General Dynamics News, Volume 22, Number 7, April 2, 1969 Page: 3 of 6
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Wednesday, April 2, 1 969 GENERAL DYNAMICS NEWS Page 3
ON CAMERA-In photo at right, Bob Summer, Dept. 65, and Jerry K. Beamish,
Dept. 63-3, Fort Worth division, prepare to make hologram of airflow in windtunnel. In center photo is test setup, simulating object adjacent to delta wing. In
photo at left airflow pattern is captured on hologram plate.In Two Hemispheres
Gil Clark Recalls
Of Exciting Aviat
Gilbert D. "Gil" Clark, who has
survived so many close calls in
two hemispheres that he probably
will live forever, retired recently
after more than 30 years as a
test pilot and marketing manager
for Convair and predecessor firms.
A close friend of Generalissimo
and Madame Chiang Kai-shek, the
late Gen. Claire Chennault, Jac-
queline Cochran Odlum, ranking
South American military officials
whom he taught to fly, and other
world notables, Clark's career has
been closely linked to aviation
since he learned to fly in a World
War I-surplus Jenny near Pasa-
dena, Calif.
After washing airplanes in re-
turn for flying lessons, Clark
"graduated" to flying Western
Airlines' Fokker tri-motors. While
with Western-1928-34, he had
his first accident-breaking a leg
when he cracked up in a snow-
storm.
Jacqueline Cochran became a
friend after flying as one of his
passengers and asked him to han-
dle maintenance for her in the
1934 London to Melbourne air
race.
"We set up special service
bases with tons of equipment,"
he recalls. "She cracked up in
Belgrade and we switched sup-
port to Roscoe Turner and Clyde
Pangburn."
A fellow Western pilot who
had left to fly for Chiang Kai-
shek after the Japanese invaded
China wrote Clark in 1937 and
told him he was "missing out on
a lot of excitement."
"The next thing I knew I had
a $3,000 check from Chennault
with instructions to get there as
quickly as possible."
Clark shared an apartment with
Chennault in Hankow and had
several close calls during airfield
bombing raids while flying with
the seven-man American Volun-
teer Group (which included one
Dutchman).
He flew the last combat air-
craft out of Nanking as the Jap-
anese approached. He had no map
and had expected to follow the
Yangtze River to Hankow-but
found it overflowing and 200
miles wide. He eventually landed
out of gas but safe.
Later, at Chennault's request
and as the only man available to
fly DC-2s, he switched to China
National Aviation, taking orders
directly from Madame Chiang
Kai-shek. "She's one of the most
brilliant women I've ever met"
he recalls.
After joining Vultee Aircraft
as a test pilot in 1938, Clark
tested many new planes from the
V-11GB2 to the P-66 and A-31C.
On one first flight the engine
quit and he skidded into a farm-
er's henhouse, emerging unhurt
but well feathered.
Transferred to Brazil to intro-
duce Vultee V-11s, he later taught
graduates of the Brazil Air Aca-
demy. Many who learned to fly
A-31s and A-35s with him are now
in high posts. Among them is
Gen. Francisco de Mello, former
Brazilian air minister.
During his years in Brazil30 Years
'ion History
Clark learned Portuguese; mar-
ried his wife, Mary; had a daugh-
ter; suffered a permanent eye
injury and almost lost his life
when engine failure in a Vultee
A-35 forced him down in the
jungle.
"Lady Luck has always been
with me," Clark commented as
he recalled how a U.S. Navy
blimp, en route to Rio for re-
pairs, spotted a hole in the
jungle foliage, investigated and
saw him-totally blind but wav-
ing his shirt. A series of oper-
ations saved 50 per cent of the
sight in his left eye and the
other returned to normal.
After WWII, Clark handled
sales to Stinson division distrib-
utorships in South America and
South Africa. Later, when Con-
vair entered the commercial air-
craft sales field, he established
its South American sales head-
quarters in Rio.
"We sold our first Convair
240s in Argentina, then sold 240s,
340s and 440s in Brazil. Our last
sales were three 990s for Varig."
He's flown more than a million
miles-and on occasion had to
swim. When a Pan American fly-
ing boat in which he was a pas-
senger crashed and sank in San
Juan, Puerto Rico, he was the
only passenger to reach shore
with his briefcase and passport.
His personal parachute, which he
had shipped "air express" in a
can, also popped up the next day!Guidelines Set For
'Perfect Secretary'
The perfect secretary was re-
cently described in a U.S. De-
partment of State newsletter:
"She should be young enough
to start at the lowest salary,
thus leaving room for promo-
tion, but near enough to retire-
ment age so no other office
will try to take her away; able
to spell the words I use, but
not those of anyone else; effi-
cient and accurate enough so
she does all my work perfectly,
but backward enough so she
does not do good work for any-
one else; attractive and cheer-
ful enough so she brightens up
the office, but not so much that
some guy will come along and
marry her; sensible enough so
that she uses good judgment
in all her duties, but foolish
enough that-if she does marry
-she chooses a man she has to
support and so stays on the
job."
McCOY ON BOARD
OF LAKESIDE HOME
Dean H. McCoy, Convair chief
of engineering administration
service, has been elected to Board
of Directors for Home of Guiding
Hands, a home for mentally re-
tarded children, in Lakeside.
NAVAL RESERVE
OFFICERS TOUR
Fifteen U.S. Naval Reserve of-
ficers from the USS Jason visited
Convair recently for a briefing on
products and a Kearny Mesa
plant tour.4.
ENDING ERA-Gil Clark, who made friendships around the world
as test pilot and Convair sales manager, looks over copy of 1938
Vultair magazine which pictured him in Vultee P-66.IN THE COCKPIT-Gil Clark is shown in cockpit of P-66 in 1938.
He test flew many Vultee ships.Laser Beam Employed
In Photographing Air
Engineers and scientists of Fort composition," said Jerry Beamish,
Worth division and TRW systems senior aerodynamics engineer in
have evolved a method of photo- Dept. 63-3.
graphing and viewing wind tun- Holographic in t e r f e r o m e t r y
nel airflow in three dimensions. eliminates the need for high-
Hailed as a "significant new quality window materials by mak-
advance" in experimental aero- ing a double exposure-two holo-
dynamics, the process is called grams on one film plate-in a
holography. It promises a new pre-determined manner. This pro-
method of visualizing and an- cess is called differential inter-
alyzing airflow over aircraft in ferometry; the technique involves
regions largely inaccessible using comparing sequenced holograms
existing techniques. to observe the difference or
Briefly, the process works like change in the scene between ex-
this: posures.
A photo-sensitive glass plate is "For example," Beamish said,
placed outside one of the windows "if the first exposure in the wind
of the supersonic wind tunnel. A tunnel is made without airflow
TRW systems ruby-laser holo- and the second is made with flow,
camera is placed outside the op- the airflow pattern becomes
posite window. visible, and the windows are not
The holocamera divides and 'seen', even if of poor optical
processes the laser beam into quality."
"scene" and "reference" beams. T.
The scene beam passes through .istobservatioogrpredoBea-
the wind tunnel and falls on the mish to apply holography to flow
photographic plate. The reference visuaization in a wind tunnel.
beam follows an undisturbed path He subsequently worked with Dr.
to the opposite side of the tunnel Gibson under a joit dependent
and lsofals o th plte. research and development pro-
Air density variation of an ob- gram to investigate uses of holo-
ject in a highspeed airflow tends graphy as a wind tunnel flow
to retard the light rays in the diagnostic tool.
scene beam, thus these beams ar- Others heavily involved in the
rive at the photo plate later than experiments were R. H. Sumner,
the reference beam rays. The ex- Dept. 65, and S. M. Zivi and G.
posed photographic plate-called H. Humberstone of TRW systems.
a hologram - records in detail "Experiment results prove
time delays suffered by scene conclusively that this technique
beam light when compared to the makes visible airflow in cor-
undisturbed reference beam. ner regions, such as those be-
Viewed directly, a hologram tween an airplane wing and
looks more like an abstract fuselage," Beamish said.
painting than a photograph of "We can even view internal
air flow over a model. flow systems such as those around
"However," said Dr. D. M. Gib- engine-inlet ducts, by using trans-
son, staff scientist in Dept. 62-2, parent model components of such
"the entire scene of the model optically imperfect material as
and airflow from holocamera to plexiglass."
film plate is reconstructed for Beamish came to the division
viewing or photographing when in 1956 after earning his BS de-
the hologram is illuminated by gree in aeronautical engineering
a continuous laser beam." at Iowa State University. He has
This image, in which variations been assigned to the aerospace
in air density are made visible model test group, where he has
as a pattern of light and dark been doing research.
lines, is known as an interfero- Dr. Gibson joined the division
gram. Previously, interferograms in 1961, after receiving his doc-
were made in wind tunnels as a torate in mechanical engineering
Mach-zehnder interferometer. from Princeton. He earned his
"Mach-zehnder interferograms BS and MS degrees from Texas
are two-dimensional and require A&M. He has been mainly in the
wind tunnel windows of the high- area of plasma physics in the
est quality, virtually flawless in applied research group.
Submarine Sunfish Praised
Following Acceptance TrialsAmid praise calling her "one
of the finest submarines ever to
join the fleet," the nuclear attack
submarine USS Sunfish (SSN-
649) left the Quincy division to
begin her vital role as a member
of U.S. Navy operating forces
following commissioning March
15.
USS Sunfish earned notewor-
thy plaudits from members of
the Navy's Inspection and Survey
team at a critique that followed
the ship's acceptance trials last
month.
The team reportedly described
USS Sunfish as one of the finest
submarines in the 637 Class.
They expressed particular sat-
isfaction with the "very apparentextra effort" exerted by the
Quincy division in making her a
high-quality ship.
Observers from the Navy and
other government agencies who
rode USS Sunfish during the ac-
ceptance trials rated her per-
formance as "outstanding." The
performance and operation of
equipment were above standards
despite the extremely adverse
weather conditions caused by a
northeast storm, they noted. "The
Sunfish," one observer comment-
ed, "is a vast improvement over
her predecessors."
If one copy is sufficient, why
order more?Page 3
Wednesday, April 2, 1969
GENERAL DYNAMICS NEWS
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General Dynamics Corporation. Convair Division. General Dynamics News, Volume 22, Number 7, April 2, 1969, periodical, April 2, 1969; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1168167/m1/3/: accessed June 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.