Page 103 - MY STORY

PLASTICS IS NO DAMN GOOD

When I rejoined Douglas in 1960 I was assigned to our

Torrance CA plant to oversee the process control and
support production of solid propellant very-high-strength

steel rocket motor cases for the Nike Zeus and Skybolt
weapon programs. As part of that assignment, I became
very familiar with the design and performance of motor
cases, which were really pressure vessels that withstood

enormous temperatures and pressures associated with
rocket propulsion systems.

Shortly after my reassignment from the Torrance plant to
our “home” facility in Santa Monica, I maintained my

activity in the development of new metal alloy systems
that promised even higher strength, and therefore lower
inert weight for advanced propulsion systems. At the

same time our experts in glass-reinforced plastics, which
was in its embryonic technical state, were promoting
these non-metallic materials to replace our

well-developed high-strength metal pressure vessels by
promising exceedingly optimistic, unproven (and I felt
non-realistic) strength levels.