Convairiety, Volume 13, Number 2, January 20, 1960 Page: 2 of 8
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Page 2
CONVAIRIETY
Wednesday, January 20, 1960
CONVAIR FIRST—Inspecting 180-degree brazed panel at Fort
Worth, believed to be first made anywhere, are left to right: Frank
Darby, senior design engineer; J. D. Flowers, Dept. 34; and J. L.
Dreiling, Dept. 34 assistant foreman.
FW Develops 180-Degree Panel;
Believed to Be Industry First
Convair FW’s Dept. 34 has
manufactured what is believed
to be the first 180-degree stain-
less steel brazed panel.
The new panel is cheaper and
lighter than the panel now man-
ufactured for the nacelle section
of the B-58 Hustler.
Heretofore, the 180 - degree
panel was made by splicing three
60-degree panels together, ac-
cording to J. L. Dreiling, assist-
ant foreman in Dept. 34.
“The new process for making
180-degree panels eliminates
splicing, which has always been
a time-consuming and costly
process,” Dreiling said.
The new panel is six to eight
pounds lighter than its predeces-
sor.
An improvement in the brazing
technique made manufacture of
the new panel possible, said
Frank Darby, senior design engi-
“Essentially,” he said, “we
learned to heat the panels rapid-
ly and to control the tempera-
ture.
“Previously, we couldn’t cool
the panel quickly enough after
it had been brazed at above 1600
degrees temperature. This caused
alloy to drip from high points
on the panel.
“In the new method of braz-
ing, the panel was transferred
to a heater that is not enclosed
in a retort (a protective enclosure
in which panels are normally
placed during brazing). This
helped eliminate the heat mass,
thereby permitting the panel to
be heated and cooled more rapid-
ly. Thus the alloy flow-down was
either eliminated or greatly re-
duced.”
Darby added that Depts. 23
and 28 helped develop the new
procedure. The panel was three
years in development.
Pilot Logs 40-Hour 'Week' in B-58,
Ranges From Idaho to Carolinas
A full “work week” behind
the world’s speediest “desk”—
that’s the December achieve-
ment of Val Prahl, Convair
Fort Worth Dept. 12, first
pilot ever to fly 40 hours in a
B-58 during one month.
Prahl’s record month of fly-
ing time (actually 43 hours
plus) was made during a series
of bomb-nav system demonstra-
tions in Hustler No. 30. Fly-
ing most of the missions with
crew members Jack Denton
and Walt Simon, Prahl covered
the United States from Boise,
Idaho, to Charlotte, N. C.
There’s no place Prahl would
rather he than behind his
“desk.” Ask him how he likes
spending so much time in a
B-58, and the reply is a beam-
ing smile.
“It’s the finest airplane I
ever flew,” he grins.
Dollar Aim of Intensive
Prices and Costs Course
An intensive course for im-
provement of procurement and
pricing capabilities is now under
way at Convair San Diego.
Over 120 people representing
four divisions of General Dynam-
ics Corporation are entered in
the estimating and pricing course
brought to Convair through co-
sponsorship of SD and Astro ed-
ucational services. The course,
titled “Prices, Costs, and Con-
tracts,” is taught by six special-
ists of Harbridge House, Inc.,
educational consultant firm head-
quartered at Boston, Mass.
In emphasizing the importance
of the program, R. F. Smith, as-
sistant to Convair vice president-
administration, said, “We antici-
pate concrete results from this
course in the direction of value
control within the company.
“This course is important,” he
continued, “not only as a means
of improving our purchasing,
sub-contracting, and contracting
practices, but as a part of the
long-range program at Convair
for development of professional
personnel in all fields.”
He explained that other educa-
tional programs will be organized
on an inter-operating division
basis as the need and opportunity
arises in the future.
T. J. Sullivan, SD assistant
manager-contracts, customer ser-
vice, and material, said in his re-
marks at the opening sessions of
the four classes, that the pro-
gram is “an answer to the urgent
need for cost reduction in the
procurement field where more
than half of the company’s sales
dollar is spent.”
Students have been selected by
department heads from purchas-
ing, contracts, subcontracts, esti-
mating, and accounting func-
tions. Entered in the current
course are 75 from Convair SD;
45 from Astro; three from Gen-
eral Office; one, Stromberg-Carl-
son; and two from General
Atomic.
Classes will be held three times
a week during January, then re-
convene for four additional weeks
in May. One-day seminars will be
held at the end of February and
March.
The course, arranged specific-
ally for General Dynamics Cor-
poration to meet needs of sub-
contract and price analysts, esti-
mators, and contract managers,
will deal with basic cost elements,
cost/profit relationships, compar-
ative cost and value analysis. Ne-
gotiation strategy and techniques
will be studied as well as means
of bringing engineering and pur-
chasing together to obtain the
“best buy” in terms of perform-
ance, price, and delivery.
The program is an adaptation
40-HOUR “WEEK”—Pilot Val Prahl of Fort Worth is first to log
40 hours in a month in a B-58 cockpit. He achieved mark in
December. Prahl flew No. 30 Hustler on bomb-nav demonstrations
across all parts of country.
MANAGEMENT TEAM
CONFERS AT DELTA
ON 880 OPERATION
A top management team from
Convair San Diego was at Delta
Airlines headquarters in Atlanta,
Ga., last week to meet with ex-
ecutives of the airline, soon to
be flying Convair 880s.
Delta’s method of operation
and plans for incorporating the
880 jet transport into its air ser-
vice were discussed during the
Jan. 13 visit.
Making the trip from San
Diego were B. F. Coggan, Con-
vair vice president and SD mana-
ger; T. J. Sullivan, SD assistant
manager; D. H. Digges, manager
commercial contracts; W. W.
Fox, chief engineer; B. J. Sim-
ons, senior project engineer; O.
W. Harper, acting manager cus-
tomer service; L. J. Bordelon,
chief transport service; and John
Doig, chief service parts.
The Delta visit was the second
one of this kind to be made re-
cently by Convair SD men. A
similar delegation, headed by
Coggan, met with TWA admini-
strators last fall at Kansas City,
i Mo.
of the 14-week advanced pricing
school conducted by Harbridge
House, Inc., for the Air Force.
The same course was given
last summer exclusively for As-
tro personnel and is now being
held at Convair Fort Worth for
60 people.
Convair’s presentation is joint-
ly coordinated by Smith; R. H.
Nall, SD educational services
supervisor; and Richard Pferdner
of Astronautics educational serv-
ices.
Atlas Accomplishment
Praised by President
President Eisenhower this
month lauded the Convair-pro-
duced Atlas missile in his State
of the Union message.
He pointed out that during the
past year the nation’s long-range
striking power had taken on new
strength with Atlas missiles en-
tering operational inventory.
“Such performance,” the Presi-
dent said, “is a great tribute to
American scientists and engi-
neers, who in the past five years
have had to telescope time and
technology to develop these long-
range ballistic missiles, where
America had none before.”
■■
f* '
COST STUDY—At top are part of 1 20 General Dynamics men
enrolled in course on prices and costs now under way at SD. Below,
key men, left to right: R. H. Nall, SD educational services; P. B.
Laubach, Harbridge House, Inc., senior associate; R. F. Smith, Con-
vair assistant to vice president-administration; W. R. Bruce, SD man-
ager of material; H. M. Hague, Harbridge House vice president;
T. J. Sullivan, assistant SD manager; Richard Pferdner, Astronautics
training specialist; H. W. Rubottom, chief SD educational services.
Always Room For Improvement,
Hicks Tells Cost Class at FW
“You’re the best in your field,
but there’s no law saying you
can’t improve.”
This was the statement of
M. L. Hicks, assistant manager
at Convair Fort Worth, as he
kicked off the opening session of
a month-long course on prices,
costs and contracts being given
at the FW plant by Harbridge
House, a nationally-known man-
agement consultant firm.
As Hicks pointed out, the pur-
pose of the course is to provide
advanced training for men al-
ready well-versed in their fields.
About 60 members of materials,
sub-systems procurement, con-
tracts, and estimating depart-
ments at Fort Worth are parti-
cipating.
The course extends through
January, with sessions every
morning and afternoon during
the week—half the group attend-
ing from 8-11:45 a.m. and the
other half from 1-4:15 p.m.
Originally prepared and pre-
sented at Convair Astronautics,
the course features the “case
study” method of instruction.
Actual cases are investigated in
small, professional seminar-type
study groups.
Supplementing case studies are
lectures by four Harbridge House
instructors. Stephen A. Falk and
Neill B. Lawton will serve as
instructors for the first two
weeks. Peter B. Laubach and
Frank J. Traversi are on deck
for the second two weeks.
All four have been associated
with the Harvard University
Graduate School of Business.
Educational services section of
personnel department is coordi-
nating the classes in the Fort
Worth plant.
CLASS AT FW—Scenes like this are typical in month-long course
on prices, costs, and contracts being offered to about 60 Convair
FW people.
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Reference the current page of this Periodical.
General Dynamics Corporation. Convair Division. Convairiety, Volume 13, Number 2, January 20, 1960, periodical, January 20, 1960; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1117949/m1/2/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.