SWE - Winter 2008 - (Page 56)

Pamela Kay Strong shared some of the experiences from her formative years that placed her on the path to a career as a rocket scientist. As an advisor and consultant on a gamut of materials, I was sought out to solve problems, from the sublime to the “ridiculous” and all from womb to tomb. could keep playing with his hair. Now, by almost 4 years old, I knew my ABCs in both English and German, and how to count in both languages, plus how to add and subtract simple problems, but no multiplication or division and certainly no higher math. I was precocious, not a genius. Why he was deriving the theory of relativity for a mere 4-year-old I can only imagine. Perhaps, it was because his visit was supposed to be a secret and no pictures could be taken, so maybe he was trying to leave me something to remember him by. At any rate, I do wish these notes had survived my many, many moves as I could have used them in graduate school. A mere 28 pages later, he finally asked, “Do you really understand?” I nodded profoundly. Then I added, “It was a great bedtime story.” (It still is to this day.) “Do you have any more?” (I wanted to continue playing with his hair.) I have never heard any other reports of Herr Doktor Professor Albert Einstein being in Alamogordo during this time period –— earlier, yes; this visit must have been quite brief and secret. I still credit my “Uncle Wernher” and his friend, “Uncle Albert,” with ensuring my longterm interest in science. When I was 5 years old, we had just moved into a brand new house within Alamogordo. I lived across the street to one such new house that was in the process of being built and had a huge discard pile of scrap lumber in the front yard. On the pile, I and my friends had located a huge 6-foot beam. We decided to build a rocket just like our dads’. As the appointed spokesperson, I went up to the workman and asked, “Are you going to use that, Mister?” He looked down disdainfully and said, “No, it is on the discard pile.” “Can I have it?” I asked. He said, “If you can carry it, you can have it.” With credibility based upon my extensive knowledge of rocket science, I persuaded all of the neighborhood children to help secure this prize. The beam soon moved like a centipede into my front yard, with a workman at either end. We worked two weeks pounding in a zillion nails to make our rocket just like our dads’. We erected it onto a movable gantry — my little red wagon — and backed it up to the stationary launch tower — a newly transplanted cottonwood tree that waved in the wind. We had a vehicle; now we needed propulsion. We found a rope, which we secured to the nose of the rocket and threw the rope end over the tallest limb of the little fledgling tree. Now for the launch. I organized the kids and started the official German countdown: “fünf (5) vier (4) drei (3) zwei (2) eins (1) null (0) feuer (fire)!” The kids pulled on the rope and more In 1983, not 1893, I was the only woman engineer ever hired at that facility in its 57 years of existence. Nine months later, they hired another 13 of us. pushed on the rocket and the rocket “shot“ a full 6 or 7 inches into the air. Unfortunately, however, when the rocket reached the tree limb, it stopped, tottered for a second, and soon sank unceremoniously back to Earth, with us scrambling out of the way. My feelings were crushed. Our rocket had failed. It didn‘t go to the moon. Sadly, we crept back into our houses to nurse our disappointment. Uncle Wernher came for dinner that night, but I was unusually quiet. He asked,“Well, how did the launch go?“ I stuck out my chin and lip in a pout and answered, “It didn’t go to the moon.” “Did it get off the ground?“ he asked. I perked up; you really couldn’t crush my natural enthusiasm. “Oh, yes, it went as high as the tree,“ waving my hand over my head. Uncle Wernher smiled happily and declared, “Well, it was a success then. I can‘t get mine off the ground.” With a mock sad face he continued, “I light them up and they just fall down.” Uncle Wernher went out to see our rocket, with all my little friends present, and exclaimed, “Auch du lieber. The aerodynamic airfoil ist nicht so gut! Make it deises way,“ motioning in a V. We spent another week tearing out the zillions of nails, cut the offending aerodynamic airfoil into a V, and spent yet another week pounding another zillion nails in –— with an extra million to help withstand the G forces. We had another launch with two or three more kids pushing and the rocket went up another 2 or 3 inches, whereupon with all that work and “still not going to the moon,“ we all decided that building rockets was hard work and playing cowboys and Indians was more fun, so we would leave rockets to our dads. How did these experiences affect me and my choice of careers? They just whetted my appetite for more. Innovator and problem solver Although I earned my degrees in synthetic organic pharmaceutical chemistry, my specialty is non-metallic materials, including composites, plus adhesives and sealants. How did that happen? I had a lot of on-the-job- training. I have applied material science to aircraft and rockets, which allowed me to accomplish quite a few “firsts”: • Designer of the first special materials for the B2 stealth bomber, making it “stealthy”; • First to institute the use of composites in commercial aircraft jet engines, increasing the engine efficiency 37 percent (usual increase is 0.1 percent). This saved 467 pounds per engine, thus saving $1.2 million/year in fuel per aircraft; • Developer of special materials on all the different Delta and Titan rockets for them to 56 SWE WINTER 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of SWE - Winter 2008

SWE - Winter 2008 Heritage Club President’s Note View from the Executive Suite Editor’s Page Readers’ Forum EWeek 2008 New Faces of Engineering The Leaky Science and Engineering Pipeline Why Do Women Leave the Engineering Work Force? A Greener America = New Growth Fields for Engineers The Off-On Ramp Revolution Recognizing the Historic Contributions of African-Americans Membership Information & Calendar A&B Women in Tune with Technology: SWE 2007 Conference Overview Keynote Address Achievement Award Region, Section, and Collegiate Awards SME Bowl and SWE Anniversaries Engineering World: Point of View: Why I Blog Career Toolbox Book Review SWE Smiles Opportunity Index SWE Scrapbook

SWE - Winter 2008

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