Newsgroups: sci.aeronautics.airliners Path: news From: geoff@peck.com (Geoff Peck) Subject: Re: Boeing Book X-Submission-Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1992 06:35:32 GMT References: Message-ID: Approved: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM Organization: Geoffrey G. Peck, Consultant, San Jose CA Sender: kls@ohare.Chicago.COM X-Submission-Message-Id: <1992Dec3.063532.13163@peck.com> Date: 03 Dec 92 00:40:17 PST In article Christopher Davis writes: > This might be the Robert Serling _Legend & Legacy_, which I hope to find > the time to do a book review on, eventually. *Very* good book. OK, I'll bite. Here's a review of "Legend and Legacy" which I wrote for rec.aviation in mid-September: From: geoff@peck.com (Geoff Peck) Subject: Book Review: Legend and Legacy Message-ID: <1992Sep20.180822.7903@peck.com> Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1992 18:08:22 GMT I just finished the book "Legend and Legacy: The Story of Boeing and Its People" by Robert J. Serling (St. Martins Press, New York, 1992). It's an incredibly well-written corporate biography of Boeing at its seventy- fifth anniversary, and is superb reading for Boeing fans, aviation fans, and those interested in corporate management, philosophy, and development. Besides, the book is chock-full of reliably-documented anecdotes, incredibly funny deeds, and priceless one-line quotes from a huge variety of Boeing folks. One example, which seems to come up on the net with some regularity, is the question of the Famous 707 Barrel Roll. I've included as an attachment below a slightly generous excerpt from the book which describes this famous incident to whet your appetite. The book, of course, details many of the projects that the immensely complex and diverse organization has worked on -- from commercial aircraft to cruise missiles to the lunar roving module to military aircraft to bedroom furniture (no, I'm not kidding) to the never- produced passenger SST to helicopters and light rail vehicles to completely overhauling NASA's project management structure. The variety of projects, and the number of innovative experiments, will truly boggle one's mind. I was most impressed by the personal and corporate integrity of the people who are Boeing -- this book really almost justifies the well-worn phrase "if it doesn't say Boeing, I'm not going." A minor word of caution on this book -- once you start reading it, you'll find it incredibly hard to put down, much like a Robert Ludlum novel. You may find yourself staying up all night trying to finish its generous 460-plus pages in one sitting. You're also likely to exclaim, after reading a particularly favorite chapter (I only had about 10 or 12 such chapters) "goodness -- that was much too short -- there should be a whole _book_ on this subject!" The book, as one might expect, does see Boeing through the rose-colored glasses of memory. It's well-researched -- Serling spent quite a bit of time interviewing Boeing employees and searching company documents. But one doesn't read this kind of book expecting a critical exposee of mis-deeds ... nor would one really expect much of that in a corporate biography of a company as principled as Boeing. Now, what might be the ideal reading environment for Legend and Legacy? Well, I read most of it ... while flying inside Boeing jetliners. (And I'm still sitting inside a 737, bouncing around in light, occasionally moderate, turbulence, as I type this article!) Although the order of flying the Boeings didn't quite match their presentation in the book, on this trip I flew in 757's, a 737, a 727, and even a 707. Well, sort of. The 707 was actually UAL flight 707 from Newark to Denver, operating today as a 757. :-) Ah, well. I still do very fondly remember the 707 (and the 320B, and the 727-100, the 727-200, and the 737-100, and the 737-200, and ...). Alas, no 747 or 767 on this trip, but I certainly have enough passenger-hours in those types. If it doesn't say Boeing, _I'm_ not going! For those amused by historical significance, my 727 flight ended by landing on runway 22 at New York's LaGuardia airport. I can't recommend this book highly enough! It should be available at most general booksellers (I bought mine at a B. Dalton in a mall) in hard cover at $24.95. Geoff --- [Excerpt from _Legend_and_Legacy regarding the 707 roll] [This occurred] when the same Aircraft Industries Association group and representatives of the International Air Transport Association held joint meetings in Seattle. The Gold Cup hydroplane races were being held at the same time, and Allen [Boeing's CEO] invited the industry dignitaries to watch the events from three yachts Boeing had chartered for the occasion. As a special treat he also told Tex Johnston to stage a flyby in the Dash-80 on the day of the races so everyone could see the airplane of the future. Tex never did anything halfway. PR director Carl Cleveland had told him to come over Lake Washington, where the boat races were being held, at a prearranged time. When that moment arrived, the Dash-80 was in the middle of a routine test flight over the Olympic Peninsula and Johnston said to copilot Jim Gannett, "I'm gonna roll this bird over the Gold Cup course." "They're liable to fire you," Gannett warned. "Maybe, but I don't think so." The Dash-80 was doing 450mph when Tex brought it over Lake Washington at only 300 feet, put the jet into a 35-degree climb and proceeded to do a complete 360-degree barrel roll. Then he reversed course, came back over the lake and repeated the maneuver -- again in full view of 300,000 awed spectators, some vastly impressed industry officials, and a very unhappy William McPherson Allen. After the second roll, Allen turned to Larry Bell of Bell Aircraft, one of his guests. "Larry, give me about the of those heart pills you've been taking. I need them worse than you do." Bell laughed. "Bill, I think he just sold your airplane." Allen ignored him and said to Carl Cleveland, "I don't think we should have anything in the newspapers about this." Poor Carl pointed out it was going to be a little difficult to keep something out of the papers that 300,000 people had just witnessed. Allen didn't pursue that matter further, but at eight o'clock Monday morning, Johnston appeared in his office where not only Allen but Wells, Beall, Schairer, and Martin were waiting. Allen's first question was directed not at Tex but at Schairer. "Did you tell him to do it?" Schairer never had a chance to reply, for Johnson immediately said, "No, he didn't." Allen turned to Tex. "What made you do it?" "I was selling the airplane," the test pilot answered. He went on to explain that the Dash-80 was never in any danger, that an airplane doesn't recognize altitude if the forces imposed on its structure do not exceed one g (the force of gravity). Allen, still openly upset, was silent for a moment. "You know that," he finally said, "and now we know that. But the public doesn't know it. Don't ever do it again." Tex promised to behave. What he didn't tell Allen, however, was that he had rolled the prototype near Mt. Rainier on a previous flight and his fellow test pilots agreed with him that the maneuver, while spectacular, never endangered the airplane because the roll was slow and carefully controlled. They heard later of one incident in which an Air Force pilot actually did a _full_loop_ with a KC-135, the 707's military designation, and got away with it, although both outboard pods were torn off. Maynard Pennell didn't get mad at Tex, either. "It was an unnecessary sales job," Pennell commented, "but it really was a spectacular way to demonstrate the airplane. With a skilled pilot, the risk was minimal." Johnston believed Allen had forgiven him. In fact, he was invited to Allen's home for dinner the same day of the on-the-carpet session, and the first person to greet him was Eastern's crusty Eddie Rickenbacker. He grabbed Tex's Stetson hat, pulled it down over the pilot's ears, and chortled, "You slow-rolling son of a bitch -- why didn't you let me know you were gonna pull that? I would have been riding the jump seat!" Allen overheard this and smiled when Rickenbacker added, "Damn, Bill, _that's_ the way to get attention with a new airplane." Mef Allen said the roll was the talk of that evening, most of it expressions of approval and admiration that a huge commercial jet could be rolled safely. But while Tex left the house convinced he had been exonerated, there is considerable evidence that it took a long time before Allen really forgave him. Many months went by and Johnston was attending the annual management lawn party at the Allen home. He poked Allen in the chest with a finger and asked, "Bill, are you finally willing to admit that slow-rolling the Dash-80 was the greatest thing that ever happened to that program?" Allen gave him a look that would have frozen boiling water. "No," he said icily. In a 1977 speech to the Washington State Historical Society, Allen said he thought at first the rolls might have been unintentional and that he summoned Johnston to his office merely to ask if something had gone wrong with the controls. He didn't get angry, he insisted, until the test pilot admitted he rolled the $16 million prototype deliberately. "It has taken nearly twenty-two years for me to reach the point where I can discuss the event with a modicum of humor," he told the audience. ----- There are at least two other interesting stories about rolling an airplane in the book -- but for those, you get to go read the book! Okay, okay. One more short excerpt: ----- There was Mark Miller, for example, who was an absolute terror when it came to spelling. He actually got angry at anyone who would misspell a word. One day he was reviewing a Minuteman progress presentation being delivered on a chart by Bob Edelman of engineering. The word _relieve_ appeared on the chart, but it was spelled _releive_. "Dammit, Edelman," Miller scolded, "_i_ always goes before _e_." "You're absolutely right," Edelman agreed. He took out a grease pencil and at the bottom of the chart, he changed _Boeing_ to _Boieng_." ----- Go buy the book! G ----- End Included Message -----