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W. Wright





                                                                                   S&M-ASM-55          June 24, 1968

                   L. G. Alexakos                     4831                         Space               Huntsville

                   J. E. Vaughn                       4831                         Spac                Huntsville

                         ress           on Wind Tunnel Tests of Automobiles



                   The high level meeting with Mr. Bornhauser on June 10, 1968 did not yield
                   any encouraging results. Although the presentation was very well given,
                   it failed to impress upper management significantly. If anything, the
                   presentation gave too much in the form of results, leaving the impression
                   that most of the work has already been done; that aerodynamicists have
                   enough ’’feel” for the values of various parameters and only need to ’eyeball”
                   configurations in order to evaluate their aerodynamic performance.
                  Mr. Tom Gleason, Chief, Body Electrical, indicated in private at the
                   conclusion of the meeting that he did not intend to let the subject drop but
                   would continue to push aerodynamics wherever he could. What all this means,
                  as far as Huntsville is concerned, I think, is that although Deaty and Dawley
                  and up to Gleason like our proposal and are convinced that aerodynamics is
                  a vital production aspect of the car, they have not convinced the upper manage­
                   ment of this and it will be extremely hard for them to find funds to let the
                  proposed work proceed. Therefore, for the time being, it does not look
                  fruitful for the proposal work.

                  If Deaty stays with his earlier convictions, the prospects for sporatic work
                  in support of the race car program could materialize. He indicated that
                  if this Lab was unsuccessful in selling the aerodynamics they would
                  consider the possibility of dropping their interest and call on Huntsville for
                  aerodynamic support when needed. I am not so sure we would want to foster
                   such an idea for we cannot necessarily afford to come running to their
                  assistance as needed. Also, to do this the work should be carried out in
                  Huntsville; which means we must develop some form of model making
                  capability.

                  On the immediate program, everything looked pretty good until yesterday
                  when styling discovered an error in the greenhouse location for the Charger
                  model. In checking their clay it was discovered that the side windows and
                  ”A ” posts were pulled out on each side approximately 3/16 inch. Correcting
                  the mistake will amount to correcting the clay in the affected area, recasting
                  and making new partial fiberglass pieces to place in the affected region of
                  the model. This will mean approximately three days lost in an already
                  tight schedule. I will wait several more weeks however before making any
                  decision on the possibility of slipping the tunnel test start date.
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