AeroMail
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 [email protected].
Keep up the good work
I've been doing this R/C 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 orbiter 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 find it quoted a letter I wrote in 1989 about 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 flying 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 Office, managing the integration of science and Mir Station logistics payloads to the Shuttle.
There 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 fly 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
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
