Keep up the good work
Been doing this RC thing for about 50 years now. We have come a long
way ... Keep up the good work!
—Ken Munn
via the MA website
NASA and model aviation
I was reading through the latest MA
and saw your nice write up in the “In
the Air” section [December 2012] on
the cross country trip the R/C 747/
Shuttle model made on the full-scale
SCA [Shuttle Carrier Aircraft] carrying
the Shuttle Endeavour to Los Angeles. I
worked at NASA-JSC [Johnson Space
Center] and was involved with John
Kiker and Owen Morris in the effort
to do scale model-separation tests with
both the Gazariator and the scale 747.
After reading your article I went back
and read the [National Model Aviation]
Museum article referenced just for old
times’ sake and was surprised to fi nd it
quoted a letter I wrote in 1989 on my part in the project. I had completely
forgotten about ever writing anything about what I did. Reading about
it again sure brought back a lot of memories. I had no idea that any
description of what we did in those days had survived, other than the
models themselves.
John and Owen are both gone now. They were really good guys and we
had a lot of fun tinkering with and fl ying all sorts of R/C models in those
days. I retired from NASA-JSC in 2003 after 43 years of service. My last
15 years were spent in the Space Shuttle Program Offi ce, managing the
integration of science and Mir
Station logistics payloads to the
Shuttle.
Wasn’t much time for R/C
in those days, but once I retired
and moved to Pensacola, Florida,
I got back into R/C. These days
I fl y Thermal Duration Soaring
with a bunch of great guys and
look forward to many more
years of chasing lift.
Thanks to all the folks at
AMA and NASA who made
the cross-country trip possible for the models. I’m glad that people at stops
along the way got to see the models and appreciated the work we did to
verify safe separation of the Shuttle from the SCA. I sure hope I get to the
Soaring Nats someday and get to visit the Museum and see the 747/Shuttle
models again.
—Tom McPherson, via email
www.ModelAviation.com MARCH 2013 Model Aviation 9
If you have a letter to the editor, please submit it to MA Editor-in-Chief Jay Smith at
5161 E. Memorial Dr., Muncie IN 47302, or email to [email protected].
AeroMail
009_MA0313_AeroMail.indd 9 1/21/13 9:24 AM
Edition: Model Aviation - 2013/03
Page Numbers: 9
