had gone to personnel, quit his job and was on his way home.

12 See Hallion, On the Frontier, p. 11. Hallion attributed this quotation to an interview with Katherine

Armistead.

13 See M. D. Keller, "A Hist01Y of the Langley Research Center, 1917-1947" (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University

Microfilms, 1968), p. 253. For another discussion of women at Langley during the war, see James R. Hansen,

Engineer in Charge: A History o/the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, 1917-1958 (Washington, D.C.: NASA SP4303, 1984), pp. 262-265.

14 See Marston Muses, "WW II Propels Women into Engineering," The College o/Engineering Alumni News, Fall

1993, Iowa State University, p. 3.

15 See Hallion, On the Frontier, pp. 262-265.16 Joan M. Childs, Flight Measurements o/the Stability Characteristics o/the Bell X-5 Research Airplane in

Sideslips at 59° Sweepback (Washington, D.C.: NACA RM L52K13b, 1953).

17 According to the recollections of Mary Little Kuhl on 29 October 1992.18 Marcia Bartusiak, "Focal Point: Shifting the gender spotlight," Sky & Telescope (May 1994): 6-7.
Appendixes

Appendix A: 10th Anniversary - Supersonic Flight X-PRESS

-r Carmelita (Lita) was

head of the editorial

office when I started

working at Dryden in

1963. Helen, who

established the office in

1952, was probably the

head of it until she left

in 1960.

tt The IS-year pin article

also mentioned a stag

dinner party held to

honor the three men.

The article states that the

presentation of thesepins raised the total of

IS-year pin holders to 9.

The only woman in the

9 was Helen Foley. It

seems too bad that

Helen would have been

excluded from the party

simply because of her

gender.

The X-PRESS began as a publication

for the employees of the NACA HighSpeed Flight Station (HSFS). A copy

(Volume 2, Issue 3) that was published

May 17, 1957, still exists. The volume

number indicates that the X-PRESS was first

published in 1956. Interpreting the issue

number is a little confusing because of the

publishing comment in the credit block. In

the credit block is the statement "Published

bi-weekly for employees of NACA HighSpeed Flight Station." Possibly at this time,

the X-PRESS was just beginning to be a

regular publication. Other information in

this credit block is: Managing Editor, Helen

Foley; Editor, Carmelita Holleman; Reproduction, Walter McIver and Jack Corbin;

and Photographers, Robert Rhine and John

Bostain.

Helen Foley was a former woman

computer who established the libraly and

editorial office and Carmelita HollemanI

worked in the editorial office. For several

years, the editorial office was responsible

for publishing the X-PRESS. Sometime in

the late 1950s or early 1960s, the Public

Affairs Office began assuming responsibility for the publishing. The publishing cycle

has varied from every two weeks to

monthly, with some hiatuses.

The content has also changed over the

years. The 17 May 1957 edition contained

announcements and articles of local

interest such as Armed Forces Day at

Edwards, a Red Cross drive, new hires,

safety comments, a reminder to vote in the

local school board election, most-sickleave race, flight lines (comments about

births, marriages, a talk given in Lancaster,

and reserve unit duty), and a write-up

about three men receiving 15-year service

pins.tt The present X-PRESS contains some

brief background of the X-I program,

articles by Walter C. Williams (Chief, High

Speed Flight Station) and De E. Beeler

(Chief, Research Division), a Los Angles

Times announcement about breaking the

sound barrier, some photographs from the

late 1940s and short biographies of 10

people. These were people who had

started at Muroc in 1946 or 1947 (some

were involved with the XS-l program) and

who were still working at HSFS in October

1957. All 14 pages of the extra edition are

shown below. Note that they contain some

errors and anachronisms, such as referring

to the Army Air Forces as the Air Force

before the latter was officially so designated in September 1947, but the information contained in this document is largely

correct and provides an interesting reflection of people's memories 10 years after

the event.
g:..-.

Extra Edition NACA HSFS Edwards California

THE X-I STORY

October 14 1957

IN THE DISPLAY IN THE LOBBY OF THE NACA HIGH-SPEED FLIGHT STATION ARE

MODELS OF SOME OF THE COONTRY ,S MOST NOTABLE RESEARCH AIRPLANE6. THERE

IS AN XF-92A, X-3, x-4, X-2, X-5, D-558, PHASE I AND PHASE II, AND THE

MOST FAMOUS OF THEM ALL, THE X-l. TEN YEARS AGO - ON OCTOBER 14, 1947 -

THE X-l-l BECAME THE FIRST AIRPLA1'lE TO PIERCE THE SONIC BARRIER, A FEAT

DUPLICATED SHORTLY AF'IER BY THE X-l-2. TODAY THE X-l-l HOLDS AN HONORED

SPOT IN THE SMITHSONIAN AND X-l-2 HAS BEEN MODIFIED AND RENAMED THE X-lEo STILL IN AC'I'IVE STA'lUS ON THE HSFS FLIGHT LINE ARE THE

X-1B AND Tlffi X-lEo

IN THESE TEN YEARS THE NAME OF THE NACA INSTALLATION Kr MUROC HAS BEEN

CHANGED FROM THE ORIGINAL MUROC FLIGHT TEST UNIT TO THE PRESENT HIGHSPEED FLIGHT STATION; 11'5 PERSONNEL HAS INCREASED FROM 27 TO 300; AND. IN

1954, ITS FACILITY EXPANDED FROM 2 ROOMS AND HANGAR SPACE SHARED WITH THE

AIR FORCE IN 1946 TO A MODE:RN 'I'WO-3TORY BUILDING FLANKED ON EITHER SIDE

BY SPACIOUS HANGARS.

THE XS-l PROJECT

In 1944 contracts were let for construction of the first two research airplanes. Bell

Aircraft Corp. began design of the X-1 (originally known as Project MX653 and later as XS-1)

under Air Force sponsorship, /lnd the Douglas Aircraft Co. about the same time undertook construction of the D-558, sponsored by the Navy. The first of these was to be powered by a

r,)cket motor; the second, by a turbojet engine.

First to reach the stage was the X-l, of which two originally were constructed.

The fuselage lines were adapted from the basic shape of a 0.50 calibre bullet. St.raight '.dngs,

·

..ith thick, tapered aluminum skin, were provided to insure enough structural strength to '.dthstand the loads expected at the altitudes and speeds programmed. The strength factor was

specified at 18g, instead of 12g then required for fighters. One set of ..ings had a thickness

of 10 percent, much less than anything then flying; the second set ..as only 8 percent thick.

The pOder plant of the X-l ..as a fou.r -barrel rocket engine developed by Reaction Motors,

Inc

under Navy cuntract

Each rocket barrel produced 1

500 pounds of thrust

for a total
F 1 L.,'t;i!~ the ,;ucc"S;-,fl'c [Slide tests it waG decided that, in the inl.p!'E',·j if' rr.Cl.Z!.::lt.ll'.

., ~'. ':,. f ·t' the pilot, p \'riered fligh ts :3hc\uld be made in the vi'~ini ty col' the la.ri:e:.n ,Viii j , ,d,; ,:

,"c. :,,' art·a. The dl'!.ce ·...Ul,; the Air F'.rce installation on the edge cf Ro(.(crs DrJ :"'1}"':' ',' '.'i" ~! " D(':;l't'~.·f Cal [('"rnia, 1u1O)ol~ then as MurJi~ and row as Echmrds Ai!" F'Jr,.-,e Bn.l"·.

Aft.· r i "st.al1al.in ,l' the R. M. I. en[;ine at Bell Aircraft I s Niagara Falls p Jan I, llie

:': r;i t ,1' t. .," X-I re,;eil.r,~h ai, rplanes ·ri8.S taken to Edwards early in Oc:tober 19Jj(. The pre vlulls

11 ll' h, 13 ctit~lnt'E'rs, lnstnunent technicians, and technical observers, all from Lanc;ley, ,jere

-l ..;; ,;nated the NACA Muroc Flight Test Unit. On September 30 they began work at the desert

l:!'Ge. The first successful rocket-po\fered flight ',eTaS made December 9 by Chalmers ll. ("Slick")

::: itil ln, ,~<:mpany test piLlt. By ,June 194'7 performance up to a Mach number (Of O. [l was fully

If-r.'' nstl'aled by Bell Aircraft pilots in a series of 21 po·.,rered flights.

On June 30, at a meeting at Writ;ht-Patterson Air Force Base the Air Force and NACA agreed

t divide re~~p0nsibilities. Each agency was tCJ use one of the X-l airplanes in complementary

fll!~hl programs. The Air Furce objective 'o'as to exploit the airplane's maximum performance iL

as feo' fli(~hts as were rE'asonable, consistent ....ith safety. The NACA program was nccessarity

III r,~ exLel:.;: '!e: te· acquire the desired detailed informati m. The NACA group, now permanently

assigned at Ed'"ards, was to furnish engineering and instrumentatiun assistance to the Air Force

gre'up, ·....hile the air launching of the NAcA airplane "us to be handled by the Air Force.

The Air Force received its X-l in August 194[; mechanical difficulties delayed flights of

the Gth(:r model by the NACA until after the first of the year. The historic first supersonic

flight.as made on October 1)+, 191n, by then Capt. Charles E. Yeager, USAF. On March 4, 1948,

NACA piLot Herbert Hc,over became the first civilian to fLy faster than sound.

'The foll<..)'"ing quotation from Maj. Gen. Albert Bcyd, 113AF, hilllBelf one of t,he first to fly

super:;onj.cally, is given as A. swnmation,-f the effectiveness of 1:he couperati ve program:

"The combination of talents served t·,,-) purposes. First, the accelerated USAF program permitted a rapid expluration of the capabilities of the X-l to the highest Gpeed attained; and,

,;econr11y, the deta1lerl r:ACA pragram pro'!:! (lee the comprehensive data needed to develop complete

envelopes of aircraft performa.nce \lhich might reveal unsatisfactory flight characteristics at

scme intermediate puint.. When considered separately, ea:~h program was a notable contribution

to flight research, however, when combined, the results stand as a monumental tribute to

both the USAF and IlACA since the sonic barrier m;mster was not only completely licked, but a

blOi,·-by-blo·.' account of i t8 defeat was recor'Jed 1':)1' future use.

"The end results of high-speed flight-research programs conducted jointly made available

to aircraft designers, for the first time in the history of flight testing, sorely needed

information which served a dual purpose. The rapid but sketchy USAF portion of the program

supplied answers 'rihich wenL toward determining the mili tary applicability of a research aircraft, whereas the lengthy but detailed NACA program confirmed or refuted wind-tunnel data

and at the same time provided information which would permit aircraft designers to avoid

dangerous flight characteristics in future military and civilian aircraft of a more advanced

design."

THE BA.CKGROUlID

by Walter C. Williams

In order to describe the events leading up to the first supersonic flight in the X-l by

then Air Force Capt. Charles E. Yeager, perhaps it is most important to give the tempo, or mood,

01' the time.

In this Jay of Russian satellites, Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, bombers and fighters l..hat fly at Mach numbers of 2 or better, Jet transports that will carryover 100 people at

speeds higher than had been explored at the time of the X-l flight, it is difficult even for
the tests '-::f the X-I, the speed '..iP.. S ... e!': tc .b Milel: tJi.:J'nber, a liy;;,:-

;, se:. it was felt that rJ':' manufaeturer sh_:ul,; te f'orcetj

in the relatively ab'J'Je . ',-- . 2:_

s, A. number ,f :").E), :-.r a li",tl.e bet.ter, ...'tlf The r .. ent;ine

...·aE preyed be a reasoHable p;,)w"er p2.fl.!lt. ''':,.)u::'t; te ·,.;ell pl::int ,.;\11. here that L'our

:,ACA <J.1 ..>ng witJ, ',he Air Force Fltgh'c 'jest gr.'.lp an,j :.he :T.lu;uflJ.cturer, '.rflS in run.ny '.rays

':ery l_,nely group anc1 was alone in :!.ts belief' Uw.t this prc;jecl w'.:l]'; sueccE:::. I de not ..'ish

imply that"e cUd n(:,L have the proper back] ng. 1"-:p management of all gave their

"h,lehear"ecl support t..:, the program; ho·...ever, at t.he c')r.:.emporary level anc intermediate supervis"or] level there were many tiismal predicti')nl3, such I3.S:

"The program will f,)ld ri ght after the firs c p')werer} n 1ght as soun tiS the airplane

bl,'::ws up."

"The drag is too higb, you can't even get t.he speeds."

"From what we knO\l, the airplane will come ccJmpletely apart a lit.tle above 0.) I-!ach

number. "

These and other similar comments were common. But, it m.ight be said, like the bumble bee,

·,.e ·.ent ahead. In addition to these kn:)"n fears [md \.6, Er.gland, wlK) ha,} been attempting

such testing, had lost the DH-lOFJ in Lransonic 1'11 gh t, 1<..1111 ng the pilot. Thi s led the &itisb

to adopt a policy of model tes tine: and possi bly remote guidance fur the airplanes before they

·.uald ever a-Gtempt manned supersonic flight. 1'his, ·..ithnutluestion, set their effort back an

unmeasured m.unber of years. These things were fl.11 h811ging hea ':y 'lver Gur heads.

we '.ere enthusiastic, there is little question. The Air Force group--Yeager, Ridley--were

very, very enthusi astie. We were just beginning know c)the". just begi.Y'ining to \oIorlt together. There had to be a balance bet'.ee:: complete an,: the har:!, cul<:J facts, :de

knew and felt that if this program shoul(l fail the whole resear'cl't r:d rplane progrurn would fail,

the whole aeronautical effort would be set back. Su, p:',)blem became cne of maintaining the

necessary balance between enthusiasm and eagerness eC: get the cornpleteci wi I,.)] a sc:ienU,fic

approach that would assure success of the program. This 11"(,' )mpl.lshed.

To say that we went ahead completely ()n :Jur co'n ",ould be fuolish. 'we har:! some info.rmation--

acceptance tests showed that lo.... -speed wi.nd-tunnej. tests gave fl.l1 accurate pred:!.ction of the behavior characteristic!" Df the airplane. We had some trans:mic tunnel data up 'to abcut 0.85 Mach

number that showed things would be reasonably satisfactory. We also had data from the then

ne....ly developed wing-flow method, where models were placed in the high-speed flo.... over a subsonic

airplane's wing. These data, however, ended at 0.93 with various pertinent quantities showing abrupt changes for limits. With tbis information on hand, ana knowing the results

of acceptance t.ests, the joint Air Force-NACA program \las started.

As has been pointed out, there were t1oiO airplanes involved: the Air Force airplane to exploit the speed potential of the airplane in as short a time as consistent with safety, and the

NACA program to provide the detailed information. Actually, an exploratory program, as we have

learned, is the first phase in testing of any airplillle. The Air Force airplane was ready for

flight first, and so began the systematic step-by-step approach to the problem of flying at

speeds faster than anyone had flown before, or, to be "corny", thus began the conquest of the

sound barrier. Small incremental increases in Mach number were made, making pull-ups at the

maximum Mach number to aid in predicting what the characteristics might be at somewhat higher

Mach numbers in level flight. The stabilizer effectiveness ....as checked in flying the airplane;

runs were made at several stabilizer settings; actual pull-ups were made using the stabilizer.

In the second flight a Mach number of 0.89 was successfully reached in powered flight, after

five or six maneuvering flights were conducted around a Mach number of 0.90 to evaluate

trends in elevator and stabilizer effectiveness, wing and balancing horizontal-tail loads, and

1947) 

0

94 







PERSONALITIES

',. .

:i? : :::::.

. .

"

..... .

De became associated with the research io

1945 In the Langley Aircraft Loads D1.vision and was assigned tQ

Muroc in January 1947 as ;(-1 proJect engineer in charge Qf tM '.....

aircraft 1000s program.»>? • > ......) .../)

After 11 'ling in BOR"D"':Ba'rraclt8 at Muro¥ abQut sixmonthli#

he moved '..1th J;:;:hn Langlew to a ranc$ apartment on .

ROll/.unond Dry La1¥. ('o'ithtrees, graes.:fand two lakes).

F:'un: ROSI.unrmd he returned to Muroc and "B", where he lived

..,1 th W'iF" pi l()t Howard Lilly. He later moved to the MCA Men '8

Darm '1:,d resided there until 1952 'ol.tl,en he began of

pl"esent home in Lancaster. ::}: ::;:;( ::; .. :::.: :"::;

In 1952 De \Jas marrietl to the Florence Deacon. T'fte:f

have v..,) 4, Elroy{ II,

JOSEPH R. VENSEL

WALTER C. WILLIAMs

As assistant head of the Langley Flight Research Division

stability and control section, Walt's direct contact with the

XS-l program began shortly after its initiation in 1945, when

he worked with Milt Davidson (Langley) to coordinate test

requirements among Bell, the Air Force, and NACA. From January

to March of 1946, Walt acted as project engineer

preliminary glide flights of the XS-l made at Pinecastle MB (Rogers Dry Lake was flooded). >Whenl as a result ot?

these tests, it '"as determined that an air 1aurith operation waet

feasible, and that all further testing should be performed at ...

:.::.:.::.:.::.:.::.::.:.:.:.: Charles, the follo'o'ing month, after:an .was..

months later the t¢ tJ ••••••·:

project in Mojave, and in 1949 moved to on the Base. ......:••:: ••::.::

In 1951 they purchased a home in Lancaster, wMch they are .:.:::.::::: .:.

residing 'o'ith Charles Manning, now 15, Howard Lee, 9,

Elizabeth Anne, 5.

ke ;

I"nnSl'en'ed l'1'c::: Lewis Lul

"

1'at

)r;

" to MuJ:'cc in April
GERALD M.

CLYDE G. BAILEY

11 l.L:L.:tc'

1':,(' c";aYi; --LLi., J" ,'lCi.irr.:,· ·,h(' :J...CA ... [) .

. L-ye"iI' •. . H',xle lives

-In t' 

t\

I;re::;

'i

: t

y 

t:l r' I

r-<' F\' \\ 1 \. \ \. (\;f-

,Terry' c; ,.)C'j,jl:1al assc,da,.) ,':l '"i ·:.h the XS-l project began in

Uil, 'I\u'i r,,; the lr:i \.i al dr,lps C f' U',e X:3 -1 airp:.ane at. Pinecast1e

Air Base, F],ri cia, ,.here he ',as ',.i th set:ing up a

I Tund radar '.e, 1.he clr.)ps. After transfer e,f thl;' project

Murco j n l;i4lJ, he again cau8h c up 'wi th it in Maret 1947 as the

instrumentatiUll prvject ell',;ir:eer. After living for some time at

M:>Jave Naval Housing, he flnd hIs ,,:ife, Helen, moved tc Lancaster

in 1')1.'), A:er;:; t.he,y <;C',I res:de. TI:ey have t·,,>') children--Joan

Marie, 2 1/2, and Carl IU m:·nrhs.

FCJ;c:e, the X-l ',;:1.:-:- :j 1"J1'-::: !;t:: asslgn-

'_r.1t:it hH.ll rlt>: .1;'1: 't tJ'·;Sl:

!:p .. n at F{;x1c OCC(t"L n,t

?lCtt.. E (s.,. T1G111t:'r: ,f ;:e:: . w'hat ¥i'as

t, n 2-year Fr,;-m l\f'l',,:;seL€ Fl::1.ts, st:e

\-.ent \)pcLc·i 11. t r.Ll 1\)' ;'Le }"J!"ce--

L:IL':l ti)1:he fJ.,ir t,; (;1v11

\.. t:e "a1.lc:-::. Hcu::;e ll
CHARLES M. HAMILTON

"Mac", u Bell employee, was assigned to the MX-653

Pn,jeet early in 1945 as ere\" chief. In February 1946 the airplane

'"':CUi flown to Pinecastle MB, Florida, under B-29 No. 800, ""here

glide tests were conducted by Jack Wollams, chief test pilot for

Bell Aircraft. Here, NACA'ers Walt Williams, Jerry Truszynski,

and Norm Hayes ,joined the project for operation of instrumentation

and radar 'Ihieh Mac operated in flight.

After successful glide tests, the airplane was returned to

the Bell plant for installaUon of the rocket powerplant and wa.s

redesignated the XS-l. After several successful ground runs, the

project was flOwn to Muroc, arriving on October 21, 1946.

At that time rental hou!:ling was almost nonexistent on the

desert, but weeks of hundng finally got Ma,c's famiJy

the Labitte Ranch 40 miles '"est of the BasEi!\

On completion of Bell's flight demonstra.tion TIY·Og·rAm.

employed by NACA on August 12, 1947, and

and flight crew member on flight

Mac, his Wife, Alice, and

Patricia, 8, --later lived at WilloW

which time their baby; Mary

Hospital. In 1950 Mac's femily built

Lancaster.

JOHN W. RUSSELL

Jack I S association -....i th the desert began in 1942, -when as

a mechanic for Bell Aircraft uf Buffalo, New York, he was assigned to the highly secret P-59 jet project at Muroc. With

his wife, Ruth, he set up his residence in the (then) "wilderness" of Tenth Street ''''est in Lancaster.

During his second Muroc assignment in 1946 (on the XS-1

project), he, his wife, illlU sur., John Jr., lived in Willow

3prings in a settlement made up principally of Bell personnel.

I

A

191fT

J

k 

"'

l

d b

h

Ai

F


Appendix B: Data Reduction and Instrumentation Before Digital Computers

This appendix is divided into four

main sections. The first deals with the

oscillograph film recorder system; the

second, with the procedure used to read

the film; the third with tools used in

reading the film and producing the final

plots; and the fourth is a time histOly plot

and event log for an X-IS aircraft flight.

Oscillograph Film Recorder System

The recorder system shown in Figure

B-1 is representative of those used on the

X-I aircraft. The system has an overall

length of 13 inches and weighs 125

pounds. The system consists of two major

parts (fig. B-2). The circular part (55-inch

Figure B-1. Photograph of oscillograph film

recorder system used to record flow direction.

The ruler is in inches. (NASA Photo EC93

42307-1)

diameter and a depth of 45 inches)

contained the film drum. The rectangular

part (approximately 5 inches at cube

region) contained the "instrument." The

recorder system shown in Figures B-1 and

B-2 is a flow-direction recorder (note the

DR prefix in the legend stenciled on the

side of the recorder) that is used to

measure the angle of attack and the angle

of sideslip of an aircraft. Obviously, the

data that were recorded depended on the

"instrument." The processed film shown in

Figure B-2 as an example is actually from

a pressure recorder system.

The outer cases of the instruments

were usually limited to a few standard

configurations because of space and

mounting limitations on the aircraft and

because of the need to fit, or interface

with, one of the standard film recorder

cases. For some experiments, the recorders on the aircraft could be located in a

controlled temperature environment

compartment. This compartment would

minimize temperature effects on the

recorder.

Figure B-3 shows the internal components of a temperature-compensated

Figure B-3. Photograph of mirror assembly

element (left) and diaphragm element (right)
II The photograph of

the mirror assembly (fig.

B-3), the schematics

(figs. 13-4 and 13-5), and

the descriptions for the

schematics were in a

notebook compiled

earlier (perhaps in the

1960s) by an instrumentation engineer

(probably Don Veatch).

As people retired, the

notebooks (at least two

volumes) remained

behind. The one used

here was in the

possession of Wilson E.

Vandiver, who had

received it from Don

Veatch when Don

retired. Cleo M. Maxwell,

who was one of the X-15

aircraft program

instrumentation

engineers, was also very

helpful in providing

information about the

oscillograph film

recorder systems.

(Discussions with Wilson

7 Janmuy 1994 and 28

June 1995 and with Cleo

7 January 1994.)

-1- The impact and static

pressures were obtained

using a device called a

pitot-static tube (also

called a pitot-static head)

that is specially designed

for airspeed measurements. The static

pressure from the pitotstatic tube could

additionally be used in

the operation of an

altimeter (which

indicated altitude).

Figure B-4. Schematic showing the

different parts of the

mirror and diaphragm

elements of the

temperature-compensated airspeed

recorder seen in

Figure B-3 (differential pressure measured). (Ilford print)

Figure B-5. Schematic showing the

different parts of the

mirror and diaphragm

elements of a

temperature-compensated altimeter

recorder (absolute

pressure measured).

(Ilford print)

\\

BIMETAL PosrnONS

ABOVE ROOM TEMP.

ROOM TEMP.

BELOW ROOM TEMP.

deflection images are measured. These

images are recorded on the film in the film

recorder.

A bimetal lever arm is located on

top of the diaphragm to compensate for

temperature changes.

tion determines which of the four pivoted

mirrors is used.

A fixed mirror (reference

mirror) is also mounted inside the capsule

to provide a reference from which the

Figure B-5 shows the schematictt for

the internal components of a temperaturecompensated altimeter recorder. This

t

DIAPHRAGM

STATIC CONNECTION PRESSURE CONNECTON-_

Figure B-4 shows a schematic identifying the different parts of the airspeed

recorder. The pressure connection (connected to impact pressure) is applied to

the inside of the diaphragm, and the static

connection (connected to static pressure)

is applied to the inside of the capsule

surrounding the diaphragm. The unsupported end of the diaphragm moves

differential low-pressure capsule. The

airspeed recorder used the difference

between an impact pressure and a static

pressure to measure the aircraft velocity.t

MIRROR STAFF

JEWELED PIVOTS-l- -'l.-/:.x:..,,=',\l\.\

RECORD MIRRORS

TAIL

MERCOID EVACUATEO DIAPHRAGM

....

E-J.589

E-3?95
t The width for the 2-

inch film actually

measured 2.5 inches,

and for the 6-inch film,

6.5 inches. I did not

have a 12-inch film to

measure.

ailtight capsule. The pressure connection

(connected to the aircraft static pressure) is

applied to the inside of the capsule

surrounding the diaphragm. One end of

the diaphragm is attached to the capsule

and the other end is free to move with the

variation of absolute pressure. The free

end of the diaphragm moves a pivoted

element is constructed from an alloy that

has vety little change in its modulus of

elasticity (stretch or shrinkage) with

changes in temperature.

Both of these recorder systems

measured only one parameter (one

measuring the difference between two

(a) 12-cell pressure manometer; no film drum.

Ruler is in inches. (NASA Photo EC94 42599-1 )

(b) 24-cell pressure manometer with film drum.

Ruler is in inches. (NASA Photo E855)

Figure B-6. Oscillograph recorder systems that

measure several parameters.

(c) 24-cell pressure manometer; no film drum.

Ruler is in inches. (NASA Photo E856)

pressures and the other, an absolutepressure) and both recorder systems used

2-inch wide film. Some film recorder

systems used larger film (for example

6-inches widet or 12-inches wide) and

some recorder systems measured more

than one parameter. Figure B-6 shows
triangular-shaped brackets. The same

pressure source that 'feeds' the manifold

also feeds the absolute pressure cell.

Therefore, the differential pressures

(ranged for plus and minus) would in

effect be measured with respect to the

pressure for the absolute pressure cell.

The 24-cell manometer [figs. B-6

(b)and (c)] appears to measure only

differential pressures. Figure B6 (c) shows

the manometer with the film drum removed. A slit, or opening, can be seen

between the support rails for the film

drum. This glass-covered opening was

where the light was reflected from the

mirrors to the film.

Figure B-7. Film

strips used to aid in

identification of film

traces. (NASA Photo

EC93 42307-35)

pressure and the individual pressure.t The

reference pressure was measured with an

absolute pressure instrument similar to the

system shown in Figure B-5. In Figure B-6

(a), the P in the p-16-12 notation stands for

pressure, the 16 means the instrument was

identified as number 16 (each instrument

had an identification number), and the 12

means the instrument has 12 cells. The

instrument identification number was 6 for

the 24-cell pressure manometer [figs. B-6

(b) and (c)].

The systems that measured more than

one parameter also had more than one

reference trace. The distance between the

parameter trace and the reference trace

t These manometers operated on a principle similar to that of mechanical and electronic scanning valves. Each cell of the ll1an0111cter was recorded in sequence. In other words, the pressure difference was recorded for cell 1, then cell 2, then cell 3, and so forth until the final cell was reached. Then the sequence would start over with cell 1. Each trace was displaced horizontally (at least, that was the plan) from the preceding trace and, in addition, there was a small hreak in the trace between each cell. So once the position for the trace from cell 1 was located, one merely had to number the other traces and keep track of them for the rest of the film. As will be discussed later, labeling the traces was the first of many steps leading to the final data plots.
t This film showing the

first Mach number jump

was rediscovered by

accident. In the 1970s,

Edwin]. Saltzman

ordered some stored

boxes from the storage

warehouse in the Los

Angeles area. He

discovered the film

when looking through a

box that was sent by

mistake. He believed it

was a film from the first

piloted flight to exceed

the speed of sound. By

reading the film and

analyzing the data, he

confirmed his suspicion.

The film he found is

now in the Smithsonian

Institution's National Air

and Space Museum.

tt Discussions with

Lannie Dean Webb and

Cleo Maxwell on 5 July

1994.

eters 1 through 4 would be associated with

reference trace 1 and the trace for parameter 5 would be associated with reference

trace 2. The film used as an example in

the next section measured two parameters

(impact pressure and static pressure) and

had two reference traces.

Film Reading Procedure

After the films for the flight were

processed, they were laid out and marked

so that each film had the start time (time

equal to zero) on the correct timing mark.

For the X-I aircraft, this effort involved

film from eight film recorders for typicalflight times of from 10 to 15 minutes. After

the zero time was identified, each film had

the times marked on the film (for example,

every two seconds), and the traces were

identified. Marking the traces with the

The film strip shown in Figure BooS will

be used to describe the film reading

procedure. This film strip shows the Mach

jump from the first piloted flight to exceed

the speed of sound.t The leading edge

(left edge) of each timer mark is used to

identify a specific time. The time is in

seconds, with the zero time being when

all the film recorders were simultaneously

started by a switch turned on by the pilot.

This switch actually turned on all the

instrumentation, including the film recorders and the single common timing device.tt The single common timer device

generated the time signals used by the

recorders. Each recorder had a "channel,"

or light source, that was triggered by the

master signal from the common timer

device. Thus, the system was designed so

that each recorder made its own timingmarks on the film.

..

·

..·;3'0..· .

/'

..

__ _._ 133 iii . •....

Figure B-8. Film strip from an absolute pressure recorder used to measure an impact pressure

and a pressure static.Time (145,150, etc.) is in seconds. The numeral 3 means trace is from the

third mirror for the impact pressure trace. The 5H means trace is from the fifth mirror of the static

pressure trace. (NASA Photo E38438) (See figure 11, p. 13, for details)

appropriate labels required skill and

knowledge. Some people would use a roll

of film from an earlier flight to aid in

identifying the traces. Another method was

to use a short strip of the film from an area

where the different traces could be easily

identified, such as when the X-I aircraft

began its climb after launch. Figure B-7

shows examples of short film strips used

for identifying the traces from X-IA flights.

I was not able to identify all the notations

on the film strips. The notations P-9-4,

0-2S-4W, P-3-4, 0-26-4W, and SR-3-11N

id

if

h

d

(

i

)

Th

For parameters that needed more than

one mirror, the trace identification required another step. The mirror also had

to be identified. The numeral "3" written

above the impact pressure trace in Figure

BooS signifies that this trace is caused by a

source light beam reflected off the third

mirror. Similarly, the "5H" written near the

static pressure trace represents the fifth

(and last) mirror for the static pressure

record.

Once the time and the traces were

id

ifi

d

h

fil

d

Thi

di
0.005 inch. When the trace was not sharp,

the reading could be made to the nearest

0.01 inch. A light box and a magnifying

glass [fig. B-9 (a)] were often used to assist

in reading the film. Another method used

to read film, beginning in 1953, involved a

telereader machine. Figure B-9 (b) shows a

telereader being demonstrated by Delores

Sutphin. The technique was to set a zero

then move the crosshairs to the data point

to be read.t A foot pedal, visible under her

right foot, was used to "read" the numbers.

Originally, a second person would record

the numbers from dials located to the right

of Ms. Sutphin. Sometime later, the numbers were printed on a typewriter connected to the telereader. The typewriter

seen in this photograph was not connected

to the telereader. In the 1960s, the recording procedure was more automated. A

typewriter and a card-punch machine were

connected to the telereader. When the foot

heating effects. Reading the film with the

telereader, at least before it became more

automated, was probably not any faster

than using a film scale. I never used a

telereader; however, I suspect it was

Figure 8-9. Two

methods used to read

film.

Figure 8-9 (a) (left).

Film shown on a

lightbox. The lightbox

and magnifying glass

were sometimes used

to aid in reading the film

with a film scale (lying

on Iightbox). The values

read from the film were

written on the data

sheet. (NASA Photo

EC93 42307-6)

Figure 8-9 (b) (below).

Delores Sutphin

demonstrating the use

of a telereader machine

to read film. No film was

being read for this

demonstration.'(NASA

Photo E1 006)

t Discussions with John

W. Smith and Richard E.

Klein on 16 September

1993 and Mary Little

Kuhl on 19 April 1994.

tt Film in the telereader

was read in a dark,

isolated room. The

darkness improved the

contrast for reading the

film traces but also

earned the room the

name "mole hole."

(Recollections of Betty

Love on 13 June 1996.)
t The zero readings were

obtained before and after

the flight (as near as

practically possible to the

takeoff' and landing) for a

"known" value. If

necessary, the "zero"

deflection would then be

adjusted so that the value

read !i'om the calibration

curve was the same as

the "known" value. The

difference was always the

average of the preflight

and postflight values

unless one of them was

unavailable. This

difference was then

applied to the values

read from the film.

::::::::::: : .

::::: t :.:. ::::: :::::.::::::::::::: :::::::::

::::.::.::

...............; .::.::.:.:::.:::.:::.:::.: .

:.., ::::::

Figure 8-10. Example data sheet showing hand recorded film defiections.(NASA Photo EC93

42307-37)

a five mirror calibration plot. Mirror 1 is on

As the film was read (at least before

tt Because an instrument

was calibrated several

times during a flight

program, each calibration

plot was only used for

designated flights. This

plot for film deflection

versus absolute pressure

was dated 31 December

1947. The plot area

measured 13 by 30

inches and film deflection

in inches ranged, bottom

to top, from -0.8 to 1.8

and absolute pressure in

inches of mercury, left to

right, from 31 to 1 (also

see note p. 6l). This

calibration was run for

temperatures of 00 and

800 Fahrenheit. Increasing and decreasing

pressure values were

taken at approximately

the same deflections.

Thus values for a given

deflection were near the

same point on the paper.

Rather than overlap, the

symbols were offset from

the Clave and lines

drawn to the actual

value. The non-sensitive

traee clllve, seen crossing

the mirror curves, aided

in mirror identification as

a mirror went off-scale,

or out of its calibrated

d 

h
Figure 8-11. Five mirror calibration plot used for static pressure trace seen in Figures 8-7 and 8-

8. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-28)

static pressure trace, respectively. The zero

corrections were not available when this

data was analyzed in the 1970s and so

none were applied to these data.t The

column labeled "3" shows the conversion

of the impact pressure from inches of

water to inches of mercury (static pressure

is in inches of mercury). The "#3" above

the column labeled "I" indicates mirror 3

and the "#5" above the column labeled "4"

indicates mirror 5. These readings were a

first step in analyzing the data.

The data sheets in Figure B-12 are

summary tabulations from the four flights

that were used to obtain the Mach number

error curve (position error curve) shown in

Figure B-13. These sheets were copies

made by Roxanah Yancey from the original

sheets. As can be seen, a number of

calculations were needed before the final

answers were obtained. The sheets all

used to identify the parameter as an

indicated value, which means the parameter has not been corrected for compressibility effects.ttt HRadar, in feet, was a

geometrical altitude obtained from a radar

track of the airplane. Both the static

pressures (P parameters) and impact

pressures (qc parameters) are in inches of

mercury. PH was obtained from a pressure

survey that related the geometrical altitude

to a static pressure. The static pressure and

altitude relationship was found by radartracking a B-29 airplane that towed a

NACA standard trailing static-pressure

bomb.* The X-I airplane was tracked by

radar through the same geometric-altitude

range as that previously flown by the B-29

airplane. The geometrical altitude of the

X-I airplane was then used to determine

PH- M' (column 7) was obtained from

tablesH using the values in column 6, and

M (column 10) was obtained from a table

t These data were used

to identify the film, and

although desirable, the

zeros were not necessary

to identify the film.

tt These values from

figure B-lO are fromflight 9 and correspond

to the values for flight 9

in Figures B-12 (e) and

CD. The values in the

two figures are different

(for example, the values

for time 147.4) because

zero corrections were

not applied to the film

deflections in figure B10.

ttt Compressibility is the

property of air by virtue

of which the density

increases with increase

in pressure. This

property is manifested at

speeds approaching that

of sound and higher. In

practical terms,

compressibility means

that the density changes

in the air can no longer

be neglected and that

corrections must be

applied to these

pressures.

*

Harold R. Goodman

and Roxanah B. Yancey,

The Static-Pressure Error

of Wing and Fuselage

Airspeed Installations of

the X-I Airplanes in

Transonic Flight

(Washington, D.C.:

NACA RM L9G22, 1949).

H One such table is

found in: Ames Research

Staff, Equations, Tables,

and Chartsfor Compressibility Flow (Washington,

D.C.: NACA TR-1135,

1953), This replaced

NACA TN-1428 from

1947.
Figure B-12 (a) Flight 5, 12 September 1947. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-29)

Figure B-12. Data sheets used to obtain Mach number error curve from flights leading to and
Figure 8-12 (b) Flight 5,12 September 1947, concluded. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-32)

rThe fold hoe 10 thiS

plot eXists bec,wse the

plottmg paper was 11 by

17 mches (the "hoed"

p,l1t be109 10 by 15

mches) Aoy plot page

that was large! than

8 1/2 by 11 mches

would eventually be

folded to fit 10 an 8 1/2

by 11 Inch stOlage area

such as a notebook or

manilla folder

the indicated Mach number (the Mach

curve obtained from the data of X-I flights
Figure 8-12 (c) Flight 7,8 October 1947. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-30)

Figure B-14 is a composite showing

and tedious workup of the data, but they
Figure 8-12 (d) Flight 8,10 October 1947. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-31)

t RecollectIOns of Betty

Scott Love, 3 August

1994

tt The film scales were

pUlchased In lots from

the Dietzgen Company

A serious attempt was

made to have all film

scales bought from the

same lot In ordel to

avoId uncertainty or

arguments about "nonsancttoned" scales

Friden automatic calculator, eraser shield,

magnifying glass, symbol maker, film scale,

d 

i

l

t Th

if

i

l

[fi

Because equipment, such as the magnifying glass and the film scale, was difficult to
t I don't know what they

cost, but I do know it

was not easy to have a

personal film scale.

Figure 8-12 (e) Flight 9,14 October 1947. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-34)

had to borrow a film scale because they

were too expensive for everyone to have

Other equipment, such as the templates used to make symbols around data
Figure 8-12 (f) Flight 9,14 October 1947, concluded. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-33)

t The smaller curves

were commonly called

French curves and the

larger ones (over 12

mches) were called ship

Clllves. However, some

conSIder the more

intricate curves French

CUlves and the flowing

ones, ship CUlves Some

considel that a curve

wah a flowing shape,

regardless of SIze, was a

ship CUlve. This last

defimtion is supported

by the label m a box of

curves that was used by

the women computers

The label for the

Copenhagen Ship

CUlves showed flowing

curves from 2 to 20

inches in length.

in theory it would do this; for some of us,

it was extremely difficult to keep ink from

markers; however, their flatness also made

them difficult to find in reports or under
I The ship curves used

by the womcn computCIS were kept m a box at

Roxanah Yancey's desk

When a computer

needed a curve, she

borrowcd and then

returned It The

engineels usually

borrowed flOm each

other Some engmeers

wele betteI at borrowmg

than returmng

Figure 8-13. Mach number position error curve from the XS-1 #1 data; hand plotted by Roxanah

Yancey in 1947. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-39)

Figure 8-14. Example

data sheets, calibration curve and tools

used to obtain the

final Mach number

curve. (NASA Photo

EC9342307-5)

the faired lines that connected the data

points. Figure B-16 shows the wide

assortment of curves in making the time

preference for certain curves and putting

their names on them. Figure B-17 shows

identifying inscriptions on a triangle and a
Figure 8-15 (a)

Magnifying glass.Note labels on box,

NACA Muroc

Computer #3, and on

handle, Roxanah

Yancey. (NASA Photo

EC9342307-9)

Figure 8-15 (b) Left

to right: three symbol

makers, film scale

and triangle. (NASA

Photo EC93 42307-

10)
Figure B-16. X-15 time history plot with curves used for the data lines. Flight log (8.5 by 11

inches) shown for size comparison. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-8)

t This X-15 time history

plot, including all the labels

external to the plotting area,

measures approximately 29

by 29 inches. The original

plot used 10 x 10 to the

square centimeter paper.

This photograph is from an

ozalid copy. The Ozalid

process used a sensitized

paper developed by using

a heat process and ammonia. Ozalid copies had dark

blue lines and text on a light

blue background. The darkness of the lines and the

background could be varied in the reproduction process. The ozalid copies

could be made with individual sheets in the standard 81/2 by 11 and 11 by

17 sizes or could use rolls

of paper for larger non-standard sizes such as this copy.

Orange carbon-rype paper

(which only left a coating

on the back ofthe original)

was used on the axes, text,

curves and data points. The

coating could either be applied as the plot was made

or the plot could be retraced afterwards. Changes

were difficult to make to a

plot after the orange coating was applied. The outer

layer of the orange coating

could be scraped off but

you usually had to scrape

off some of the paper itself

to completely remove the

coating. The orange coating required extra effort but

significantly improved the

contrast for data curves,

text, drawings, etc. The

ozalid copies were either

given to other people to use

or were employed as working copies. By using the

ozalid copies as working

copies, changes to the original figures were minimized.

The copy processes used in

the 1940s included what

looked like a blueprint

copy. The curves, data

points, gridline and text

showed as white on a blue

background. The photograph of the calibration

curve in figure B-11 was

Figure B-17. Closeup of curve and

triangle showing

inscriptions. NACA

Computer #18 on

curve and NACA

Muroc computers on

triangle.
Figure 8-18. X-15-3 time history plot of velocity, altitude, Mach number and dynamic pressure

from launch to touchdown for flight on 14 September 1966. Note the altitude has a double scale.

(NASA Photo EC93 42307-27)

t A discussion of the

techniques and

instrumentation used to

generate the X-IS time

history plots is found in:

Lannie D. Wcbb,

Characteristics aild use

o/X-i5 Air-Data Seilsors

(Washington, D.C.: NASA

TN D-4597, 196m

t1 Two B-52 motherships

carried the X-IS aloft for

launch from under the

wing. Figures 19 and 20

show B-52 airplane

number 008 and Figurc

18 shows the three X-IS

aircraft. B-52 number

003 was the other launch

aircraft; it was retired at

the end of the X-IS

program.

studies. The people working in that

discipline would do their own version of

the X-15 time history plot, at least until the

calibrations needed to generate thesecurves were established. After that, the

calculations for obtaining these values

were routine enough that the women

computers would generate the curves.

However, the X-15 changed this. The

experiments on the aircraft included many

disciplines, and a common, or official, set

f 

l

d

d

I

ddi

i

b

i

that an engineering group was formed

whose task was to create these plots for

each flight.

When Mach number or any of these

parameters were needed to analyze data

from a flight, the value was read from the

time-history plot for the desired time. For

example, for a film time of 300 seconds,

Mach number, altitude, velocity, and

dynamic pressure are 4.82, 253,000 feet (ft),
t Scale from 0 to 6000

fps.

tt Scale from 0 to 6.

ttt Scale from 0 to 1200

psI'.

Figure 8-19. Event log for X-15-3 flight on 14 September 1966. (NASA Photo EC9342307-36)

scales for velocity (the data curve marked

"v")t and altitude (the data curve marked

Figure B-19 shows the event log for

this flight. Not surprisingly, the sheet is
has been previously published.t Another

book about the X-15 program was written

by former X-15 pilot Milt Thompson.tt

Written primarily from a pilot's perspective, this book contains many details about

the X-15 program, the pilots who flew the

X-15, and information about each of the

flights. Two other papers about the X-15

program were also written by a former

X-15 pilot.ttt The first X-15 (glide) flight

was 8 June 1959, and the last flight was 24

October 1968. Snow in December of 1968

prevented what would have been the

200th X-15 flight. Funding for the program

ended in December of 1968.

t Wendell H. Stillwell, X15 Research Results with

a Selected Bibliography

(Washington, D.C.: NASA

SP-60, 1965).

tt Milton O. Thompson,

At the Edge ofSpace: The

X-15 Flight Program

(Washington, D.C.,

Smithsonian Institution

Press, 1992).

ttt William H. Dana, "A

History of the X-15

Program," Thirty-First

Symposium Proceedings

of the Society of

Experimental Test Pilots,

September 23-26, 1987,

and "The X-15 Airplane-Lessons Learned"

(Washington, D.C.:

AIAA-93-0309, 1993).
Appendix C: Woment in the Engineering Field

Women Who Worked as Computers (1946 -1954)

Period

t These are the names I

heard or that I found in

a card catalog for

Dryden authors, in the

1954 Air Force yearbook

for Edwards, in Dryden

telephone directories, or

in the Dryden in-house

newsletter, the X-Press.

Names are as they

existed at the time. For

example, all references

to me would be as

Shelyll Goecke until

1975. From then on,

references are either to

Shelyll Powers or Sheryll

Goecke Powers.

Name

Phyllis Rogers Actis

Ilene Alexander

Katharine H. Armistead

Lilly Ann Bajus

Rozalia M. Bandish

Beverly Jane Swanson

Cothren

Joan M. Childs Dahlen

Angel H. Dunn

Helen N. Foley

Mary (Tut) W. Hedgepeth

Dorothy C. Clift Hughes

Sometime before October 1947 to early 1950s

1948 to mid-1949

1950; 1952 to retirement in 1979 (at Langley between 1950

and 1952); co-author on 1 report in 1957, 1 in 1958, and lead

author in 1973

Probably late 1940s to early 1950s

Probably late 1940s early 1950s; co-author on report in 1951

Probably late 1940s to early 1950s; co-author as Swanson on

report in 1950

Probably late 1940s to early 1950s, sale author as Childs on

report in 1953

Probably late 1940s to early 1950s, co-author on report in 1952

1950 to 1960 (Began as women computer but in 1952 established library and editorial office and served as head of that

office.)

November 1948 to 1953

Sometime before October 1947 to probably mid 1949; coauthor as Clift on 2 reports in 1948

MalY V. Little (married 1949 to retirement in 1973, co-author on report in 1958

Albert E. Kuhl after retiring)

Betty J. Scott Love

Isabell K. Martin

Geraldine C. Mayer

Mary M. PayneMary Pierce

i

i

1952 to retirement in 1973, co-author as Scott on a report in

1957, 1961 and 1963; co-author as Love in 1967 and 1971

December 1946; left by April 1947

Probably late 1940s to early 1950s; co-author on report in 1950

1948 to early 1951; co-author on report in 1950

Probably late 1940s to early 1950s; co-author on repolt in 1950
Women from 1960 to December 1995

(December 1995 indicated as present under Period)

J. Delores Sutphin

Peggy 1. Sutphin

(sister to Delores)

Gertrude (Trudy) V.

Wilken Valentine

Helen 1. Wall

Julia B. Woodbridge

Roxanah B. Yancey

Around 1954Around 1954

Probably late 1940s to early 1950s; co-author as Wilken on

report in 1950

Probably late 1940s to early 1950s; co-author on report in 1949

Probably late 1940s to early 1950s; co-author on report in 1950

December 1946 to retirement end ofJune 1973; co-author on

5 reports in 1949, 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974; lead author in

1962 and 1973, sole author in 1964

t These women were in

the co-op program and

returned to Dryden after

graduation from college.

The year given is when

they started in the co-op

program with Dryden;

the year of graduation

could be up to four

years later. Women coops who were authors

but did not return to

Dryden after graduation

were Diane DeMarco (at

Dryden in the early to

mid-1970s), Sandra

Thornberry Steers (at

Dryden in the early to

mid-1970s), and

Maureen O'Connor (at

Dlyden in the early

19805).

Bianca Trujillo Anderson 1979t to March 1995 (quit)

Katharine H. Armistead 1950; 1952 to retirement in 1979 (also see 1946 to 1954 listing)

Anne Baldwin Early 1960s; probably from 1960 to 1962 (quit)

Jennifer 1. Baer-Riedhart 1974 to present

Catherine Bahm 19931 to present (co-op; graduated 1995)

Lisa Jennett Bjarke 1979t to present

Carolyn E. Body End ofJuly 1974 to mid July 1976 (died in glider accident)

Georgina Rodriguez Branco 1986 to present

Marta R. Bohn-Meyer 1979 to present

Dorothea Cohen 1988 to present

Doris A. Myers Dowden 1973 to 1980; 1989 to presentDarla D. Duke 1983 to medical retirement in 1987

Martha B. Evans 1975 to retirement in March 1995

Kimberly A. Ennix 1991 to present

Constance Eaton Harney 1965 to retirement in May 1994
t These women were in

the co-op program and

returned to Dlyden after

graduation from college.

The year given is when

they started in the co-op

program with Dryden;

the year of graduation

could be up to four

years later. Women coops who were authors

but did not return to

Dryden after graduation

were Diane DeMarco (at

Dryden in the early to

mid-1970s), Sandra

Thornberry Steers (at

Dryden in the early to

mid-1970s), and

Maureen O'Connor (at

Dlyden in the early

1980s).

Georgene Miltonberger

Laub

Jeanette H. Le

MalY V. Little

Betty J. Scott Love

Karen S. Green Mackall

Trindel A. Maine

Laurie Marshall

Elsie B. Mc Gowan

Darlene S.Mosser-Kerner

Cynthia Norman

Sheryll Goecke Powers

Cynthia M. Privoznik

Susan Jane Rashkin

Victoria A. Regenie

Carol A. Bauer Reukauf

Dianne Roux

Bertha M. Ryan

Patricia C. Seamount

Karla ShyHarriet J. DeVries

Stephenson Smith

Carol S. Tanner

Lura E. Kern Vernon

Roxanah B

Yancey

Mid 1960s, probably 1965 to early 1967 (transferred to NASA

Ames)

1989 to present

1949 to retirement in 1973 (also see 1946 to 1954 listing)

1952 to retirement in 1973 (also see 1946 to 1954 listing)1973t to present

1982 to present1993 to present

1964 to retirement in March 1995

1989 to present

Fall 1994 to present

1963t to present1981 to 1984 (transferred to Naval Weapons Center, China

Lake, California)

1989 to 1991 (quit)

1983 to present

1971t to present

1966 to 1967 (quit)

1960 to late 1966 or early 1967 (transferred to Naval

Weapons Center, China Lake, California)

1992 to March 1995 (quit)

Late summer 1994 to present

1952t to 1983 when she left to work as a congressional aide

Mid 1960s, probably 1964, to 1966

1989 to August 1994 (quit)

1946 to retirement in 1973 (also see 1946 to 1954 listing)

Appendix D: Number of Women by Job Category from

1960 to December 1995

Engineering

Disciplines

Computer

Programming

Airplane

Simulation

Management

1960 - 1969, Total number of women = 14

10 (includes 3

former woman

computers)

3 o 1 chief of Programming and Data

Processing Branch

(former woman

computer)

1970 - 1979, Total number of women = 1710 (2 former woman

computers retired

1973 and 1 in 1979)

4 1 1 chief of Programming and Data

Processing Branch

(Retired 1973,

former woman

computer); 1 in program management

1980 - 1989, Total number of women = 26

15 (2 instrumentation

engineers responsible

for research instrumentation

on airplane; 1 an operations

engineer responsible for

flight readiness of airplane)

o 4 3 in program

management; 1

chief of branch

responsible for

computer systems,

flight control rooms,

and information

networks; 3 in nondisciplinary management positions

1990 - 1993, Total number of women = 26

14 (l an instrumentation

engineer)

o 4 4 in program

management (l an

acting deputy chief

for program management division; 1

also serves as a

flight test engineer

on the SR-71 crew);1
March 1994, Total number of women = 24

13 (l an instrumentation

engineer)

o 3 4 in program management (l an

acting deputy chief

for program management division; 1

also serves as a

flight test engineer

on the SR-71 crew);

1 deputy chief of

division responsible

for computer

systems, t1ight

control rooms, and

information networks (former

branch chieD; 3

nondisciplinary

management

December 1995, Total number of women = 21

11 (2 are instrumentation engineers) o 1 3 in program man- agement (l also

serves as a t1ight

test engineer on the

SR-71 crew); 6 nondisciplinalY

management

Notes: Co-ops not included in numbers. Numbers are maximum for time periods from

1960-1969, 1970-1979, 1980-1989, and 1990-1993.

"Engineering discipline" refers to any of the airplane discipline studies, for example, propulsion, aerodynamics, stability and control, structures, etc.

"Program management" refers to general oversight of an airplane program such as

coordinating, scheduling, funding, working with any outside partners involved

with the program, etc.

"Nondisciplinary management" includes non-supervisolY staff positions and

positions that function primarily as a focal point to coordinate requests between

engineering groups.
Index

Actis, Phyllis Rogers: 4, 18

Aikin, William: 4

Ames Research Center: 3,7,8

Armistead, Katharine H.: 21, 26n.

Army Air Forces (AAF): 1

B-29: 2,4

B-52: 4n.

Bachelor Officer Quarters (BOQ): 6

Bajus, Lilly Ann: 10, 11, 15Baldwin, Anne: 20

Beeler, De E.: 4, 11

Boeing 720: 21

Bohn-Meyer, Marta: 24Building 4800: 19

C-47: 12Childs, Joan: (see Dahlen)

Clift, Dorothy: (see Hughes)Collons, Jane: 10

Computers, analog: 21Computers, digital: 14, 20, 21

"Computers" (women); 3-21

Duties of: 12-21

Controlled Impact Demonstration (CID) with Boeing 720: 21

Cooperative work-study programs: i, 11, 20n.

Corbett, Leona: 10-11Cothren, Beverly Swanson: 11

Crawford, Dorothy: 10

D-558: 2, 3, 12, 17

Dahlen, Joan Childs: 20Dahlen, Theodore: 20

Data reduction: i

Data Systems Division: 18

Dormitories: 5-6, 8-9

Dryden Flight Research Center: passim

Earlier names: 3, 18

Location: 1-2, 3n.

Original employees: 1, 3, 4, 26n.

Dunn, Angel: 10

Eaton, Constance: (see Harney)
Galloping Gerties: (see Frieden calculators)

Gray Ghost (van): 6

Harney, Constance Eaton: 20, 24

Hedgepeth, Mary (Tut): 7n., 10, 11

Hoover, Herbert: 12

Hughes, Dorothy Clift: 4, 10, 15, 18

Klein, Beverly Strickland: 20

Kuhl, Mary Little: 6n., 10, 20

Langley Research Center: 2, 7

Larson, Terry: 9n., lIn., 26n.

Lewis Research Center: 7, 10

Little, Mary: (see KuhD

Love, Betty Scott: 11-12,21

Maintenance crews: 22

Martin, Isabell K.: 3, 4

Mc Gowan, Elsie: 20

National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA): 1,3

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): 3

Navy, U.S.: 1

P-51 Mustang: 7n.P-61 Black Widow: 7n.

Payne, Mary M.: 11, 18

Payne, Richard E.: lIn.

Powers, Sheryll Goecke: i

Pressure traces: (see X-I)

Pulse code modulation (PCM): 14

Recruiting difficulties: 7

Report preparation: iResearch Division: 18Rogers, Phyllis: (see Actis)

Rogers Dry Lake: 2-3, 12n.

Rosamond Dry Lake: 12n.

Roth, Dorothy Crawford: 10

Ryan, Bertha: 20

Salaries: 7-8, lIn.

Smith, Beverly: 10, 11Smith, Harriet DeVries: 9n., 11, 20Social attitudes about women: i-ii, 14, 21-22

Sputnik: 3
X-I: 1,2,3, 12 (see also X5-l)

Pressure traces: 12

X-3: 20n.

x-4: 17n.

X-5: 17n.

X-IS: 4n., 14, 15,21

XF-92A: 17n.

XS-1 (see X-I): 2, 26n.

X-Press: 2n., 6n.

Wall, Helen 1.: 18

Wilken, Gertrude: 10 (see also Valentine)

Williams, Walter c.: 4, 7n., lIn., 20

Wimmer, Naomi: 4Work environment: 15n., 15-22

Yancey. Roxanah B.: 3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 15, 17-18, 21

Yeager, Charles E.: 12
List of Figures

Figure 1. Location of Muroc with respect to Los Angeles 1

Figure 2. Sketch of Rogers Lake (DIY) 2

Figure 3. Group photograph in front of the XS-1 and the B-29. (NASA Photo E21428) 4

Figure 4. Group photograph in front of the B-29, October 1947. (NASA Photo E21431) 5

Figure 5. Group photograph in front of the NACA building, 1950. (NASA Photo E21429) 5

Figure 6. Roxanah Yancey with the NACA Dodge carryall. (NASA Photo E96 4340331) 7

Figure 7. Aerial views of the women's dormitory at the south base.

Figure 7a. July 1951; women's dormitory with respect to NACA site (NASA Photo E499) 8

Figure 7b. Late 1949 or early 1950 showing the area around the women's dormitory 8

Figure 8. Interior and exterior views of women's dormitOlY, 1949 or early 1950s.

Figure 8a. Front door entrance. (NASA Photo E96 43403-8) 9

Figure 8b. Parking area and exterior side view. (NASA Photo E96 43403-7) 9

Figure 8c. View of bedroom. (NASA Photo E52) : 9

Figure 8d. View of dining area. (NASA Photo E50) 9

Figure 8e. Washer and dryer in laundlY room. (NASA Photo E51) 9

Figure 8f. View of kitchen stove. (NASA Photo E49) 9

Figure 9. Group photograph of women by snowman, late 1948. (NASA Photo E212) 10

Figure 10. Aerial views of NACA site at the south base.

Figure lOa. Viewed from the runway direction, late 1940s. (NASA Photo E51 503) 11

Figure lOb. Viewed from buildings to runway, July 1951. (NASA Photo E501) 12

Figure 11. XS-1 and film pressure traces from first airplane flight to exceed the speed of sound 13

Figure 12. Engineers with copies of an oscillograph film, film scale and slide rule, about 1950.

(NASA Photo En 11191-2) 13

Figure 13. Two views of women computers at work, spring 1949.

Figure 13a. (NASA Photo E53) 14

Figure 13b. (NASA Photo E54) 15

Figure 14. NACA's X-series fleet in the late 1940s or early 1950s. (NASA Photo E145) 16Figure 15. Flight support required for D-558-2 air launch flight, taken 17 January 1954. (NASA Photo E1152) 17

Figure 16. Announcement for House Warming Party held June 26, 1954 for new building 18

Figure 17. Group photograph in front of the new building, main base, 1954. (NASA Photo E33718) 19

Figure 18. Airplanes in hanger in late 1966. (NASA Photo Ec66 1461) 22

Figure 19. Airplanes on ramp, 1988. (NASA Photo EC88 0042-1) 23
Figure B-4. Schematic showing the different parts of the mirror and diaphragm elements of the temperature-compensated

airspeed recorder seen in Figure B-3 (differential pressure measured). (Ilford print) 46

Figure B-5. Schematic showing the different parts of the mirror and diaphragm elements of a temperature-compensated

altimeter recorder (absolute pressure measured). (Ilford print) 46

Figure B-6. Oscillograph recorder systems that measure several parameters.

(a) 12-cell pressure manometer; no film dmffi. Ruler is in inches. (NASA Photo EC94 42599-1) 47

(b) 24-cell pressure manometer with film dmffi. Ruler is in inches. (NASA Photo E855) 47

(c) 24-cell pressure manometer; no film dmffi. Ruler is in inches. (NASA Photo E856) 47

Figure B-7. Film strips used to aid in identification of film traces. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-35) 48

Figure B-8. Film strip from an absolute pressure recorde. (NASA Photo E38438) 49

Figure B-9. Two methods used to read film.

Figure B-9 (a). Film shown on a lightbox. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-6) 50

Figure B-9 (b). Delores Sutphin demonstrating the Lise of a telereader machine.. (NASA Photo ElO06) 50

Figure B-I0. Example data sheet showing hand recorded film deflections.(NASA Photo EC93 42307-37) 51

Figure B-l1. Five mirror calibration plot used for static pressure trace seen in Figures B-7 and B-8.

(NASA Photo EC93 42307-28) 52

Figure B-12. Data sheets used to obtain Mach number error curve from flights leading to and including first piloted aircraft,

XS-l #1, to exceed the speed of sound.

Figure B-12 (a) Flight 5, 12 September 1947. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-29) 53Figure B-12 (b) Flight 5, 12 September 1947, concluded. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-32) 54

Figure B-12 (c) Flight 7, 8 October 1947. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-30) 55

Figure B-12 (d) Flight 8, 10 October 1947. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-31) 56

Figure B-12 (e) Flight 9, 14 October 1947. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-34) 57

Figure B-12 CD Flight 9, 14 October 1947, concluded. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-33) 58

Figure B-13. Mach number position error curve from the XS-l #1 data (NASA Photo EC93 42307-39) 59

Figure B-14. Example data sheets, calibration curve and tools used to obtain the final Mach number curve.

(NASA Photo EC93 42307-5) 59

Figure B-15. Some of the tools used by the computers and engineers.

Figure B-15 (a) Magnifying glass. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-9) 60

Figure B-15 (b) Left to right: three symbol makers, film scale and triangle. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-10) 60

Figure B-15 (c) Small curves C7.25 inches or shorter) and triangle. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-12) 60

Figure B-15 (d) Large curves (11 inches or longer). (NASA Photo EC93 42307-11) 60

Figure B-16. X-IS time histolY plot with curves used for the data lines.(NASA Photo EC93 42307-8) 61

Figure B-17. Close-up of curve and triangle showing inscriptions 61

Figure B-18. X-15-3 time histolY plot of velocity. (NASA Photo EC93 42307-27) 62

Figure B-19. Event log for X-15-3 flight on 14 September 1966. (NASA Photo EC9342307-36) 63

About the Author

Sheryll Goecke Powers began working at the NASA Flight Research Center at the

end of May 1963 in a NASA-university work-study program for students. After

graduation, she returned to the Center, renamed in honor of Hugh 1. Dryden in

1976, as an aerospace engineer and worked in the area of airplane drag and local

flow st\Jdies. The labor-intensive data reduction techniques she used in the 1960s

were the same as those used for the first X-plane programs. These techniques were

at first altered and then replaced by techniques that used the immense calculating

and processing capabilities of the digital computer. During her career, she has

written and served as co-author on several NASA technical reports. Her two nontechnical reports are "A Brief History of Women in the Engineering Field at Dryden

from 1946 to November 1992" (Proceedings, the Society of Women Engineers 1993

National Convention and Student Conference, Chicago, Illinois, June 21-27, 1993)

and "A Biased Historical Perspective of Women in the Engineering Field at Dryden

from 1946 to November 1992" (NASA CP-10134, 1994), which are both shorter

versions of this study. Ms. Powers earned a BS in aerospace engineering from Iowa

State University in 1967 and an MS and Eng. Deg., also in aerospace engineering,

from the University of Southern California in 1971 and 1976 respectively.

Monographs in Aerospace History

This is the sixth publication in a series of special studies prepared under the auspices of the NASA History Program. The Monographs in Aerospace History series is

designed to proVide a wide variety of investigations relative to the history of aeronautics and space. These publications are intended to be tightly focused in terms of

subject, relatively short in length, and reproduced in inexpensive format to allow

timely and broad dissemination to researchers in aerospace history. Suggestions for

additional publications in the Monographs in Aerospace History series are welcome

and should be sent to Roger D. Launius, Chief Historian, Code ZH, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC, 20546. Previous publications in

this series are:

Launius, Roger D. and Gillette, Aaron K. Compilers. Toward a History ofthe Space

Shuttle: An Annotated Bibliography. (Number 1, 1992)

Launius, Roger D. and Hunley, J. D. Compilers. An Annotated Bibliography ofthe

Apollo Program. (Number 2, 1994)