🚀 go-pugleaf

Bill Higgins proclaims:
>>>It worked, too.  Southerners put us on the Moon.  I don't think
>>>Yankees could have done it in eight years.
> 
>> At Lewis there is a persistant rumor that they could not have
>>done it  without some help from North of the Mason-Dixon line.
>>Unfortunately I don't remember the details.  Was it something
>>about fuel type? or something about restarting engines in free-
>>fall?  |-)
>
> I suppose I owe the Clevelanders an apology (apollogy?) for my
>glib overstatement.  Heck, I'm a Great Lakes boy myself.  Yes,
>there were a lot of Yankees involved.  But when the days of Apollo
>are recounted, one hears a remarkable number of Southern accents
>(including the mixed German-Alabama accents).
  
   And a few California drawls too, dude.  They had something to do
with the Saturn Second stage (North American - Seal Beach,
California), and the F-1 and J-2 engines used on all of the Saturn
stages (Rocketdyne - Canoga Park, California), and the Apollo
Command and Service Modules (North American - Downey, California),
and the LEM ascent engines (TRW -- Redondo Beach, California), and
Skylab (McDonnell Douglas - Huntington Beach, California) and lots
and lots of other parts.
   Let them Easterners argue about whose idea it was -- we know who
really designed and built the thing.... :-)
   O.K., O.K.,  -- it was mostly SOUTHERN California. ;-)
  
   And when the days of Apollo are recounted, it'll probably go like
this.....
  
   Picture an old, retired ex-aerospace engineer sitting in his
rocking chair on his porch.  His pocket protector, now faded yellow
with age.  Rocking back and forth, back and forth, surrounded by his
grandchildren.
   "Gee granddad, did you REALLY work on the Apollo program?"
   "Yes grandson, I really did."
   "Gosh granddad, could you tell us about it?"
   "Certainly."  The old, retired aerospace engineer fumbles under
the blanket on his lap.
    He pulls out a slide projector remote control and a collapsible
metal pointer. He pulls the pointer to full extension and thumbs the
remote control on.  The lights dim, a hidden projection screen drops
into place,  and he starts to explain...
  
    "Could I have the first vu-graph please??? ...."
  
   [Sorry guys, I couldn't resist.  An semi-inside joke among some
of us new-generation aerospace types.   You'll get the punch line
when you recognize you start automatically writing along the long
axis on a pad of paper -- even when you're making up a grocery list.
And start wondering why they put portrait mode in as an option in
Aldus Persuasion and Microsoft Powerpoint. ;-) ]
  
 ------------------------------------------------------------------
 Wales Larrison                           Space Technology Investor
  

--- Maximus 2.00