Message posted by Peter Merlin on March 26, 2012 at 7:57:55 PST:
Sometimes stories change as they are passed from person to person, or even as they are repeated by the same person. This doesn't necessarily mean the narrator is being intentionally deceptive. Memory is a tricky thing, as I have learned from personal experience. Below is a story of a NASA airplane landing on Groom Lake, and the subsequent consequences. It was passed down from person to person over many years. By the time I first heard the tale, it was scarcely more than a rumor. Eventually, I was able to sort out the facts. "Later on when [Paul] Bikle was director [at the NASA Flight Research Center], the following event occurred. [Director of Flight Operations] Joe Vensel and a group of other engineers were flying a dry lakebed recon for suitable X-15 landing sites. They landed at Groom Dry Lake. The plane was immediately surrounded, and the people were told to stay in the airplane and were blocked from taking off. Very shortly, Bikle received a call from (Hugh) Dryden at NASA Headquarters. He wanted to know if we (had) any people flying in such an airplane and what they (were) doing. Bikle told him. Later, the people on the Gooney Bird were told to 'take off, don’t enter this area again, and forget what you have seen.'" More than 20 years after writing his diary entry, Wilson told me that it was Joe Walker who piloted this flight, and that Walker got chewed out by Joe Vensel on Christmas Eve. Roy Bryant and Bill Dana both said that the R4D crew consisted of John McKay and Joe Vensel. Bryant said that Bikle chewed them out when they got back. Dana said that the incident took place on 24 December 1958. Bryant thought that it was later, after some initial X-15 flights had been made. According to John McTigue, they took off before security personnel arrived. Paul Bikle became head of the NASA High Speed Flight Station on 15 September 1959. The NASA HSFS became the NASA Flight Research Center on 27 September 1959. A lakebed survey report from 17 December 1959 describes a visit to Groom Lake by Joe Vensel, Forrest Petersen, and Jim McKay in the R4D. McKay (in 1998) recalled being chewed out by Bikle. On 17 December 1959, Joe Vensel, Forrest Petersen, and Jim McKay flew a NASA R4D-5 to Nevada for a survey of potential X-15 emergency landing lakebeds. They landed on the northern end of Groom Lake, just outside the restricted area. After testing the lakebed surface by taxiing the aircraft, the NASA crew saw jeeps approaching from the southern end of the lake. They took off before the Area 51 security personnel arrived, but the aircraft’s NASA markings were clearly visible. Paul Bikle, chief of the NASA Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, received a phone call from NASA administrator Dr. Hugh L. Dryden in Washington, D.C., asking if the FRC had such an aircraft, and what they were doing. The R4D crew was extensively debriefed by Bikle on arrival back at the FRC.
Rumor: On 3 December 1975, NASA engineer Joe Wilson included a second-hand story in his personal diary:
Memory: In 1998, I interviewed Wilson, project manager Roy Bryant, research pilot Bill Dana, and engineer John McTigue.
Fact: Here is some documented historical data:
Reality: Based on the above anecdotes, facts, and the survey report, I was able to establish an accurate account:
Vetting sources and checking facts is hard work, especially after so much time has passed. It is, however, a necessary and critical part of a historian's job.
In Reply to: Re: Question to Peter Merlin posted by OldThudMan~!!~ on March 25, 2012 at 8:47:36 PST:
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