Page 229 - MY STORY

of southwestern desert summer weather for about a

month and a half.

The proposal was due for submittal in mid-September. I

did try to explain that it might be hot during the day, but it
was made bearable by being “dry heat” and, besides, it
almost always cooled off at night. The fact that I served in

the USAF in Tucson, and survival in 115-degree
temperatures was possible well that did not seem to carry
much water – if you forgive the pun. To this day, I am

reminded by the still living members of that team of our
tour of Mesa in one of the hottest summers on

record.They will be yanking my chain till I am gone (and
beyond if they’re invited to my memorial service).

Deposing Alan

There was one, very major, internally funded program to
design and build a manned prototype aircraft assigned to

Phantom Works. I was asked by senior management to
review the program’s progress and let them know of any
major issues facing successful execution. We’re talking

multimillions of dollars here! My findings were not a lot
different than earlier look-sees, in that a lot of attention
was being devoted to cost and schedule containment, but