Convairiety, Volume 12, Number 15, July 22, 1959 Page: 3 of 8
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Convair/General Dynamics Newsletters and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.
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Wednesday, July 22, 1959
CONVAIRIETY
Page 3
Out-of-Plant Accident
Survey Shows Auto
Most Serious Offender
During four weeks in June,
out-of-plant accidents injured ap-
proximately 150 San Diego Di-
vision employees, took a heavy
toll in lost time and cost nearly
$17,000 in group insurance medi-
cal bills.
During the same period there
were nearly 900 claims for gen-
eral illnesses for which Convair
group insurance paid more than
$75,000 in medical expenses.
Convair picks up the tab for
the lion's share of all Convair
employees' group insurance ex-
penses, in the form of premiums
paid to Aetna Life Insurance
Co., which actually writes the
checks. Employees do contribute
to their disability insurance, how-
ever, and for life insurance above
a certain level.
SD’s employee services office
reported that the number of acci-
dents was about average for the
period, which would mean that
at this rate over a year’s time
"I hear this week's program is going
to be a real shocker!"
SD Division employees suffer
nearly 2,000 out-of-plant injuries.
(Significantly, during the survey
period there were no in-plant dis-
abling accidents whatsoever at
SD Division!)
No figures were forthcoming
from Astronautics, Pomona or
Fort Worth Divisions. However,
assuming that the ratio would be
roughly the same, an estimate
based on relative populations
would indicate that for all Con-
vair, out-of-plant accidents would
run nearly 500 a month or nearly
6,000 a year.
The SD Division survey was
based on employees alone. De-
pendent claims usually outnum-
ber those from employees by
about 2V2 to one, so the accident
toll for all Convair families would
be considerably higher. The sur-
vey involved cases which were
ostensibly “closed” during that
four-week period, though not all
were actually completed because
a number of the more severely
injured individuals remain in hos-
pital or are convalescing at home,
with attendant continuing group
insurance expense and lost time.
Of the accidents reported in
the survey period, sports injuries
numbered 25 (medical cost: $2,-
655.47); autos injured 33 (medical
cost: $8,231.12); falls hurt 36
(medical cost: $2,082.50); work-
shop and kitchen mishaps in-
jured 11 (cost: $1,157.50); sprains
involved 31 (cost: $1,402.50);
and there were 12 miscellaneous
(cost: $1,157.50).
Note that although auto acci-
dents amounted to only 22 per
cent of the total number, the cost
"Just because I waxed the floors, you
don't have to wear spikes!"
was nearly half of the total
group insurance money paid out.
Some of the auto injuries were
comparatively minor, with costs
between $10 and $50. But there
were some big ones: $872, esti-
mated off-the-job, two months;
$1,255.22, off-job indefinitely;
$512, two months; $111, thumb
mashed in door; $600, three
weeks off.
The “miscellaneous” includes
two employees who had stepped
on nails. For one of them group
insurance paid medical costs of
$250. A stubbed toe amounted
to a $42 bill. A hernia suffered
while pushing a stalled car cost
$735 and the individual had been
off seven weeks when the survey
was taken. There were two cases
of food poisoning (cost $32). A
blow on the mouth ran a bill of
$75.
Workshop and kitchen acci-
dents were chiefly minor cuts
and bruises, but one wrist, cut
on a broken glass, involved med-
ical expenses of $102.50. One
workshop injury involved $800 in
expenses and an estimated two
months off the job.
Most of the falls were under
$100, broken wrists, fingers, ribs,
back and ankle injuries. However
there was a $600 spine injury,
"Don't you know better than to leave
a loaded weapon where a child can
find it?"
the largest in this group and a
fall that caused a $166.50 eye
injury and a month off the job.
Sprains from lifting various
heavy objects around the home
were prevalent, about 20 per cent
of the accident total. Most of
these were under $75 each in
medical cost. The most serious,
suffered during yard work, has
cost $185 in medical costs so far
and the individual is still off the
job.
The “sports” classification con-
tained one truly serious accident,
a gun shot wound suffered while
hunting, with $1,500 medical ex-
penses and an estimated three
months off the job. There were
four knee sprains while bowling
(about $25 each); a fractured
jaw suffered in a volleyball game
($150) and a soccer injury that
meant $67 and ten days off the
job. There were three water ski
injuries and two involving horses.
Swimming accounted for a half
dozen accidents. The most seri-
ous was a $165 head injury re-
ceived while diving. There were
five “ball playing” injuries, one
of which cost $85.
MOVIE MAKERS—Here is motion picture crew at Hurricane Mesa shooting over edge of 1,500
foot cliff at parachutes which landed in valley. Wearing white hat is Jerry Ratliff, Convair Fort
Worth motion picture director.
New B-58 Escape System
Test Series Under Way
First in a series of new B-58
escape system tests by Convair
Fort Worth crews got under way
this month at Hurricane Mesa,
Utah.
Tests are being conducted with
a rocket-powered sled carrying a
nose section of a Hustler taken
from the Convair Fort Worth as-
sembly line.
During the first run, the sled
scorched along rails which end at
a 1,500-foot cliff overlooking the
mesa’s scenic valley floor. Dum-
my passengers were ejected from
crew stations at high speeds and
parachuted into the thickets and
wilderness below.
According to J. E. Hickok, proj-
ect test engineer, two stages of
rockets were used for the 14,000-
lb. firing weight of these first
tests. The sled traveled at about
204 feet per second.
He said the second stage of
rockets was set off about 100
feet after the first. At 200 feet
beyond that, the No. 2 ejected.
At 200 feet more, the pilot’s sta-
tion ejected.
While the tests are going on,
engineering motion picture people
are busy grinding away thou-
sands of feet of film for later
study.
Jerry Ratliff, engineering mo-
tion picture director, said his crew
has cameras stuck away in every
possible place and at every angle
during a run.
Recovery of the ejected items
after the test isn’t easy, according
to Hickok. Bulldozers have to be
used to make roads to the spots
where they land. High boots must
be worn for protection from rat-
tlesnakes.
Hickok said the first tests this
FW Mfg. Research
Chief Will Speak
Convair Fort Worth’s E. W.
Feddersen will speak at tonight’s
8 p.m. meeting of the Institute
of the Aeronautical Sciences in
the Arlington State College engi-
neering auditorium.
Feddersen, chief of manufactur-
ing research and development,
will talk on concepts and applica-
tions of manufacturing research.
He also will trace the growth of
aeronautical engineering from
the time of the Wright brothers.
Coggan Recovering
Following Surgery
B. F. Coggan, Convair vice
president and Convair San Di-
ego Division manager, is home
recuperating from a recent ab-
dominal operation performed at
Scripps Memorial Hospital.
His condition is described as
“most satisfactory.” His doc-
tors are of the opinion that he
will be able to return to work
within the next two or three
weeks.
Surgery was of a corrective
nature and disclosed that there
was no malignancy.
month were successful. The test
series consists of 12 scheduled
sled runs in the development part
of the program and three sched-
uled runs for the qualification
part.
Ken E. Thompson, a Convair
Fort Worth test engineer, is re-
maining at Hurricane Mesa until
the project is complete. Convair
also has two full-time test lab
mechanics on hand with him.
They are G. Cain and J. N. Bal-
dauf of Dept. 36.
Hickok and the movie people
are on location only when the
tests are under way.
Those remaining for the entire
program are living at nearby St.
George, Utah, a town of about
5,000 in the proximity of the Zion
National Park and the Virgin
River.
The mesa’s elevation is 5,000
feet, and the weather is generally
hot, dry and clear, with about five
inches of rainfall a year.
Convair F-106s will be the first
Air Force aircraft to be equipped
with a new-type “water squeezer”
arresting system which tests show
is twice as effective as the for-
mer chain barrier type.
A contract for spring steel ar-
resting hooks for installation on
F-106s has been awarded by Con-
vair to All American Engineering
Co. of Wilmington, Del., develop-
ers of the system.
The hook, named the Sheaffer
Spring Hook for its inventor, is
designed to operate in conjunc-
tion with the company’s runway
cable arrest system. First instal-
lation at a United States AF
base is now in operation at Ed-
wards AFB.
Successful tests of a prototype
hook on a F-106 jet interceptor
were completed this month at
Edwards. The hook has been ap-
proved as standard equipment on
Century Series aircraft at ADC
bases.
Movies on Missiles
Shown to Thousands
In So. California
Literally thousands of people
in schools, service clubs and other
groups have seen motion pictures
of Convair’s missiles during the
first half of 1959, C. D. Cornell,
special assistant to the vice presi-
dent and manager, Convair Po-
mona, said.
Over 9,000 people have seen
“Terrier, the New Fleet Weapon,”
22,500 have seen “Atlas 12A,”
and over 11,000 have seen “Atlas
Satellite.” The three films were
shown a total of 211 different
times, 107 times in schools and
104 times as community relations
gestures. Most of the showings
were in Southern California.
The films are shown regularly
as a part of Convair Pomona’s
junior science school visitation
program, and they are also avail-
able upon request to clubs and
other groups. Inquiries should
be addressed to Cornell, ext.
3202.
The AAE hook, a strip of
spring steel, is secured to the
underside of the jet, held flush
and under tension. When the
pilot pushes a button, the hook
springs into its lowered position
for engagement.
Similar to the system used for
landings on aircraft carriers, the
hook engages a cable which runs
across the runway. The cable, in
turn, is attached to pistons in-
side two 1500-ft. steel tubes, par-
tially filled with water, buried
on each side of the landing strip.
The landing plane thus drags the
pistons through the water, bring-
ing it to a quick, but smooth,
halt.
The tail hook system has
proved completely effective with-
out damage to aircraft in com-
parison with the chain barrier
system—a heavy cable designed
to arrest the plane by catching
the wheels—which often resulted
in injury to the aircraft.
NEW TAIL HOOK—Left to right, Charles E. Myers Jr., chief
test pilot at Convair Edwards; Carl Pieper, assistant flight test
engineer; and Tom Buchanan, control engineer, inspect new type
tail hook installed on F-106 at Edwards facility, where new arresting
system is being put into operation.
F-106s Get Tail Hooks
For Fast Stop System
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General Dynamics Corporation. Convair Division. Convairiety, Volume 12, Number 15, July 22, 1959, periodical, July 22, 1959; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1117971/m1/3/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.