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ROCKET SCIENCE AND REGION: THE RISE, FALL, AND RISE OF THE AEROSPACE INDUSTRY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
With historical roots reaching back to the early twentieth century, the aerospace industry has long been an important economic, cultural, and technological feature of life in Southern California. This exciting two-day conference, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Sputnik satellite, will explore many facets of the industry's regional influence and history. Historians of science and technology will join with pioneering aerospace leaders and entrepreneurs to discuss the rise of the industry and its central role in the Cold War. Other commentators and writers will examine the cultural impact of aerospace innovation on suburban life in Southern California; military leaders will comment on the role that the armed services have played in fostering aerospace technology and expansion over the past half century; and archivists and curators will discuss various possible approaches to documenting the history of the industry. The conference will thus stimulate both the preservation and study of this crucial aspect of Southern California--and American--history.
Registration - $40.00
Lunch will be provided on both Friday, August 3 and Saturday, August 4.
To register and for more information, please contact Kim Matsunaga by July 30 at kmatsuna@usc.edu
We are grateful for support received from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation.
CONFERENCE PANELISTS:
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Fred Adler, Ph.D.
Hughes Aircraft (retired)
In 1961, Adler started Hughes space business as Manager, Space Systems Division, which then designed and built five successful Surveyor soft-landing lunar spacecraft just before the Apollo program, and also pioneered geosynchronous communication satellites.
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Maj. General Curtis M. Bedke
Air Force Flight Test Center Commander, Edwards Air Force Base
General Bedke’s responsibilities include the development, test, and evaluation of manned and unmanned aircraft systems in both experimental and proven aerospace vehicles. He supports the conduct of test and evaluation programs for the Department of Defense, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.
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Allan Boardman
former VP, The Aerospace Corporation
Boardman spent 35 years with The Aerospace Corporation, holding such positions as principal director of the Sensors and Product Effectiveness Subdivision and principal director of the Navstar/Global Positioning System
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Glenn Bugos, Ph.D.
Historian, NASA Ames Research Center
Bugos is president of Moment LLC, a corporate history consultancy and author of Atmosphere of Freedom: Sixty Years at the NASA Ames Research Center and Engineering the F-4 Phantom.;/span>
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Maj. General Phil J. Conley, Jr.
USAF (retired)
As commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center in 1978, General Conley was directly responsible for over 400 test and support projects affect the U.S. national and international defense posture. In 1982, General Conley assumed duties as the vice commander of the Air Force Electronic Systems Division at Hanscom Air Force Base, where he provided guidance and direction to the development and acquisition of the nation’s command, control, and communication systems.
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Julie Cooper
Head Archivist, JPL
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William Deverell, Ph.D.
Director, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West
Deverell is Professor of History at USC, and the author of numerous studies exploring the history of the 19th and 20th century American West. Previous faculty appointments have been at UC San Diego and Caltech.
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William Graham, Ph.D.
Graham has served as chairman and CEO of National Security Research, Inc.; Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy; Science Advisor to President Ronald Reagan; Deputy Administrator of NASA; and Chairman of the General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament.
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Lt. General Michael A. Hamel
Space and Missile Systems Center Commander, Los Angeles Air Force Base
General Hamel is the Air Force Program Executive Officer for Space and is responsible
for the Air Force Satellite Control Network; space launch and range programs; the Space-Based Infrared System Program; military satellite communication programs; the Global Positioning System; intercontinental ballistic missile programs; Defense Meteorological Satellite Program; and the space superiority system programs. Hamel is responsible for more than 6,500 employees nationwide and an annual total budget in excess of $10 billion.
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Art Hansen, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Cal State Fullerton
Hansen directs CSU Fullerton’s Center for Oral and Public History, and has been president for both the regional Southwest Oral History Association and the national Oral History Association and is past editor of the Oral History Review. His specialty field of historical research is the WWII exclusion and detention experience of Japanese Americans, and he is a consulting historian at the Japanese American National Museum.
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Gretchen Heefner
Ph.D. candidate, Yale University
Heefner’s dissertation, “The Missile Next Door,” uses the development and deployment of Minuteman ICBMs to examine how Americans dealt with Cold War militarization and the requirements of nuclear deterrence. Her research has taken her from Air Force bases to peace communes, and even the attics and cellars of ranchers who long lived next door to the Minuteman.
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Lt. General John L. Hudson
Aeronautical Systems Center Commander, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Lt. General “Jack” Hudson leads the Air Force’s center of excellence for the development and acquisition of aeronautical systems. The center is responsible for the management of more than 170 Air Force, joint and international programs, executes an annual budget of $27 billion, and employs a work force of approximately 27,000 people located at Wright-Patterson AFB and 29 other locations worldwide.
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Thomas V. Jones
former CEO, Northrop Grumman
Jones joined the Northrop Corporation in 1953 and led in the development of some of the most sophisticated aeronautical systems in the world including T-38 Talon Trainer, F5 Tactical Fighters, F-20 Tiger Shark, F-18 Hornet, and b-2 Stealth Bomber.
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Dan Lewis, Ph.D.
Dibner Senior Curator of the History of Science and Technology, Huntington Library
Since 1977, Lewis has been responsible for the Huntington’s history of science, technology, medicine and transportation holdings, consisting of 200 collections totaling approximately 1.5 linear miles including manuscript and printed materials such as the 47,000-volume Burndy Library. Lewis is co-organizer of this conference and co-moderator of the ICW Science & Technology working group.
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MG Lord
author of Astro Turf
Lord’s most recent book is Astro Turf, a family memoir about aerospace culture during the Cold War Author and critic, Lord has been a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review and The New York Times Arts & Leisure section.
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Sherman N. Mullin
former President, Lockheed Skunk Works
Mullin joined Lockheed in 1959 and was involved in the development of the P-3C patrol aircraft, S-3A carrier ASW aircraft, F-117 stealth fighter, and the F-22 advanced tactical fighter, and played a major role in the initiation of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program as Chief Skunk.
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Curtis Peebles
writer and independent scholar
Peebles is an aerospace writer with 14 books and numerous articles to his credit, and most recently presented a paper on the X-43A project to the AIAA Space 2006 seminar.
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Katrina Pescador
Head Archivist, San Diego Air & Space Museum
Pescador directs the management of the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s large and significant Library and Archives collections -- the third largest in the nation that houses many unique collections found nowhere else. She recently re-released the second edition of Mary L. Scott’s pictorial history San Diego Air Capital of the West, which chronicles San Diego’s aviation heritage using 300 vintage and modern photographs.
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Ken Phillips, Ph.D.
Curator for Aerospace Science, California Science Center
Phillips develops exhibitions on aeronautics and space exploration at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Before coming to the Science Center, Phillips conducted research on the military applications of aerospace technology, water management, and energy at The RAND Corporation.
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Allan Sekula
creator of “Aerospace Folktales”
In his seminal work “Aerospace Folktales” of 1973, artist and photography theorist Sekula investigates “folktales” of the aeronautics industry in Southern California. From photographs, interviews, and a self-written commentary, we learn about the effects of the entire family when Sekula’s father loses his job.
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Bonita Smith
Corporate Archivist, The Aerospace Corporation
As corporate archivist, Smith is responsible for preserving the history of the 47 year-old non-profit corporation. She has also served as Deputy Archivist of the Knox County Archives (Tennessee) and established the archives at NASA’s John H. Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
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DJ Waldie
author of Holy Land
Waldie has been the Public Information Office of the city of Lakewood since 1978 and is the author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir, Real City: Downtown Los Angeles Inside/Out, Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles, and Close to Home: An American Album.
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Harry Waldron, Ph.D.
Chief Historian, Space and Missile Systems Center
As chief historian, Waldron plans, organizes, and directs the historical program at SMC, the records of which cover U.S. military space and strategic missile development programs from 1954 to the present.
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Zuoyue Wang, Ph.D.
Historian, Cal Poly Pomona
Originally trained as a physicist from China, Wang is the author of the forthcoming In Sputnik’s Shadow: The President’s Science Advisory Committee and Cold War America, and is currently working on a study of Chinese American scientists and engineers in the context of transnational science and technology in the 20th century.
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Peter Westwick, Ph.D.
Historian, UC Santa Barbara
As co-moderator of the ICW Science & Technology working group, Westwick is one of the organizers of this aerospace conference. Currently he is Visiting Researcher in History at UCSB with research interests in Cold War science, American science and technology, and modern physical sciences.
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