For smail or phone send email at
clayho@bellsouth.net
Parks AE '50
I married Patricia Graf shortly after graduation at in August 2006, we'll celebrate our 50th anniversary.
Then after the wedding, away we went to Baltimore MD to work for The Martin Co. We found an apartment in Towsend MD and honeymooned daily to DC. We got to see Pat brother and wife from Norfolk a couple times.
Nine months and a week later we had Bill. Pat, though a Registered Nurse, never got started working while in Baltimore.
We had Bob while there and got one vacation to visit the home town of Owensboro, KY. At that time, there were few if any interstate highways and traveling was miserable even in our new '56 Olds Holiday Club Coupe.
At that time I was in the aero-flight test group on the P6M Seamaster and saw an ad in AW for Lockheed in Marietta. One of the group leaders (Chet Payne) announced his going there the day I wrote for an application and allowed me to reference him. It was a miserable drive and we arrived on Friday night on the 2 lane road going by the Big Chicken. We thought we ought to go back to Baltimore but 47 years later we're still here.
In the 37 years there, we had 5 more children. One daughter was killed in an auto accident at age 18. We lived at this address for 43 years but had a lot of field trip where we were able to take the kids and even the Mother and Mother-in-Law. My Mother lived with us in her private apartment for 20 years until she got difficult and I was fortunate to have her live with her older sister in IN.
We had 2 family trips to El Centro, CA for 3 mos and 5 mos and 1 to Lancaster, CA for 9 mos. When Lockheed moved Flight Test to Palmdale, CA, Pat and I spent 2 years there. I did have a 7 mo trip to Sunnyvale, CA; in fact, for a white collar desk job I had to spend 4 years off-site during my time at Lockheed. I did get to Japan, Sweden, England, Hawaii, Alaska and considering vacation, got to all except ND & NE. Last year, the kids took us on an early cruise to the Caribbean for our 50th.
After 15 years as a stay-at-home Mom, Pat got back to RNing it. This was when our youngest got into school. She went into Mental Health. After all, it was about like raising 7 kids. She even worked the 2 years in Palmdale.
We both retired at 62 and as of now, it's been 10 years of fun.
The kids have turned out GREAT. We are proud parents as you can guess.
All six of our living children went to and graduated from a technical college. Four from Georgia Tech, one from Emory University and one from University of Texas. They all married college graduates.
My position at retirement from the Lockheed Martin Co., Engineering Flight Test was Senior Technical Advisor. My experience on the C-130, C-141 and C-5 provided much needed background information to all organizations. I was the corporate flight test historian of Georgia. I originated the flight and airfield performance methodology including providing the software to the organization. I was the only flight test analysis type in the Department that has been through both C-130 military and civil certification programs.
At retirement, I was working on the C-130J program and was the focal point in the complex scheduling aspects of the equipment availability though my strongest attribute is in the technology area. I was a Candidate Designated Engineering Representative (DER) on the C-130J program.
My career began when the flight test technical engineer and the flight crew were the authority as to the satisfaction of a design. I was also fortunate that have been involved on many different C-130 flight tests covering many different disciplines. I was one of the few remaining engineers at the company having almost a complete technical history of the airplane. This over all understanding of the airframe, systems and operational limits is why I was able to see the overview of such a change and others missed it.
o Position: o Senior Technical Advisor at retirement
Engineering Flight Test, Lockheed Martin Co.
o Education o Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering
Parks College, Saint Louis University, 1956
o Experience Summary o 40 years engineering experience
o 38 Engineering Flight Test
o 2 Aerodynamics and Wind Tunnel
o Employers o The Martin Company, 3+ years
o Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company, 37- years
o Significant experience:
o Airplane performance (15 test programs)
o Engine performance (9 engines)
o Structural loads (4 test programs)
o Airplane stability and control (7 test programs)
o FAA Candidate DER for C-130J Program
o Flight Test Program Manager for C-130J
o Engineering experience covering:
o Test program planning
o Test procedures
o Data analysis procedures
o Test results
o Real time analysis
o Flying Flight Analyst
o With additional experience in:
o Civil certification (4 test programs)
o Off runway operations (2 test programs)
o Aerial delivery (2 test programs)
o Inflight refueling (1 tanker, 1 receiver program)
o Seaplane operation (2 test programs)
o Flight support (4 telemetry programs)
o Flight support (4 test programs)
o Wind tunnel testing (16 operations, 3 project programs)
o Computer programming (165 programs)
o Airborne data analysis system development (2 programs)
o Independent research and development (4 projects)
o Special projects (3 program)
o Vehicle experience:
o B-57B o C-130E o B-57E o HC-130H
o P6M-2 o C-141A o RB-57D o Model 382 (Civil C-130)
o KC-130F o C-5A o YP6M-1 o Civil JetStar (C-140)
o C-5B o Gulfstream IV o C-130B o YC-141B (Stretch)
o ES-3A o P-7A o L-1011 o Special Projects
o YF-22 (ATF) o C-130J o PropFan Assessment
o Society of Flight Test Engineers
o Southeast Chapter, Past Director, etc.
o Director Award 1988 http://sfte.org/ see Award Recipients
o Technology Notebook Editor http://sfte.org/tec_notes/begin_3.htm see About for photo
o Technical Fellow 1998 http://sfte.org/ see Award Recipients
o Publications
o 50+ Engineering reports
o 1 Technical paper
o 6 Magazine article (home computer)