Nostalgia (Re: Drafting in Bicycle Races)

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

It seems the subject line is no longer appropriate

> This was hastily redesigned using a novel area rule and the first
> of the four prototype YF-102As flew on December 20th, 1954  while
> a further eight of the original YF-102s rolled out. The F-102A entered
> service mid 56. Production terminated two years later at number 875.

My then fiance Evelyn and I worked at General Atomic in San Diego
in the summer of 1957. The company was just starting up in a disused
school near Lindberg Field. Convair, the builder of the F102s, rolled
them out at a rate of what seemed like one or two a day. A test pilot
would take each one on its maiden flight to Palmdale. As I recall I
was told that he was paid $500 for what was a twelve minute flight,
not without risk, of course*. When the pilot took off he quickly
pointed the F102 nearly straight up and hit the afterburner. The roar
was deafening, and the tailpipe was pointed right at us in our old
school building!

Why is this physics nostalgia? Well, also working that summer (and
the next, again) were Hans Bethe and Edward Teller (and Freeman Dyson
and Bob Karplus and...). I have a vivid memory of the times when the
F102s took off during seminar time. The speakers would stop and wait
for people to be able to hear again - except for Teller! He had a
voice so powerful that he didn't have to notice the competition!

The reason I mentioned Bethe is that he and Teller behaved quite
courteously and collegially toward one another in these seminars. I
realize that the mythology often has these two men as bitter enemies,
but there was none of that evident to us. Hans Bethe is a very nice
man who ate lunch with us at GA. I never had a social encounter with
Teller, though he was also a professor at my home institution. I have
seen him on TV, of course, and his voice is somewhat weaker now.

Memories...

Leigh

*I remember from the 40s when my family lived in Burbank we saw a
couple of houses with P38 holes in their roofs. Lockheed was
cranking them out at a stiff clip, and they didn't all work first
time.