Convairiety, Volume 12, Number 19, September 16, 1959 Page: 5 of 8
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Wednesday, September 16, 1959
CONVAIRIETY
Page 5
Score of Convair Men Named
On Panels For SAE Mfg. Forum
Twenty-six Convair men repre-
senting San Diego, Astronautics,
Fort Worth and Pomona Divis-
ions, will play leading roles at
the Society of Automotive Engi-
neers meeting and manufactur-
ing forum Oct. 5-9 at the Am-
bassador Hotel in Los Angeles.
Some of the Convair men have
taken part in planning the con-
ference, others will be active
participants at meetings.
Leading the Convair groups
will be San Diego Division with
16 representatives. They are A.
W. Morgan, general chairman of
the forum; J. H. Famme, plan-
ning committee for aeronautic
PRETTY ACHIEVER — Pert
Nancy Kirby, Convair Fort Worth
Junior Achiever, was second in
Miss Junior Achievement of Am-
erica competition at recent na-
tional conference. Here she goes
over souvenirs with Tom Malloy,
left, and Gordon Nelson.
meeting; F. H. Sharp, also plan-
ning committee for aeronautic
meeting; Lewis Grant, control of
change cost; T. F. McAleer III,
control of manufacturing costs;
F. E. Sladek, optics in produc-
tion; F. H. McLaughlin, achieve-
ment of product reliability; H. C.
Sullivan, high temperature coat-
ings; D. L. Walker, material and
processing controls of modern
alloys.
Also D. B. Acker, H. A. Smith,
and H. A. Sichler, all on facilities
planning and maintenance of new
equipment panel; R. H. Gilliland,
communication between vendor
and prime contractor; F. D.
Applegate, chairman, missile and
drone systems reliability; Glen
Karel and J. C. McCafferty, air-
craft systems.
Six from Astro will partici-
pate: W. L. Young, executive
committee of forum; J. E. Trad-
er, handling of propellants and
gases in airplane missile manu-
facturing; L. F. Muller, missile
support equipment; J. C. King,
materials handling; H. J. Sum-
ner, missile rocket case and pi’es-
sure vessel manufacturing; and
Don Crayton, co-chairman, optics
in production.
The Fort Worth contingent in-
cludes D. H. Painter, communi-
cation between vendor and prime
contractor; J. J. Tierney, aircraft
systems; and C. D. Little, fatigue
of aircraft structures. From Con-
vair Pomona is R. C. Loomis who
is on the executive committee of
the forum.
Valley Legion Post
Elects Convair Men
Members of Palmdale American
Legion Post 406 elected two Con-
vair men to top posts.
Walter Chartier (Palmdale
Dept. 324-2) was named com-
mander, and Richard Woodbury
(Edwards Dept. 303) was elected
second vice commander.
Kids Play 'Aerial' Cops-Robbers
With Decommissioned YF-102
A Convair YF-102 jet inter-
ceptor is the newest and most
exciting plaything for children
who live in Boron, the desert
community near Edwards Air
Force Base and the Missile Static
Test Site.
The silver jet, used at Edwards
for the past few years for testing
by NASA High Speed Station,
was presented by the Air Force
to Boron American Legion Post
and is now installed on the Post
grounds for the children’s en-
joyment.
Before being turned over for
playground use, Reclamation Sec-
tion of the 6515th Field Mainten-
ance Squadron removed all use-
able parts and components. The
plane was then assigned to Aero
Repair Section to be made safe
for children to play on.
Under direction of section
chief Lt. Gerald Devillers, M/Sgt.
John Cachot and S/Sgt. Rhew H.
Bennett, all sharp edges were re-
moved, intake and exhaust ducts
sealed, special seat and mock in-
strument panel installed, and a
special control stick put in the
cockpit.
In expressing appreciation to
the Air Force, Edwin L. Thomp-
son, assistant adjutant for the
Boron Legion Post, stated, “There
is real excitement among the
kids over this airplane. One of
these days perhaps some of these
boys will fly for Uncle Sam.”
CLIMBING KIDS—Children of Boron, Calif., should be envy of
kids everywhere. They have real YF-102 as plaything.
PUSHER—This was model TA of 1912 with William T. Thomas standing at right of pilot. Plane
was refinement of original hand-built Thomas which first flew in 1910. Ships of this type were highly
successful in "golden age" of barnstorming at county fairs.
Thomas-Morse Aircraft, Pioneering
Air Firm, Purchased by Consolidated
(For next few installments of this continuing history of Convair,
spotlight shifts from Consolidated Aircraft to Thomas-Morse Air-
craft, pioneer air firm which dated back to 1910.)
In the summer of 1929 Consoli-
dated purchased the Thomas-
Morse Aircraft Corp. and moved
it from Ithaca to Buffalo, N. Y.
as a wholly owned subsidiary.
This became Unit 4 of the North
Elmwood Avenue plant. B. Doug-
las Thomas, designer of some of
the most celebrated aircraft of
the World War I era and vice
president of Thomas-Morse at
Ithaca, became president and
chief engineer of the subsidiary.
Oddly, the Thomas who came
from Ithaca was no relation to
the Thomas whose name appeared
in the title of the firm—William
T. Thomas. Both were from Eng-
land and both entered American
aviation a few years apart as
employees of Glenn H. Curtiss at
Hammondsport, N. Y.
The first to emigrate was W.
T. Thomas, who came to America
in 1909 following graduation
from Central Technical College,
South Kensington. Then 22, he
was a motorcycle enthusiast and
had worked on gas engines dur-
ing a pre-college apprenticeship
with the British Westinghouse
Vultee Field 'Club'
Will Hold Annual
Get-Together Oct. 3
Some 50 men and women from
Convair Astronautics and San
Diego Divisions are expected to
make a nostalgic trek Oct. 3 to
the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Ana-
heim.
Occasion is the 12th annual re-
union of former members of the
Vultee Field Division of Consoli-
dated Aircraft. San Diego ele-
ments are expected to make the
trip by chartered bus.
A unique group, this “club”
has no officers, no dues, no char-
ter or any visible means of hold-
ing them together.
Their get-togethers, held once
each year since 1946 when Vul-
tee Field was disbanded, are
merely social. Cocktails and din-
ner are followed by general con-
versation.
Of an estimated 7,000 employ-
ees at Vultee Field at its peak
employment, the group currently
has about 450 members.
If any Convair employee in the
San Diego area is interested in
taking part in these festivities,
P. A. Nagy, ext. 1326, at San
Diego Division, will supply de-
tails.
Is It News?
Call Convairiety
Manufacturing Co. It was natural
he should seek employment at
Hammondsport, where Curtiss—
holder of the world’s motorcycle
speed record and builder of fam-
ous racing engines — had his
plant.
Thomas got a job in the draft-
ing room of the Herring-Curtiss
Co., and soon found his interests
diverted to airplanes. Curtiss had
made his first flight in a plane
of his own construction (the
White Wing) the previous year.
Thomas made drawings for the
Curtiss Model K aircraft engine
(four cylinders, 40 hp) and for
the Red Devil biplane used by
Capt. Thomas A. Baldwin on ex-
hibition flights.
Deciding in the fall of 1909 to
design and build a plane of his
own, Thomas obtained use of a
Roulette Wine Co. barn and be-
gan work in November, assisted
by Bert Chambers, a Herring-
Curtiss motorcycle mechanic.
Thomas did business as the
Thomas Brothers Co., although
his brother Oliver did not arrive
until several months later. (Oliver
returned to England in 1913, and
after World War I managed
family cattle interests in Argen-
tina, where he died in 1947.)
The first aircraft, hand-built
by Thomas and Chambers,
evolved as a pusher biplane with
horizontal control surfaces
mounted on a framework ahead
of the wings. It spanned 27 feet
*-
and was powered by a 22-hp
Kirkham auto engine. Chambers
flew it first in the spring of 1910
at Hornell, N. Y. where the shop
was moved to be near a suitable
landing field on the Page farm.
Thomas made his own first
flights in June.
Late in 1910 the company
moved to Bath, N. Y. and soon
had eight or ten employees. This
was the “golden age” of exhibi-
tion flying. The fledgling avia-
tion industry catered not to gov-
ernment or airline but to crowds
at county fairs. The first Thomas
plane was widely exhibited by
Walter E. Johnson and toured
the South in 1911. The new
Model TA of 1911 was especially
successful, winning a series of
races capped by the 25-mile,
$1,000 prize event at the Syra-
cuse State Fair of 1912.
Next to barnstorming, the best
source of revenue was teaching,
and the Thomas School of Avia-
tion, Inc. was opened in 1912,
the first to be chartered by New
York State. An early graduate,
Frank H. Burnside, flew the
Thomas Model E to 13,000 feet
in 1913, claiming a new U. S.
altitude record.
In 1912 the company was in-
corporated as the Thomas Bro-
thers Aeroplane Co., with William
as president, Oliver as vice pres-
ident, and Cummings M. Cox,
secretary. Work continued on
new pusher designs. A tractor
was tried with dubious success,
and several wood-hulled flying
boats were built and flown from
Lake Salubria.
ORIGINAL — At top is original Thomas plane, pictured at
Hornell, N.Y., in summer of 1910. Following year plane was widely
exhibited by Walter E. Johnson and toured Southern states.
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General Dynamics Corporation. Convair Division. Convairiety, Volume 12, Number 19, September 16, 1959, periodical, September 16, 1959; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1118024/m1/5/?q=%221961-07%22: 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.