NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/sci/space/16055

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-18 | 5.3 KB

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From: [e-mail] (ONEIL, PAUL GRAHAM)
Newsgroups: sci.space,rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: *Angle of Attack*: have you read it?
Keywords: X15, Apollo, engineering and politics, public perception
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Date: 18 Nov 92 16:23:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: cl2.18NOV199210235080
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
(Beam Jockey--Bill Higgins) writes:

>Suddenly I have a desire to know everything I can about *Angle of
>Attack*, a new book by Mike Gray, the screen-writer who penned *The
>China Syndrome*.  I may have a chance to meet the author this week.

>The book is the story of Harrison Storms, the head of North American
>Aviation's space division during the development of the Apollo command
>module (NAA also developed one of the Saturn V stages, I think).
>Storms was canned in the wake of the Apollo fire investigation, much

>Is it worth buying?

If you grew up enjoying the biographies of Bill Bridgeman, Scott
Crossfield, and the Mercury astronauts in ``We Seven,'' this is probably
your book. If you built the models and lusted to fly them, but realized
limitations of eyesight, reflexes, and agility would stop you from going
all the way; so you engineered the models and built working pieces, this
is definitely your book. Based on the recommendation of a 30 year
NACA/NASA veteran now working for Lockheed, I bought it this past
weekend.  He said it was valuable, captured material not available in
Murray and Cox's book [now apparently out of print in both hardback and
trade paper], and was true to some of the people named in the book [he
wasn't one of them].

>Is there more to it than I have described?

It gives some background on North American in the WW2 area.  Some of the
early chapters deal with the X-15 and Storm's plans to make is an
orbital vehicle [very sketchy].  A fair bit of description is given to
winning the Apollo contract and what the behind the scenes maneuvering
was like by many of the interested parties.

>Does the author think Storms was a scapegoat for other peoples'
>mistakes?

There are many people who believe the above for a variety of reasons.
My first boss down here felt that Harrison Storms was the best
manager, engineer and technical leader he had worked with; and this
man had also worked with Kelly Johnson for a brief period.  The legend
among many of the old-timers working in SAIL, DDTS, MCC MER and what
used to be MPAD is that Storms was sacrificed to assuage the
politicos, press and the people to minimize disruption to the program.
I don't recall one of them voicing an opinion on whether Storms was
deeply at fault in this incident.

In the same vein, much of the feeling for Joe Shea who was the NASA
scapegoat holds also.  Some in the systems engineering community revere
him as a martyr.  Despite their many opposite characteristics, Mike Gray
treats Shea in as sympathetic fashion as he does Storms.  From the
descriptions of the congressional review process and damage control
maneuvers of NASA depicted in the book, it seems unlikely that justice
was served in either case. Indeed, Senator Mondale is depicted in the
most cynical, politically opportunistic light I have seen in print.
And the picture of Bobby Baker, industry lobbyists, venal civil servants
and the best politicians that money could buy deciding who will win
major contracts is almost enough to obscure any blame attached to the
systems engineers [Shea] and engineering managers [Storms] for
erroneous technical decisions on use of over-pressure pure oxygen,
velcro, chaffable wire bundles, and uncapped electrical outlets.

If you get a chance to meet the author, there might be some
fascinating questions on his approach to these stories.  I noticed
that he apparently did some work on Fred Hampton's killing.  How did
he attempt to dig the truth out on this.  Was he sympathetic to Fred
Hampton, the survivors and the Black Panthers or to the law
enforcement establishment?  Gray seems good at capturing the pulse of
the populace that is triggered by the media and then looking at those
same events with a different objective filter that puts situations where
truth is difficult into a better perspective.

Of course, the ``China Syndrome'' was good strong fictional story rooted
on details he learned in writing his book about Three Mile Island, the
sympathy shown to the Jack Lemmon character seems about right for the
level of portrayal of Harrison Storms life, works, personality and
achievements.

I imagine, getting the truth in context and writing about it 25 years
later would be more difficult for the story of Apollo 1 than either
Fred Hampton's death or the Three Mile Island incident.  Gray gives a
chronological list of interview dates and locations with his sources.
I was surprised that some names were missing and others I simply didn't
recognize.

Please let us know how the meeting went.

graham
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