Convairiety, Volume 8, Number 13, Wednesday June 25, 1955 Page: 3 of 8
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Convair/General Dynamics Newsletters and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.
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June 29, 1955
CONVAIRIETY
Page 3
CONVAIR AT TEST CENTER—More and more Convair is claiming small
"colonies" located far from home base. Photos above were taken at Naval Ordnance
Test Station, China Lake, Calif., where some seven Pomona families are assigned as
well as a number of "bachelors." At top left are Mike Ross, group engineer; C. G.
Sindelar, field representative, and Joan Raber (only won.an on Convair staff at
NOTS). Top right shows Capt. R. F. Sellars, USN. executive officer of NOTS, with
Ross, R. W. Wollenweber, E. C. Powers, and Sindelar. Community spirit is strong
at NOTS and there are frequent home parties (left center) and at noon the Officers'
Club pool is an attraction (center, below). Home activities include cards and
hobbies such as model building.
Convair Testing at China Lake Began
With Lark, Continues With Terrier
Convair is rapidly gaining the
status of a “senior citizen” at
the U. S. Naval Ordnance Test
Station at China Lake, Calif.
Since 1947 Convair has been
conducting and assisting with
guided missile testing and evalua-
tion programs at the station.
First it was Convair San Diego
with the Lark. More recently—
and currently—it has been Con-
vair Pomona with the Terrier.
At present all Convair activi-
ties are coordinated through Con-
vair Pomona engineering depart-
ment’s field operations office, lo-
cated in the Michelson Labora-
tory, the station’s central research
center. The company also has an-
other office in the actual testing
area.
“Our coordination also ex-
tends to phases of evaluation
programs currently being con-
ducted by the U. S. Navy, the
U. S. Marine Corps and the
U. S. Army,” M. S. Roberts,
engineer in charge of field
operations, said.
“Many different kinds of talent
are required to support these
programs, and consequently our
staff at NOTS is drawn from
many functions in engineering
and other departments. The num-
ber of ‘on station’ personnel
fluctuates between 15 and 40.”
Mike Ross, flight test group
engineer, is in overall charge of
the Convair group at NOTS and
is responsible for all Convair
testing. C. G. Sindelar is the
resident field service engineer at
present, and is responsible for
functions related to the assistance
and coordination of Convair
activities in the Navy Bureau of
Ordnance evaluation program.
Joan Raber has the distinc-
tion of being the only woman
on the Convair staff. Inciden-
tally, she was recently married
to Jack Raber, a Convair engi-
neer at NOTS.
The Convair working day be-
gins at 7 a.m., and, with an hour
for lunch, ends at 4 p.m. First
event of the day is the “7:10
meeting,” a briefing on the day’s
activities, etc., usually presided
over by Mike Ross. It is attended
by all Convair people on the sta-
tion.
NOTS is located in the Indian
Wells Valley in the northern part
of the Mojave Desert, approxi-
mately 140 miles northwest of
Pomona. Just outside the main
gate of the station is Ridgecrest,
a busy town of approximately
5,000. Mountain ranges surround
the entire valley.
In the summer the temperature
frequently soars to well over 100
degrees, and windstorms are fre-
quent. A visitor^ first impres-
sion of the area is not apt to be
favorable—until he meets and
talks to the people who work
there.
Then, if he keeps an open
mind, he will usually find him-
self becoming adapted to the life
there in an amazingly short time.
Mike Ross, incidentally, is a
one-man chamber of commerce
for the area. He has been there
for eight years and says he
wouldn’t want to live elsewhere.
A brief tour of the area with
Ross, accompanied by a running
commentary, is usually enough to
convince the most unbelieving.
Lunch and a swim at the Offi-
cers Club is a daily routine in the
summer for many Convair people
on the base. The club is also the
center of many social activities
and there are many private par-
ties and opportunities for recrea-
tion both on the station and off.
The station offers a theater,
bowling alley, a nine-hole golf
course and a driving range, and
many sports and hobby clubs.
Many of these facilities are dup-
(Continued on Page 8)
Plant Layout Problems
Solved in Miniature by
Using a Modern Lilliput'
Modern day “Gullivers” working in a “Lilliputian”
world are helping solve F-102 production layout problems
long before they occur at Convair San Diego’s Plant 2.
Industrial engineers are the
are
“Gullivers” and their “Lilliput”
is a scale model layout of major
assembly areas (Buildings 2 and
3) at Plant 2.
Open at the top, the one-eighth
scale model includes miniatures
of all machines and fixtures used
in F-102 production. Even over-
head cranes are made to cover
only their normal range in vari-
ous parts of each building.
And everything is visible in
that all important third dimen-
sion!
“This added dimension helps
us eliminate many ‘bugs’ which
hide in drawings or blueprints,”
said A. N. Ballard, chief of
MlHNS
CHESS GAME—Figuring out plant layout for F-102 at San Diego are R. A. McClernan, C. M. Coole
and A. W. Pisarchik, all Dept. 8. Carefully contrived model is duplicate of conditions faced at Plant
2 SD.
manufacturing planning and
methods at Plant 2. “Too, the
ease with which the layout can
be rearranged helps us to ex-
periment until we find the right
answer to any problem.”
Under construction for about
three months, the layout is a com-
bined effort of industrial engi-
neers who designed it, plant engi-
neering’s wood shop which made
a number of the fixtures, the
model shop that turned out plas-
tic models and various factory
and tooling departments who
helped in a number of ways.
Practically everything in the
layout came from scrap materials.
It is mounted on two discarded
blackboards, the upper floors and
doors are made of tinted plastic
sheet, the pipes and tubing of
medical swab sticks, the offices
and rest rooms of wooden blocks,
the tool cribs of screen wire and
the cranes and building supports
of aluminum.
Ballard listed the layout’s ad-
vantages over conventional draw-
ings. Included were: more ac-
curate planning since any change
that can be accomplished on the
model will obviously work in the
shop; improving perspective by
working out clearances of ob-
stacles and projections on ma-
chinery; determining utilization
of floor space and the best pos-
sible way of directing the flow
of parts and materials within
each area or department; and
providing an accurate means of
briefing.
“We feel the layout has been a
tremendous help and will be even
more important in any future
planning or changes brought
about by the modem complexity
of aircraft manufacturing,” Bal-
lard added.
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General Dynamics Corporation. Convair Division. Convairiety, Volume 8, Number 13, Wednesday June 25, 1955, periodical, June 29, 1955; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth777540/m1/3/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.