Runway to Orbit: Reflections of A NASA Engineer

On Fri, 5 Dec 2003 22:24:11 -0800, "Charleston"
wrote:

"Mary Shafer" wrote:

I've read it. It's OK, I suppose, but it all seems so ordinary. It's
certainly not "Hypersonic" by Jenkins and Landis. It's just about
engineering.

Okay, so you have a good sense of humor, Mary. Engineering can be quite
interesting even to persons who are not engineers. You just need the
interest in such things. Since "Runway to Orbit..." is a historical book
with a fascinating title, I doubt it is completely full of formulas.
Honestly though, do you think someone interested in flight would be
interested in "Runway to Orbit..."?

Yes, you'll find it interesting. I read your remarks to Ken and he
told me to reassure you that there isn't a single equation in the
whole thing. However, I know he wrote out the equation for volumetric
efficiency in the texts, so it's not completely non-technical.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer

I think I posted this before, but it might have been somewhere else in
sci.space.*.

Here's an article about Ken from the X-Press, Dryden's in-house
newsletter:
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Newsroom/X-...ppl_iliff.html

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer

On Sat, 06 Dec 2003 12:24:10 -0800, Mary Shafer wrote:

Here's an article about Ken from the X-Press, Dryden's in-house
newsletter:
http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/Newsroom/X-...ppl_iliff.html

Ah yes, the old plus vs. minus bug.

I once worked with a rather eccentric (even for a programmer) colleague
who had a similar bug in one of his programs. I remember sitting next to
him at a terminal as he repeatedly replaced the + with the - then back
again, muttering "it was only half a character!"

"Mary Shafer" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 5 Dec 2003 22:24:11 -0800, "Charleston"
wrote:

"Mary Shafer" wrote:

I've read it. It's OK, I suppose, but it all seems so ordinary. It's
certainly not "Hypersonic" by Jenkins and Landis. It's just about
engineering.

Okay, so you have a good sense of humor, Mary. Engineering can be quite
interesting even to persons who are not engineers. You just need the
interest in such things. Since "Runway to Orbit..." is a historical
book
with a fascinating title, I doubt it is completely full of formulas.
Honestly though, do you think someone interested in flight would be
interested in "Runway to Orbit..."?

Yes, you'll find it interesting. I read your remarks to Ken and he
told me to reassure you that there isn't a single equation in the
whole thing. However, I know he wrote out the equation for volumetric
efficiency in the texts, so it's not completely non-technical.

Okay, thank you I am in and I will be looking for it at GPO's website and
here for any other sources. Thanks.

--

Daniel
http://www.challengerdisaster.info
Mount Charleston, not Charleston, SC

Mary Shafer writes:

[...]

Ken's book is really quite good

Ah, so it being ordinary to you and just engineering didn't stop it from
being quite good. I'm not surprised.

On Fri, 05 Dec 2003 23:52:12 -0600, Pat Flannery wrote:



Henry Spencer wrote:

So, should we take up a collection to get that last sentence put on a
suitably-located billboard to celebrate publication? :-)

[In case there are newcomers to the group who find this a trifle cryptic:
(a) Ken Iliff is Mary Shafer's husband; (b) one of their wedding gifts was
a billboard with a snide comment on it, paid for by co-workers.]


It would be cool to have a autographed copy signed by both Mary and Mr.
Mary Shafer, and with Buzz and Neil's pawprints on it.


Yabbut... You might have a hard time getting it into your den.

Oh, you mean the /book/ !