A shout out to J Burton Berlin, who designed the stab trim system on the 747. He mentored me a lot on the 757 system. He showed me his design notebook on the 747 design, quite a treasure. All done in pencil with a slide rule. An engineer's engineer. He had many entertaining stories about the B-47 design.
Hi Walter! You have (evidently) a tonne of experience in the aviation industry. Is there anything you noticed the 'engineer's engineers' had in common? What made them such great engineers.
I was looking to a career in Aerospace Engineering - but it's an interest. I'm still in college, but I'm not sure if it's what I want to do. Regardless - what do you think makes an engineer an engineer's engineer?
It's simple - they loved engineering. It was not just a job. It oozed from their core. They'd have done it for free. I've known many engineers who were in it for the money. While they could get the job done, their heart wasn't in it, and it showed. I'm sure you can pick them out in your organization.
Burt, who was in his 60s, was always excited to show me some new way of doing things, showing off his notebook, showing me his (then useless) slide rule, etc. He was also an endless source of engineering tales which he'd tell with relish. So was Erv, though Erv didn't work on the 747.
And they were happy to tell this stuff to me, because it was exactly what I wanted to be doing.
On the software side, I haven't met John Carmack, but I suspect that working with him would be a similar experience. Woz too, obviously.
It was like that at Caltech. Caltech didn't admit people just for good grades and a high SAT score. That wasn't good enough. They were looking for people who were born scientists and engineers, people who would fearlessly look through the Gates of Hell if it would further their field.
For example, students would often do a double major, with the other one AY (Astronomy). Why sign up for all that extra work? Because AY was fun fun fun, but one couldn't get a job in it. Being around people like that is tremendously fun, I was never bored. We had Carl Sagan over for dinner once, and the entire conversation was about what would life based on silicon rather than oxygen be like. There was no class in this, no homework assignment, it was simply fun.
(Dr. Sagan went on to write about "silicon giraffes".)
Wow thank you for those stories. I took Astronomy in addition to computer science because evidently CS wasn’t nerdy enough. (Sorry to over share my stories but I really related with yours, sans celebrities and accomplishments)
My two favorite classes were cosmology (where things just bend your mind from sheer scale and spacetime effects) and another class called “life in the universe” taught by Dr. Virginia Trimble. Both of these, I had countless “what? WHAT?? did you all just hear that?” moments where you felt that you were being exposed to the most fantastical ideas.
Day one, Dr. Trimble gave us a sheet with 35 assignments. She said, do any 21 of these well and you get an A. No final or requirement to attend class. Or, you can stay and also attend the lectures and you’ll learn something.
Almost every assignment was as thought provoking like your silicon life form discussion.
One was to change one of the universal constants (like if the gravitational force was slightly stronger or weaker etc) and describe how the universe would be different.
Another was to write an Astronomy themed song/poem/short story. I wrote a short story about a boy and girl that go stargazing for a date and he tries to impress her with facts about binary stars and romance but doesn’t know that she is an Astro major and knows more but she finds his attempt endearing.
Greatest classes I took.
So it sounds like dinner parties were as fascinating as we’d imagine!
Not really. I suppose I should write it down, but it was a loooong time ago.
It was always a treat to hang around with Burt. The other engineer there who mentored me was Erwin Schweitzer, who'd take me flying with him (he was a pilot) and let me fly it once in a while. Burt and Erv were why I stayed at Boeing as long as I did.
Another engineer who took me flying was Ernie Spriggs. He hailed from Lockheed, and always went on about how great Lockheed was. I finally asked him "Ernie, if Lockheed was so great, why are you working at Boeing?" Ernie replied "because one day I told Mr. Lockheed he was a fucking asshole."
Good times.
P.S. What you suspect is true. A lot of Boeing engineers were also pilots. They loved airplanes and flying and engineering.
One afternoon in early fall of 2005 or 2006, I had a couple of hours to kill -- it might have been been before an evening flight out of SeaTac. I drifted down towards the water nearby, to come across Saltwater State Park. After checking out the shoreline, on the way back to my car I passed by an old fellow parked in an older red pickup facing the water. He had his window rolled down, and instead of just saying "howdy", I asked him whether he had a good local place he could recommend for seafood.
That turned into a half or maybe hour long conversation. Turns out he was an engineer with Boeing and was involved with stuff and knew the big shots circa WWII and/or a bit thereafter. This was early 2000's and he looked like he could be well into his 80's or even a well preserved 90-ish, so I had no trouble believing him. Plus, the details he knew, and it was a pleasant and interesting conversation, anyway.
I wish I could remember his name.
It was a fascinating conversation, and I knew just enough to be able to hold up my end in basically understanding and appreciating what he was saying. I think -- hope -- he enjoyed that.
(And I was humble and curious enough to ask lots of questions. And I guess I knew enough to make some counterpoints and do my part in furthering the conversation.)
I left with the impression that he was a dyed in the wool engineer and personality. Although, at this remove, I'm a bit vague on how much of the conversation was engineering and how much business, about which he also certainly had some opinions.
Anyway, I only provide the details because it was the better part of twenty years ago and I'm sure I'm not revealing his hang out spot too soon.
He did have two places to recommend, the much more convenient of which was Lorraine's. They were packed, but they fit me in for dinner at the bar and the wild salmon was excellent.
P.S. I'm almost certain it was called Lorraine's, but I'm not finding it now. A short distance away, right on the water -- in fact, sticking out into the water. Gorgeous sunset views -- both the 2005 and 2006 trips had great weather.
Sam. Sam was his first name. Maybe another hour or two will give me his last name, from memory.
P.P.S. I can't edit my parent comment anymore, so replying to self.
The restaurant was Salty's. I wasn't zoomed in enough to get the name to pop.
Lorraine's is the steak house in Omaha that both my great aunt and Warren Buffett liked.
That's what comes of not thinking about something for a decade or two...
By the way, Walter, I agree with the others here; I always enjoy your comments and the insight they provide. This one just triggered a memory in me, of a character who reinforced my impression -- at some remove, on my part -- of the old Boeing.
