Page 6 - Aerotech News and Review, October 1, 2021

Cam Martin:

The man who restored “Aeronautics” to NASA’s name

by Larry Grooms excellent work cannot speak entirely by itself. A Wright Brothers’ first flight, legendary engineer Valley’s NASA Hugh L. Dryden Aeronautical
special to Aerotech News partial solution, he suggested, was to start filling and NACA rocket test pilot Scott Crossfield Test Range who said almost exactly that seven
the aeronautics information vacuum with stories coached a team that flew a replica of the machine decades ago.
Some people know giving the public a chance to see and hear what the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, N.C., Cam still has a passion for telling stories that
something about most was going on in NASA’s first “A.” With a little 100 years earlier. matter, and after three decades his license plate
everything. Others luck, it might rekindle the kind of interest and en- Cam remembers Crossfield saying on a visit to still reads “XPLANES”, a noun, and a tongue-
know nearly every- thusiasm generated in the rocket plane era of “The in-cheek misspelled verb.
thing about something. Right Stuff.” In 2018, some months after Cam Martin’s re-
But when the question One person on the conference call that day was tirement from NASA’s Neil A. Armstrong Flight
is about airplanes and Kenneth Szalai, then the NASA Flight Research Research Center, Congressman Kevin McCarthy
aeronautics, Cam Center director at Edwards. He invited Cam, then read into the Congressional Record a summary
Martin either already happily employed at NASA Langley in Virginia, of Martin’s career that reflected the Kern County
knows, or knows who out to California for what turned into a life-chang- lawmaker’s long working relationship with Cam.
does. Courtesy photograph ing job offer. The text read in part:
Cam grew up to be Cam Martin Cam sees what he calls his own ongoing passion “Cam distinguished himself as a man who truly
a career communi- for flight in the faces of many people who come loved what he did, and he never failed to inspire
cator for the National to this region to join a team, build infrastructure, an interest in aeronautical science with those who
Aeronautics and Space Administration, working invest, solve problems and take new technology to Courtesy photograph worked with him. “
to EXPLAIN X-PLANES and the wonders of aero- flight. “You can just go down the list of milestone Cam and Congressman Kevin McCarthy Looking back at what happened in the years
accomplishments at Edwards reconnect at an event. During his years with that followed in the California center’s External
AFB, NASA, Mojave Air and NASA at Edwards, Cam routinely briefed the Affairs Office, Cam remembers a question he
Space Port, the companies at congressman on aeronautics research. asked himself early on. “I still had my 1st Grade
Plant 42. Stuff happens here. Weekly Reader newspaper with the X-15 on the
There’s a pulse and a synergy front. ‘Pilots will fly to space.’ Yes, the world’s
in this region that crosses over the center after the historical reenactment, “The coolest airplane was the stuff of history, seen only
all those institutional boundar- Wright Flyer was the worst airplane that ever in museums, but how could I NOT want to go to
ies.” flew.” But it DID fly, and that was what mattered. the place where they had flown the X-15?”
He continues, “This region Those same processes are alive and well out Once in a while, fate smiles. Having consulted
is filled with people who have on the Mojave Desert. In Cam’s words, “Build on the X-15 scenes for the Neil Armstrong biopic
a passion for flight. These are movie First Man, Cam was on the set for
people who go out of their way filming along with veteran X-15 pilot Joe
to choose to come to this val- Engle. Cam remembers thinking, “This re-
ley, Edwards and Mojave,” as ally is Edwards AFB. This really is the lake
he did. And Cam adds, “It’s bed. And that sure looks like a real X-15.
a pretty good bet they didn’t I never expected to see anything like this.
make that choice based just on Seems like I did not miss the X-15 after
the scenery.” all.”
Explaining healthy cultural
Courtesy photograph differences in balancing ap- Editor’s note: This is part one of a three-
Cam Martin visits a warbird with a family connection. This proaches to research, Cam part series. Look for Part Two, Born with
restored F4-U-4 Corsair fighter flew from the carrier USS Saipan says ground-based research
on which his father served with Fighter Squadron VF-42. flight in his
tools, computer modeling, Courtesy photographs DNA, in the
wind tunnel testing and simu- Top: Former X-15 pilot Joe next issue
nautics. Despite the daily efforts to reach out to au- lation are essential — they represent “The Pen.” Engle, left, and Cam get of Aerotech
diences local and global, generalist and specialist, Flight research happens out at the pointy end — together on the dry lakebed News and
professional and recreational, Cam maintained “The Sword.” movie location for the Review.
a low key, nap-of-the-earth profile throughout his Cam explains, “A successful undertaking has filming of scenes from First
career with NASA. both the pen and the sword. Wilbur and Orville Man. The two men served
Living in retirement in Tehachapi, Calif., and Wright were successful pioneers when others as historical consultants
fully engaged in family, lecturing, flying sail- were not because they studied, they built, they to the film’s producers.
planes, serving as a volunteer for the Experimental flight tested, and then they fixed problems — not Bottom: A mockup X-15
was used to recreate
Aircraft Association, and taking active roles each just once, but over and over. Their disciplined historic NASA flights that
summer in the EAA’s Oshkosh AirVenture Con- testing in 1899, 1900, 1901, and 1902 showed paved Neil Armstrong’s
vention and Fly-in, Cam found time to sit for this them exactly what they needed to do to make his- pathway to the Moon.
portrait in words. tory at Kitty Hawk in 1903. “ something and
The story of how Cam came to the High Desert For the 2003 Centennial Celebration of the get it flying
of California in 1995 as Chief of the Office of Ex- sooner rather than later.” That approach separates
ternal Affairs at NASA’s flight research center be- the real problems from the imaginary ones, and
gins with his 1990s video conference presentation reveals important, unexpected things that were
on why the “Space Agency” side of the NASA overlooked.
brand dominated popular culture while “Aero- It was the pioneering namesake of the Antelope
nautics,” the first capital “A” in the acronym, was
less recognized.
Aware of the reputation a mid-level manager
could get for delivering what might be unwel-
comed news to senior executives, Cam briefed the
data which pointed out a blunt truth. In compar-
ing the pre-internet era communications work of
NASA’s aeronautics group with what was then be-
ing done by the agency’s planetary exploration,
human space flight, and space science divisions,
the aeronautics side was conspicuous by its lack
of publications, high impact imagery and project
histories for documenting and telling the stories of
its accomplishments. Courtesy photograph
Underscoring the point, Cam said if someone
asked a typical man on the street what the big “S” First in flight in Cam’s family was his grandfather,
James Campbell Martin, who served in the 293
stood for in NASA’s name, the immediate response Courtesy photograph Aero Squadron of the Army Signal Corps.
would be “Space.” Ask the same question about Cam’s custom plates: X-PLANES
the “A,” and you’d get a look of confusion. Even
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