damascus, I was discussing with another member today the importance of the proper use of words and vocabulary, in this case with the US space program. In part:
"I was with the Mercury and Apollo astronauts and had an edge because the head of MSC was Bob Gilruth who hired 25 of our top engineers when our 105 Arrow was scrubbed because US wouldn’t buy it. Bob, who was also interested in our fixed-reef hydrofoil program, had a gleaming white Arrow model on his desk. He said it was the best fighter ever built (it was at the time). Two top guns were Canadians: Jim Chamberlain and Owen Maynard. Owen and I were relaxing after dinner at his home when the phone rang: Grissom, Chaffee and White burned to death in the command module at the Cape.
"Interesting point for the world in these parlous times was how Owen got to the top. Words mean something. When I asked him how he got to running things, he said it wasn’t because of his engineering skills. NASA had him investigating rocket failures—I think Titans—and he was so good at spreading blame among manufacturers that NASA pushed him up. Owen was in charge of engineering Saturn/moon command module, Jim built Gemini program. All this came handy when Apollo 7 or 8 started tumbling over Japan, I was called in to report live to Canada, and acccurately speculated cause was a stuck small thruster."
We learn from mistakes, certainly, but things run more smoothly in all human activity with proper use of language, communications and cooperation.
