Douglas MacArthur, Bob Feller and the Eternal Airplane

Douglas MacArthur, Bob Feller and the Eternal Airplane

Public television had a fascinating program on General

Douglas MacArthur last month. The program reminded me of

an April day in 1951, when I was employed as an Aeronautical

Research Scientist at the NACA (National Advisory

Committee for Aeronautics) Lewis Flight Propulsion

Laboratory in Cleveland. (I wasn”t a “rocket scientist”. They

worked in the rocket lab across the street at NACA.) That day

we heard that MacArthur, having just been fired by Harry

Truman and on his way to Washington, was to stop briefly at

the Cleveland airport at lunchtime. NACA (now NASA”s John

H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field) borders the airport

so we went over to see this heroic, but controversial man.

MacArthur was there with his wife and son and the mayor of

Cleveland. However, being then an avid baseball fan, just as

exciting to me was Bob Feller presenting a memento, I believe

an autographed baseball, to MacArthur”s son. I don”t remember

anything that MacArthur said that day but do remember being

surprised by the fact that his hands were shaking quite

noticeably as he spoke. However, I recall vividly listening to

his dramatic “Old soldiers never die. They just fade away”

speech to Congress the next day. Some weren”t impressed,

including Truman, who didn”t watch or listen but in private

called the speech “a bunch of damn bullshit” (source:

“Truman” by David McCullough). Truman wasn”t one to

mince words!

In hindsight, Truman”s appraisal might well apply to our

group”s project at NACA. The project involved fundamental

studies on the properties of materials under radiation in

anticipation of building a nuclear-powered airplane. Can you

imagine the hue and cry that would arise today if such an idea

were proposed or the impact of a crash involving such an

aircraft, with the potential environmental consequences? In

those days, however, the effects of radiation were still not truly

understood or appreciated and the idea of a plane that could

stay up in the air for weeks or months was considered very

attractive.

To work on this project, I had to obtain an Atomic Energy

Commission “Q” clearance. In my two years at NASA, the

only secret document I saw contained details of the

Brookhaven nuclear reactor facility. I saw the same details in a

newspaper just a few days later! Security, however, was not

an insignificant issue. When I arrived at NACA Lewis in the

summer of 1950, I found that a member of our group, William

Perl, had left either shortly before or shortly after I arrived. I

never met Perl but was told that he had played first base on the

group”s softball team that I joined.

But Perl did more than play softball. That summer he appeared

before the Rosenberg Grand Jury, denying any association with

Julius Rosenberg and others in the espionage case, which

ended with the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Perl

was arrested in March 1951 and in 1953 was found guilty of

perjury and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Decoded Soviet

documents reportedly indicated that Perl was truly a spy and

had given the Soviets information leading to a special tail-fin

design for the MIG fighter used in Korea against the forces led

by one Douglas MacArthur. To me at the time, it was

inconceivable that any red-blooded American who played

baseball or softball could be a traitor.

I am indebted to a friend, formerly a member of the FBI, who

suggested trying the Internet to confirm my impressions of the

Perl case. I was surprised and disheartened by the anti-Semitic

sites that turned up when I typed “William Perl” into my search

engine. I did not log on to these sites but did find a definitive

site on the Rosenberg trial from the University of Missouri that

gives biographies of all the characters in the case.

But what about that airplane that will stay airborne for weeks

or months? NACA”s successor, NASA, has not given up the

quest. In the June 1999 issue of National Geographic there is a

nice picture of NASA”s Centurion, a curious looking “flying

wing” over 200 feet wide with about a dozen propellers and

powered by batteries (lithium?). NASA is targeting an altitude

of 100,000 feet for this most unusual unmanned craft and

hopes to eventually have an “eternal” plane powered by solar

power, which will also charge the batteries to maintain altitude

at night. The potential usefulness for monitoring weather,

surveillance, telecommunications, etc. could conceivably take

some of the pressure off the more expensive satellite facilities.

The use of less exotic unmanned aircraft for surveillance in the

Kosovo conflict has been reported.

Returning to Bob Feller, some years later, probably 1966, I

turned down a chance to meet with him at a Cleveland hotel,

where he was employed in what I believe was some sort of

public relations capacity after his retirement from baseball.

The hotel gift shop offered baseballs autographed by Feller and

I purchased one for my younger son. The clerk asked if I

wanted to meet Bob when he signed the ball but, being a

dedicated scientist, I foolishly opted to hear a paper at the

scientific meeting I was attending and missed my chance. I

don”t have the foggiest idea what that paper was about but

never would have forgotten meeting Feller. Oh well, at least I

was present at Yankee Stadium when Mickey Mantle hit his

500th home run!

A personal note. In his weekly review last week, Brian

Trumbore failed to mention that I also holed two other shots in

my round and that I used an 8-iron to hole the 125 yarder. I”m

surprised that, with his interest in history, he did not mention

that Elbert Jemison, a Golf Digest panelist and a USGA rules

official, carried an 8-iron with him in the fall of 1943 when he

shipped off to the UK. He was assigned to General George

Patton”s unit and Patton discovered the 8-iron. Jemison was

allowed to keep it and Patton said, “By God, if you can kill

Germans with it, use it!” The 8-iron accompanied Jemison

when he hit Omaha Beach 30 days after D-Day and he carried

it with him throughout the war. [Source: “Golf World”]

Allen F. Bortrum