Page 72 - MY STORY

conventional sheet forming processes that did not require

heating to enable forming to typical aircraft tolerances.
The titanium producers were also trying to expand the
useful temperature envelope of the alloys beyond

700-750 degrees F.

At the same time, many of the German scientists that

served Germany during World War II had been imported
to the USA to fill a variety of jobs - some with the
government, like Dr. Werner Von Braun, and some with

commercial industry. One of these high-level German
imports was Dr. Fritz K, who came from Messerschmitt

after the war. He was an employee of General Dynamics
(GD) in San Diego and was embedded with the group
working on the design of the Mach 3 transport. I had been
interfacing with the metallurgists at GD for a few months

trying to help them with the selection of titanium alloys
for the transport. At the same time, their needs were

being transmitted back to TIMET to provide some
guidance on alloy development in the research labs. This
was really a very big deal because it meant literally

billions of dollars of titanium alloy sales if this aircraft
became real.