Convairiety, Volume 13, Number 10, May 11, 1960 Page: 5 of 8
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Wednesday, May 1 1, 1960
CONVAIRIETY
Page 5
WATER COOLER—First stage in cooling water for new air con-
ditioning system for Bldgs. 5 and 51 at SD Plant 1 is 46-ft. tower
shown under construction in experimental yard. 4,400 gallons will
pass through tower every minute.
SD Bldgs. 5 and 51 Air Conditioning
Ready For Action This Month
Occupants of Bldgs. 5 and 51
at Convair San Diego Plant 1
will be revelling in cool air by
next week.
Air conditioning system for
the engineering buildings will be
complete and ready to be turned
on by May 14, said H. A. Smith,
chief plant engineer.
The 46-ft. water cooling tower
just erected in experimental yard
at the rear of Bldg. 5 was final
installation for the system. One
of the first of its type to be
built in San Diego, the cross-flow
tower cools the water used in
the air conditioning refrigera-
tion system. Pumped continu-
ously through the tower, water
is cooled from 98.5 degrees to 80
degrees. Capacity is 4,400 gal-
lons per minute.
Temperature of the water is
then brought down to 45 degrees
in the refrigeration unit. Air
within the buildings is chilled as
it passes over the cold water coils.
Marley Co., cooling tower manu-
facturers of Kansas City, Mo.,
was in charge of construction of
Convair SD’s tower with William
Crail Construction Co. installing
piping; Chula Vista Electric Co.,
electrical wiring; and A. Rossi
Construction Co., concrete work.
NEWS FROM OTHER
DYNAMICS DIVISIONS
General Dynamics Corporation, created in April, 1952, as suc-
cessor to Electric Boat Company, is composed of seven divisions and
a Canadian subsidiary, Canadair Limited, of Montreal, airframe
builders. The divisions are:
Convair, head offices at San Diego, Calif., aircraft, missiles,
and space systems.
Electric Boat of Groton, Conn., submarines.
Stromberg-Carlson, of Rochester, N. Y., telecommunications,
electronic equipment.
Liquid Carbonic of Chicago, 111., carbon dioxide producer, in-
dustrial and medical gases.
General Atomic of San Diego, Calif., nuclear research, devel-
opment, production.
Electro Dynamic of Bayonne, N. J., electric motors, generators.
Material Service Division, Chicago, 111., building materials, con-
crete products and coal.
Design Program
Wins Award
The Art Directors Club of New
York has presented General Dy-
namics Corporation with an
“Award to Management” for its
1959 design program.
Frank Pace Jr., chairman of
the board, accepted the award on
behalf of the Corporation. The
award citation said the presenta-
tion was made “. . . for the in-
spired, integrated design program
of General Dynamics, resulting
in consistently high standards of
excellence in its corporate iden-
tity.”
Dynamics also received an
award of distinctive merit for its
1958 annual report.
John Thurston Named
Special Projects VP
NEW YORK—John F. Thurs-
ton has been promoted to the
position of vice president for spe-
cial projects of General Dynam-
ics Corporation.
Thurston, who was formerly
general manager of the corpora-
tion’s Electro Dynamic Division
in Bayonne, N.J., has been with
General Dynamics in that posi-
tion since 1955. He became a vice
president of the corporation in
1957.
*
Pace on Institute
History Program
Frank Pace Jr., chairman of
the board of General Dynamics
Corporation, was among the more
than 50 Americans honored by
the Research Institute of Amer-
ica as “those who have made
history” during the past 25 years.
A pageant celebrating the 25th
anniversary of the institute, fea-
tured a filmed record of the “The
living history of the critical
years, 1935 - 1960.” Prepared by
historian Allen Nevins, the his-
torical record was flashed on a
giant screen for an audience of
1,500 people.
Television cameras picked out
from their positions on the dais
those who had helped make the
history, showing their pictures on
the screen at the appropriate
moment.
Welsh Resigns as VPf
Forms Own Concern
NEW YORK—Vernon M.
Welsh, vice president for commu-
nication of General Dynamics
Corporation, has resigned to or-
ganize his own communication
consultation business. As an in-
dependent consultant Mr. Welsh
will continue to be associated
with General Dynamics on spe-
cific projects.
Control of Consolidated Aircraft
Passes From Reuben Fleet to Avco
(This installment in Convair’s
continuing history, No. 34, cov-
ers a shift in control of Con-
solidated and concludes Reuben
Fleet’s active participation in
Consolidated’s affairs.)
Reuben Fleet was only 54 and
his company was expanding vast-
ly, but he decided during 1941 to
sell his holdings and retire.
Looking back on this move 15
years later, he gave near-confis-
catory taxes as his prime incen-
tive. The federal government
took about 93 per cent of his in-
come and the State of California
6 per cent, he recalled. “I
couldn’t see carrying that load
of poles any longer.”
Fleet must have been grow-
ing restive, too, under condi-
tions he never had been willing
to tolerate: increased “meddl-
ing” in company affairs by the
defense agencies directing in-
dustrial mobilization; and loss
to sheer bigness of the close,
one-man direction he always
wanted to exercise. (He still
retained the three top titles—
chairman, president and gen-
eral manager.)
His stockholdings (nearly one-
third) would give any purchaser
control of the company. Since
Consolidated was a key producer
in Army-Navy aircraft schedules,
many in Washington were con-
cerned that competent manage-
ment be found. Among officials
who took part in recurrent dis-
Joe Walker, who may soon
make the first manned flight in-
to space, considers the B-58
cockpit “practical and function-
al” and the flight prospects of
the Hustler itself “exciting.”
Walker browsed around the
B-58 pilot’s cockpit during a brief
conference here recently with B.
A. Erickson, Convair FW man-
ager of flight.
He stopped over en route to
his Lancaster, Calif., home, fol-
lowing a speaking engagement
before the IAS at SMU.
Walker, a pilot for National
Aeronautics and Space Admini-
stration, even looks forward to the
day when NASA “might pos-
sibly” get a Hustler for evalua-
tion and research purposes.
“It’s not out of the question,
and we’d love to have the plane,”
he said.
Either Walker or the Air
Force’s Maj. Robert White is
currently scheduled to take the
famed X-15 on man’s first flight
into! space—probably early in
1961. The two pilots are now put-
ting the plane through its super-
sonic paces at NASA Flight Re-
search Center at Edwards AFB.
Plans now call for the needle-
nosed X-15 to make a 50-mile
probe into space, reaching a maxi-
mum speed of about 4,000 miles
an hour.
FOUNDER — With this install-
ment of Convair’s history, Found-
er Reuben Fleet retires from
scene. Above is recent picture
of Fleet.
cussions of “finding a buyer,”
Fleet has listed Navy Undersec-
retary James V. Forrestal, Rear
Adm. John H. Towers, chief of
the Bureau of Aeronautics, War
Undersecretary Robert P. Pat-
terson and Gen. H. H. Arnold.
As early as July, 1941, there
was a Washington-sponsored pro-
posal that the Aviation Corp., a
holding company, swing the
transaction through its manufac-
Such a foray would double the
existing altitude record for
manned aircraft. Walker feels
confident the flight will go off
“as advertised.”
“In X-15 flights to date we’ve
flown over 80,000 feet and at
speeds of Mach 2.6—about 1,700
miles an hour,” Walker said.
The X-15 is now being flown
with interim engines, which will
soon be replaced with engines of
design specification.
“We’ll probably spend this
summer checking out the new en-
gines and getting everything in
order for the flight in 1961,”
Walker commented.
A veteran P-38 pilot of World
War II who has flown virtually
every type of supersonic aircraft
in the air today, Walker thinks
the X-15 is “easy to handle” and
capable eventually of reaching its
maximum design altitude of 100
miles.
After World War II, Walker
flew for the National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics, fore-
runner of NASA.
The man who may, by this
time next year, have flown fast-
er and farther up than any other
human, foresees a decade of even
greater speeds.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see
men reach orbital velocity (about
20,000 feet a second) during the
decade,” he said.
turing subsidiary, Vultee Aircraft
Corp. of Downey, Calif. Victor
Emanuel, Avco president, had
a four-day survey made at San
Diego early in August by Vultee’s
top men, Harry Woodhead, chair-
man, and Richard W. Miller,
president. Negotiations with
Fleet ensued, but Avco withdrew
in mid-August.
There were more fruitless sug-
gestions from Washington. In Oc-
tober Fleet was considering the
possibility of offering his stock
at public sale. The Avco nego-
tiations were revived soon after-
wards, however, and it was an-
nounced Nov. 28 that Vultee
would purchase the 440,000 shares
owned or controlled by Fleet
(34.26 of the total outstanding)
for $10,945,000. Transfer of stock
was effected Dec. 19 and the
Avco-Vultee management took
over.
★ ★ ★
Last Message
On Christmas
Consolidated Aircraft’s house
magazine, “Consolidator,” carried
in its December, 1941, issue
Reuben Fleet’s “Christmas Mes-
sage,” which, incidentally, was
his last message as head of the
company. (Evidently, it was writ-
ten prior to Pearl Harbor.) Fol-
lowing are excerpts, reminiscent
of the grim outlook of those days.
“It would seem difficult to
wish anyone a Merry Christ-
mas this year . . . The tangle
of world events, the unholy
morass of world thought and
philosophy, lead one to the
seemingly inevitable conclusion
that A.D. 1941 must be chalked
up as a complete loss.
“This, fortunately, is a miscon-
ception. No year, no month, no
minute of human life is really
lived in vain ... It has been a
year in which cloudy ideals have
been sharpened by the swift
change of events, when hazy prin-
ciples have been brought into fo-
cus by the necessity for quick,
sure action. . . .
“True, we have had to change
during the last year. We were
getting soft. We were taking it
easy, resting upon the smugness
of our geographical location and
delusions of our own grandeur.
But gradually it came to us that
our closest international kin was
actually endangered. Above the
coastal roar of guns along the
English Channel, above the din
of Stukas diving upon Britain’s
populace, it came to us that we
were no longer safe.
“The (Christmas) spirit of giv-
ing has never been more apparent
or more necessary as a national
policy. We have given much of
our substance during the past
year. We shall give more of our
substance and of our spirit dur-
ing the next. Sacrifices made
during 1941 will seem insignifi-
cant indeed compared with those
we shall make before this battle
is won. . . ”
^ecuritij @UkA We
Can fee Without
EVEN STEPHEN
“Well, gosh, he told me all
about his job in the pants fac-
tory—least I could do was tell
him about mine!”
SUPERSONIC SCUTTLEBUTT—When old friends B. A. Erickson,
right, Convair FW manager of flight, and Joe Walker, X-15 test
pilot, got together recently, discussion was on high-performance
aircraft. Both are experts on subject.
X-15 Pilot Inspects B-58;
May Fly to 50 Miles Up
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General Dynamics Corporation. Convair Division. Convairiety, Volume 13, Number 10, May 11, 1960, periodical, May 11, 1960; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1118010/m1/5/?q=%22~1~1%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.