Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft . It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is similar, but deals with the electronics side of aerospace engineering.
119-532: Nevil Shute Norway (17 January 1899 – 12 January 1960) was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name, in order to protect his engineering career from inferences by his employers (Vickers) or from fellow engineers that he was "not a serious person" or from potentially adverse publicity in connection with his novels, which included On
238-550: A German atomic bomb project would develop one first, especially among scientists who were refugees from Nazi Germany and other fascist countries. In August 1939, Hungarian-born physicists Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner drafted the Einstein–Szilard letter , which warned of the potential development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type". It urged the United States to acquire stockpiles of uranium ore and accelerate
357-733: A neutron moderator . The S-1 Committee recommended pursuing all five technologies. This was approved by Bush, Conant, and Brigadier General Wilhelm D. Styer , who had been designated the Army's representative on nuclear matters. Bush and Conant then took the recommendation to the Top Policy Group with a budget proposal for $ 54 million for construction by the United States Army Corps of Engineers , $ 31 million for research and development by OSRD and $ 5 million for contingencies in fiscal year 1943. They sent it on 17 June 1942, to
476-607: A AAA rating whenever it was required. Nelson initially balked but quickly caved in when Groves threatened to go to the President. Groves promised not to use the AAA rating unless it was necessary. It soon transpired that for the routine requirements of the project the AAA rating was too high but the AA-3 rating was too low. After a long campaign, Groves finally received AA-1 authority on 1 July 1944. According to Groves, "In Washington you became aware of
595-457: A CBS made-for-television movie, in 1990; On the Beach in 1959 and again in 2000 as a two-part miniseries; and No Highway in 1951. A Town Like Alice was adapted into a film in 1956, serialised for Australian television in 1981, and also broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in 1997 starring Jason Connery , Becky Hindley , Bernard Hepton and Virginia McKenna . Shute's 1952 novel The Far Country
714-595: A Spanish bar hostess in the Balkans ( Ruined City ) or a brilliant but unworldly boffin ( No Highway ). His novels are in three main clusters: early pre-war flying adventures; Second World War tales; and stories set in Australia. Another recurrent theme is the bridging of social barriers such as class ( Lonely Road and Landfall ), race ( The Chequer Board ), or religion ( Round the Bend ). The Australian novels are individual hymns to that country, with subtle disparagement of
833-707: A fission bomb was theoretically possible. The properties of pure uranium-235 were relatively unknown, as were those of plutonium, which had only been isolated by Glenn Seaborg and his team in February 1941. The scientists at the July 1942 conference envisioned creating plutonium in nuclear reactors where uranium-238 atoms absorbed neutrons that had been emitted from fissioning uranium-235. At this point no reactor had been built, and only tiny quantities of plutonium were available from cyclotrons . Even by December 1943, only two milligrams had been produced. There were many ways of arranging
952-856: A liaison office in Washington, D.C., but established his temporary headquarters at 270 Broadway in New York, where he could draw on administrative support from the Corps of Engineers' North Atlantic Division . It was close to the Manhattan office of Stone & Webster , the principal project contractor, and to Columbia University. He had permission to draw on his former command, the Syracuse District, for staff, and he started with Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Nichols , who became his deputy. Because most of his task involved construction, Marshall worked in cooperation with
1071-511: A little ship that he would be the senior naval officer and "have to do something". So he ended up in the Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development . There he was a head of engineering, working on secret weapons such as Panjandrum , a job that appealed to the engineer in him. He also developed the Rocket Spear , an anti-submarine missile with a fluted cast iron head. After the first U-boat
1190-544: A maximum of 853. Though development of this aircraft began in 1988 as a competitor to the 747, the A380 made its first test flight in April 2005. Some of the elements of aerospace engineering are: The basis of most of these elements lies in theoretical physics , such as fluid dynamics for aerodynamics or the equations of motion for flight dynamics . There is also a large empirical component. Historically, this empirical component
1309-477: A meeting called by Stimson, which established a Military Policy Committee, responsible to the Top Policy Group, consisting of Bush (with Conant as an alternate), Styer and Rear Admiral William R. Purnell . Tolman and Conant were later appointed as Groves' scientific advisers. On 19 September, Groves went to Donald Nelson , the chairman of the War Production Board, and asked for broad authority to issue
SECTION 10
#17328520211111428-572: A plant, much less four of them for $ 90 million." A single TNT plant that Nichols had recently built in Pennsylvania had cost $ 128 million. Nor were they impressed with estimates to the nearest order of magnitude, which Groves compared with telling a caterer to prepare for between ten and a thousand guests. A survey team from Stone & Webster had already scouted a site for the production plants. The War Production Board recommended sites around Knoxville, Tennessee , an isolated area where
1547-499: A possible source of bombs with a destructiveness vastly greater than anything now known." In February 1940, the U.S. Navy awarded Columbia University $ 6,000, most of which Fermi and Szilard spent on graphite . A team of Columbia professors including Fermi, Szilard, Eugene T. Booth and John Dunning created the first nuclear fission reaction in the Americas, verifying the work of Hahn and Strassmann. The same team subsequently built
1666-461: A pound." Several of Shute's novels explored the boundary between accepted science and rational belief, on the one hand, and mystical or paranormal possibilities, including reincarnation , on the other hand. Shute did this by including elements of fantasy and science fiction in novels that were considered mainstream. They included Buddhist astrology and folk prophecy in The Chequer Board ;
1785-470: A ranch. On 16 November 1942, Oppenheimer, Groves, Dudley and others toured the vicinity of the Los Alamos Ranch School . Oppenheimer expressed a strong preference for the site, citing its natural beauty, which, it was hoped, would inspire those working on the project. The engineers were concerned about the poor access road, and whether the water supply would be adequate, but otherwise felt that it
1904-462: A reaction becomes self-sustaining became known as "going critical". Compton reported the success to Conant in Washington, D.C., by a coded phone call, saying, "The Italian navigator [Fermi] has just landed in the new world." In January 1943, Grafton's successor, Major Arthur V. Peterson , ordered Chicago Pile-1 dismantled and reassembled at the Argonne Forest site, as he regarded the operation of
2023-598: A reactor as too hazardous for a densely populated area. The new site, still operated by the Metallurgical Laboratory, became known as ' Site A '. Chicago Pile-3 , the first heavy water reactor, also went critical at this site, on 15 May 1944. After the war, operations at Site A were moved about 6 miles (9.7 km) to DuPage County , the current location of the Argonne National Laboratory . By December 1942 there were concerns that even Oak Ridge
2142-660: A series of prototype nuclear reactors (or "piles" as Fermi called them) in Pupin Hall at Columbia but were not yet able to achieve a chain reaction. The Advisory Committee on Uranium became the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) on Uranium when that organization was formed on 27 June 1940. On 28 June 1941, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8807, which created the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), under director Vannevar Bush . The office
2261-533: A simpler gun-type design called Little Boy was developed that used uranium-235 . Three methods were employed for uranium enrichment : electromagnetic , gaseous , and thermal . In parallel with the work on uranium was an effort to produce plutonium. After the feasibility of the world's first artificial nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1 , was demonstrated in 1942 at the Metallurgical Laboratory in
2380-575: A special account not subject to the usual auditing and controls was used to hold Trust monies. Between 1944 and his resignation from the Trust in 1947, Groves deposited a total of $ 37.5 million. Groves appreciated the early British atomic research and the British scientists' contributions to the Manhattan Project but stated that the United States would have succeeded without them, although not in time for
2499-600: A white Jaguar XK140 . Some of this experience found its way into his book On the Beach . Shute died in Melbourne in 1960 after a stroke. Norway Road and Nevil Shute Road at Portsmouth Airport, Hampshire were both named after him. Shute Avenue in Berwick, Victoria was named after him, when the farm used for filming the 1959 film On the Beach was subdivided for housing. The public library in Alice Springs , Northern Territory
SECTION 20
#17328520211112618-475: Is likely to be started." In Serber's account, Oppenheimer mentioned the possibility of this scenario to Arthur Compton , who "didn't have enough sense to shut up about it. It somehow got into a document that went to Washington" and was "never laid to rest". The Chief of Engineers , Major General Eugene Reybold , selected Colonel James C. Marshall to head the Army's part of the project in June 1942. Marshall created
2737-627: Is the Nevil Shute Memorial Library. In the Readers' List of the Modern Library 100 Best Novels of the 20th century, A Town Like Alice came in at number 17, Trustee from the Toolroom at 27, and On the Beach at 56. Aeronautical engineer "Aeronautical engineering" was the original term for the field. As flight technology advanced to include vehicles operating in outer space ,
2856-606: The Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo aircraft commenced its first flight. It holds the records for the world's heaviest aircraft, heaviest airlifted cargo, and longest airlifted cargo of any aircraft in operational service. On October 25, 2007, the Airbus A380 made its maiden commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney, Australia. This aircraft was the first passenger plane to surpass the Boeing 747 in terms of passenger capacity, with
2975-737: The Belgian Government in Exile was in London. Britain agreed to give the United States most of the Belgian ore, as it could not use most of the supply without restricted American research. In 1944, the Trust purchased 3,440,000 pounds (1,560,000 kg) of uranium oxide ore from companies operating mines in the Belgian Congo. To avoid briefing US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. ,
3094-550: The Boeing 747 made its first commercial flight from New York to London. This aircraft made history and became known as the "Jumbo Jet" or "Whale" due to its ability to hold up to 480 passengers. Another significant development came in 1976, with the development of the first passenger supersonic aircraft, the Concorde . The development of this aircraft was agreed upon by the French and British on November 29, 1962. On December 21, 1988,
3213-561: The Carnegie Institution of Washington and later the Naval Research Laboratory . Murphree also headed an unsuccessful separation project using gas centrifuges . Meanwhile, there were two lines of investigation into nuclear reactor technology : Harold Urey researched heavy water at Columbia, while Arthur Compton organized the Metallurgical Laboratory in early 1942 to study plutonium and reactors using graphite as
3332-526: The Chief of Staff of the Army , General George C. Marshall . Roosevelt chose the Army to run the project rather than the Navy, because the Army had more experience with managing large-scale construction. He agreed to coordinate the effort with the British and on 11 October sent a message to Prime Minister Winston Churchill , suggesting that they correspond on atomic matters. The S-1 Committee meeting on 18 December 1941
3451-562: The Clinton Engineer Works (CEW) in early 1943. While Stone & Webster concentrated on the production facilities, the architectural and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill developed a residential community for 13,000. The community was located on the slopes of Black Oak Ridge, from which the new town of Oak Ridge got its name. The Army presence at Oak Ridge increased in August 1943 when Nichols replaced Marshall as head of
3570-571: The Curtiss JN 4 , Farman F.60 Goliath , and Fokker Trimotor . Notable military airplanes of this period include the Mitsubishi A6M Zero , Supermarine Spitfire and Messerschmitt Bf 109 from Japan, United Kingdom, and Germany respectively. A significant development came with the first operational Jet engine -powered airplane, the Messerschmitt Me 262 which entered service in 1944 towards
3689-594: The Tennessee Valley Authority could supply ample electric power and the rivers could provide cooling water for the reactors. After examining several sites, the survey team selected one near Elza, Tennessee . Conant advised that it be acquired at once and Styer agreed but Marshall temporized, awaiting the results of Conant's reactor experiments. Of the prospective processes, only Lawrence's electromagnetic separation appeared sufficiently advanced for construction to commence. Marshall and Nichols began assembling
Nevil Shute - Misplaced Pages Continue
3808-478: The University of Birmingham had made a breakthrough investigating the critical mass of uranium-235 in June 1939. Their calculations indicated that it was within an order of magnitude of 10 kilograms (22 lb), small enough to be carried by contemporary bombers. Their March 1940 Frisch–Peierls memorandum initiated the British atomic bomb project and its MAUD Committee , which unanimously recommended pursuing
3927-903: The University of Chicago , the project designed the X-10 Graphite Reactor and the production reactors at the Hanford Site , in which uranium was irradiated and transmuted into plutonium. The Fat Man plutonium implosion-type weapon was developed in a concerted design and development effort by the Los Alamos Laboratory. The project was also charged with gathering intelligence on the German nuclear weapon project . Through Operation Alsos , Manhattan Project personnel served in Europe, sometimes behind enemy lines, where they gathered nuclear materials and documents, and rounded up German scientists. Despite
4046-471: The de Havilland Aircraft Company . He used his pen-name as an author to protect his engineering career from any potentially adverse publicity in connection with his novels. Dissatisfied with the lack of opportunities for advancement, he took a position in 1924 with Vickers Ltd. , where he was involved with the development of airships , working as Chief Calculator ( stress engineer ) on the R100 airship project for
4165-674: The first American satellite on January 31, 1958. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was founded in 1958 after the Sputnik crisis . In 1969, Apollo 11 , the first human space mission to the Moon , took place. It saw three astronauts enter orbit around the Moon, with two, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin , visiting the lunar surface. The third astronaut, Michael Collins , stayed in orbit to rendezvous with Armstrong and Aldrin after their visit. An important innovation came on January 30, 1970, when
4284-655: The Army allowed the crops to be harvested, but this was not always possible. The land acquisition process dragged on and was not completed before the end of the Manhattan Project in December 1946. The dispute did not delay work. Although progress on the reactor design at Metallurgical Laboratory and DuPont was not sufficiently advanced to accurately predict the scope of the project, a start was made in April 1943 on facilities for an estimated 25,000 workers, half of whom were expected to live on-site. By July 1944, some 1,200 buildings had been erected and nearly 51,000 people were living in
4403-671: The Army's component the Manhattan District; Reybold officially created this district on 13 August. Informally, it was known as the Manhattan Engineer District, or MED. Unlike other districts, it had no geographic boundaries, and Marshall had the authority of a division engineer. Development of Substitute Materials remained as the official codename of the project as a whole but was supplanted over time by "Manhattan". Marshall later conceded that, "I had never heard of atomic fission but I did know that you could not build much of
4522-612: The August 1945 bombing of Hiroshima. The British wartime participation was crucial to the success of the United Kingdom's independent nuclear weapons program after the war when the McMahon Act of 1946 temporarily ended American nuclear cooperation. The day after he took over the project, Groves went to Tennessee with Colonel Marshall to inspect the proposed site there, and Groves was impressed. On 29 September 1942, United States Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson authorized
4641-781: The Australian physicist Mark Oliphant , flew to the US in late August 1941 and discovered that data provided by the MAUD Committee had not reached key American physicists. Oliphant set out to find out why the committee's findings were apparently being ignored. He met with the Uranium Committee and visited Berkeley, California , where he spoke persuasively to Ernest O. Lawrence . Lawrence was sufficiently impressed to commence his own research into uranium. He in turn spoke to James B. Conant , Arthur H. Compton and George B. Pegram . Oliphant's mission
4760-584: The Beach and A Town Like Alice . Shute was born in Somerset Road, Ealing (which was then in Middlesex ), in the house described in his novel Trustee from the Toolroom . He was educated at the Dragon School , Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford ; he graduated from Oxford in 1922 with a third-class degree in engineering science. Shute was the son of Arthur Hamilton Norway, who became head of
4879-609: The Corps of Engineers to acquire 56,000 acres (23,000 ha) of land by eminent domain at a cost of $ 3.5 million. An additional 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) was subsequently acquired. About 1,000 families were affected by the order, which came into effect on 7 October. Protests, legal appeals, and a 1943 Congressional inquiry were to no avail. By mid-November U.S. Marshals were posting notices to vacate on farmhouse doors, and construction contractors were moving in. Some families were given two weeks' notice to vacate farms that had been their homes for generations. The ultimate cost of
Nevil Shute - Misplaced Pages Continue
4998-596: The Manhattan Engineer District. One of his first tasks was to move the district headquarters to Oak Ridge, although the name of the district did not change. In September 1943 the administration of community facilities was outsourced to Turner Construction Company through a subsidiary, the Roane-Anderson Company. Chemical engineers were part of "frantic efforts" to make 10% to 12% enriched uranium 235, with tight security and fast approvals for supplies and materials. The population of Oak Ridge soon expanded well beyond
5117-801: The Manhattan Project conducted weapons testing at Bikini Atoll as part of Operation Crossroads , developed new weapons, promoted the development of the network of national laboratories , supported medical research into radiology and laid the foundations for the nuclear navy . It maintained control over American atomic weapons research and production until the formation of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in January 1947. The discovery of nuclear fission by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in 1938, and its theoretical explanation by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch , made an atomic bomb theoretically possible. There were fears that
5236-513: The Manhattan Project's emphasis on security, Soviet atomic spies penetrated the program. The first nuclear device ever detonated was an implosion-type bomb during the Trinity test , conducted at White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico on 16 July 1945. Little Boy and Fat Man bombs were used a month later in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , respectively. In the immediate postwar years,
5355-403: The Metallurgical Laboratory, was assigned to assist Oppenheimer by coordinating experimental physics groups scattered across the country. Oppenheimer and Robert Serber of the University of Illinois examined the problems of neutron diffusion—how neutrons moved in a nuclear chain reaction—and hydrodynamics —how the explosion produced by a chain reaction might behave. To review this work and
5474-601: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA. It was the first government-sponsored organization to support aviation research. Though intended as an advisory board upon inception, the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory became its first sponsored research and testing facility in 1920. Between World Wars I and II, great leaps were made in the field, accelerated by the advent of mainstream civil aviation. Notable airplanes of this era include
5593-748: The Post Office in Ireland before the First World War and was based at the General Post Office, Dublin in 1916 at the time of the Easter Rising , and his wife Mary Louisa Gadsden. Shute himself was later commended for his role as a stretcher-bearer during the rising. His grandmother Georgina Norway was a novelist. Shute attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich , and trained as a gunner. He
5712-411: The President, who approved it by writing "OK FDR" on the document. Compton asked theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer of the University of California to take over research into fast neutron calculations —key to calculations of critical mass and weapon detonation—from Gregory Breit , who had quit on 18 May 1942 because of concerns over lax operational security. John H. Manley , a physicist at
5831-602: The Quebec Agreement, the Americans' progress and expenditures amazed the British. Chadwick pressed for British involvement in the Manhattan Project to the fullest extent and abandoned hopes of an independent British project during the war. With Churchill's backing, he attempted to ensure that every request from Groves for assistance was honored. The British Mission that arrived in the United States in December 1943 included Niels Bohr , Otto Frisch, Klaus Fuchs , Rudolf Peierls, and Ernest Titterton . More scientists arrived in early 1944. While those assigned to gaseous diffusion left by
5950-434: The R100 and R101 as a primary illustration of his thesis that governments are usually incompetent managers of technology projects. In 1931, with the cancellation of the R100 project, Shute teamed up with the talented de Havilland-trained designer A. Hessell Tiltman to found the aircraft construction company Airspeed Ltd . A site was available in a former trolleybus garage on Piccadilly, York . Despite setbacks, including
6069-478: The RNVR. Shute's first novel, Stephen Morris , was written in 1923, but not published until 1961 (with its 1924 sequel, Pilotage ). His first published novel was Marazan , which came out in 1926. After that he averaged one novel every two years until the 1950s, with the exception of a six-year hiatus while he was establishing his own aircraft construction company, Airspeed Ltd. Sales of his books grew slowly with each novel, but he became much better known after
SECTION 50
#17328520211116188-643: The Vickers subsidiary Airship Guarantee Company. In 1929, he was promoted to deputy chief engineer of the R100 project under Barnes Wallis . When Wallis left the project, Shute became the chief engineer. The R100 was a prototype for passenger-carrying airships that would serve the needs of Britain's empire. The government-funded but privately developed R100 made a successful 1930 round trip to Canada . While in Canada it made trips from Montreal to Ottawa , Toronto, and Niagara Falls . The fatal 1930 crash near Beauvais , France, of its government-developed counterpart R101 ended British interest in dirigibles . The R100
6307-406: The academic scientists working on the project. Groves' orders placed him directly under Somervell rather than Reybold, with Colonel Marshall now answerable to Groves. Groves established his headquarters in Washington, D.C., in the New War Department Building , where Colonel Marshall had his liaison office. He assumed command of the Manhattan Project on 23 September 1942. Later that day, he attended
6426-407: The aerospace industry. A background in chemistry, physics, computer science and mathematics is important for students pursuing an aerospace engineering degree. The term " rocket scientist " is sometimes used to describe a person of great intelligence since rocket science is seen as a practice requiring great mental ability, especially technically and mathematically. The term is used ironically in
6545-456: The aviation pioneers around the late 19th to early 20th centuries, although the work of Sir George Cayley dates from the last decade of the 18th to the mid-19th century. One of the most important people in the history of aeronautics and a pioneer in aeronautical engineering, Cayley is credited as the first person to separate the forces of lift and drag , which affect any atmospheric flight vehicle. Early knowledge of aeronautical engineering
6664-425: The bomb design team at Los Alamos needed them, despite the risk of revealing weapon design secrets. In August 1943 Churchill and Roosevelt negotiated the Quebec Agreement , which established the Combined Policy Committee to coordinate the efforts of the US and UK; Canada was not a signatory, but the Agreement provided for a Canadian representative on the Combined Policy Committee in view of Canada's contribution to
6783-574: The bombs. The Army program was designated the Manhattan District , as its first headquarters were in Manhattan ; the name gradually superseded the official codename, Development of Substitute Materials , for the entire project. The project absorbed its earlier British counterpart, Tube Alloys , and subsumed the program from the American civilian Office of Scientific Research and Development . The Manhattan Project employed nearly 130,000 people at its peak and cost nearly US$ 2 billion (equivalent to about $ 27 billion in 2023), over 80 percent of which
6902-450: The branch office in Santa Fe, where she met new arrivals and issue them with passes. An Army-OSRD council on 25 June 1942 decided to build a pilot plant for plutonium production in the Argonne Forest preserve , southwest of Chicago. In July, Nichols arranged for a lease of 1,025 acres (415 ha) from the Cook County Forest Preserve District , and Captain James F. Grafton was appointed Chicago area engineer. It soon became apparent that
7021-402: The broader term " aerospace engineering" has come into use. Aerospace engineering, particularly the astronautics branch, is often colloquially referred to as "rocket science". Flight vehicles are subjected to demanding conditions such as those caused by changes in atmospheric pressure and temperature , with structural loads applied upon vehicle components. Consequently, they are usually
7140-402: The construction camp. As area engineer, Matthias exercised overall control of the site. At its peak, the construction camp was the third most populous town in Washington state. Hanford operated a fleet of over 900 buses, more than the city of Chicago. Like Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, Richland was a gated community with restricted access, but it looked more like a typical wartime American boomtown:
7259-411: The design of World War I military aircraft. In 1914, Robert Goddard was granted two U.S. patents for rockets using solid fuel, liquid fuel, multiple propellant charges, and multi-stage designs. This would set the stage for future applications in multi-stage propulsion systems for outer space. On March 3, 1915, the U.S. Congress established the first aeronautical research administration, known then as
SECTION 60
#17328520211117378-471: The deuterium concentration in the water from 2.3% to 99.8%. For this process, Hugh Taylor of Princeton developed a platinum-on-carbon catalyst for the first three stages while Urey developed a nickel- chromia one for the fourth stage tower. The final cost was $ 2.8 million. The Canadian Government did not officially learn of the project until August 1942. Trail's heavy water production started in January 1944 and continued until 1956. Heavy water from Trail
7497-433: The development of an atomic bomb. In July 1940, Britain had offered to give the United States access to its research, and the Tizard Mission 's John Cockcroft briefed American scientists on British developments. He discovered that the American project was smaller than the British, and not as advanced. As part of the scientific exchange, the MAUD Committee's findings were conveyed to the United States. One of its members,
7616-435: The effective use of a planchette in No Highway; a messiah figure in Round the Bend ; reincarnation, science fiction, and Aboriginal psychic powers in In the Wet. Twenty-four of his novels and novellas have been published. Many of his books have been adapted for the screen, including Lonely Road in 1936; Landfall: A Channel Story in 1949; Pied Piper in 1942 and again in 1959, and also as Crossing to Freedom,
7735-482: The efficiency of the bomb as it exploded. As the idea of the fission bomb was theoretically settled—at least until more experimental data was available—Edward Teller pushed for discussion of a more powerful bomb: the "super", now usually referred to as a " hydrogen bomb ", which would use the force of a detonating fission bomb to ignite a nuclear fusion reaction in deuterium and tritium . Teller proposed scheme after scheme, but Bethe refused each one. The fusion idea
7854-429: The effort. An agreement between Roosevelt and Churchill known as the Hyde Park Aide-Mémoire , signed in late September 1944, extended the Quebec Agreement to the postwar period and suggested that "when a 'bomb' is finally available, it might perhaps, after mature consideration, be used against the Japanese, who should be warned that this bombardment will be repeated until they surrender". When cooperation resumed after
7973-422: The end of the Second World War. The first definition of aerospace engineering appeared in February 1958, considering the Earth's atmosphere and outer space as a single realm, thereby encompassing both aircraft ( aero ) and spacecraft ( space ) under the newly coined term aerospace . In response to the USSR launching the first satellite, Sputnik , into space on October 4, 1957, U.S. aerospace engineers launched
8092-566: The expression "It's not rocket science" to indicate that a task is simple. Strictly speaking, the use of "science" in "rocket science" is a misnomer since science is about understanding the origins, nature, and behavior of the universe; engineering is about using scientific and engineering principles to solve problems and develop new technology. The more etymologically correct version of this phrase would be "rocket engineer". However, "science" and "engineering" are often misused as synonyms. Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project
8211-418: The fall of 1944, the thirty-five working under Oliphant with Lawrence at Berkeley were assigned to existing laboratory groups and most stayed until the end of the war. The nineteen sent to Los Alamos also joined existing groups, primarily related to implosion and bomb assembly, but not the plutonium-related ones. The Quebec Agreement specified that nuclear weapons would not be used against another country without
8330-415: The first time in my life I saw how people live in an English-speaking country outside England." Although he intended to remain in Australia, he did not apply for Australian citizenship , which was at that time a mere formality because he was a British citizen . In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of the world's best-selling novelists. Between 1956 and 1958 in Australia, he took up car racing as a hobby, driving
8449-422: The fissile material into a critical mass. The simplest was shooting a "cylindrical plug" into a sphere of "active material" with a "tamper"—dense material to focus neutrons inward and keep the reacting mass together to increase its efficiency. They also explored designs involving spheroids , a primitive form of " implosion " suggested by Richard C. Tolman , and the possibility of autocatalytic methods to increase
8568-810: The foreword of the 2002 edition, some of the themes in The Seafarers and Blind Understanding were used in Shute's 1955 novel Requiem for a Wren . In 1948, Shute flew his own Percival Proctor aeroplane to Australia and back, accompanied by the writer James Riddell , who published a book, Flight of Fancy, based on the trip, in 1950. On his return, concerned about what he saw as he "felt oppressed by British taxation", he decided that he and his family would move to Australia. In 1950, he settled with his wife and two daughters on farmland at Langwarrin , south-east of Melbourne . Remembering his 1930 trip to Canada and his decision to immigrate to Australia, he wrote, in 1954, "For
8687-568: The general theory of fission reactions, Oppenheimer and Fermi convened meetings at the University of Chicago in June and at the University of California in July 1942 with theoretical physicists Hans Bethe , John Van Vleck , Edward Teller, Emil Konopinski , Robert Serber, Stan Frankel , and Eldred C. (Carlyle) Nelson, and experimental physicists Emilio Segrè , Felix Bloch , Franco Rasetti , Manley, and Edwin McMillan . They tentatively confirmed that
8806-401: The head of the Corps of Engineers Construction Division, Major General Thomas M. Robbins , and his deputy, Colonel Leslie Groves . Reybold, Somervell, and Styer decided to call the project "Development of Substitute Materials", but Groves felt that this would draw attention. Since engineer districts normally carried the name of the city where they were located, Marshall and Groves agreed to name
8925-411: The highest rating he could assign was AA-3, although he was willing to provide a AAA rating on request for critical materials if the need arose. Nichols and Marshall were disappointed; AA-3 was the same priority as Nichols' TNT plant in Pennsylvania. Vannevar Bush became dissatisfied with Colonel Marshall's failure to get the project moving forward expeditiously and felt that more aggressive leadership
9044-417: The honest artisans and their social integrity and contributions to society more than the contributions of the upper classes. Aviation and engineering provide the backdrop for many of Shute's novels. He identified how engineering, science, and design could improve human life and more than once used the anonymous epigram, "It has been said an engineer is a man who can do for ten shillings what any fool can do for
9163-528: The importance of top priority. Most everything proposed in the Roosevelt administration would have top priority. That would last for about a week or two and then something else would get top priority". One of Groves' early problems was to find a director for Project Y , the group that would design and build the bomb. The obvious choice was one of the three laboratory heads, Urey, Lawrence, or Compton, but they could not be spared. Compton recommended Oppenheimer, who
9282-590: The industrial manufacturing area of Ontario and Quebec, and proximity to a rail head adjacent to a large military base, Camp Petawawa . Located on the Ottawa River, it had access to abundant water. The first director of the new laboratory was Hans von Halban . He was replaced by John Cockcroft in May 1944, who was succeeded by Bennett Lewis in September 1946. A pilot reactor known as ZEEP (zero-energy experimental pile) became
9401-490: The initial plans, and peaked at 75,000 in May 1945, by which time 82,000 people were employed at the Clinton Engineer Works, and 10,000 by Roane-Anderson. The idea of locating Project Y at Oak Ridge was considered, but it was decided that it should be in a remote location. On Oppenheimer's recommendation, the search for a suitable site was narrowed to the vicinity of Albuquerque, New Mexico , where Oppenheimer owned
9520-611: The innovation of developing a hydraulic retractable undercarriage for the Airspeed Courier , and his work on R100, Shute was made a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society . On 7 March 1931, Shute married Frances Mary Heaton, a 28-year-old medical practitioner. They had two daughters, (Heather) Felicity and Shirley. By the outbreak of the Second World War, Shute was a rising novelist. Even as war seemed imminent he
9639-725: The integration of all components that constitute an aerospace vehicle (subsystems including power, aerospace bearings , communications, thermal control , life support system , etc.) and its life cycle (design, temperature, pressure, radiation , velocity , lifetime ). Aerospace engineering may be studied at the advanced diploma , bachelor's , master's , and Ph.D. levels in aerospace engineering departments at many universities, and in mechanical engineering departments at others. A few departments offer degrees in space-focused astronautical engineering. Some institutions differentiate between aeronautical and astronautical engineering. Graduate degrees are offered in advanced or specialty areas for
9758-491: The issues involved in setting up a laboratory in a remote area and should be appointed as its director. Groves personally waived the security requirements and issued Oppenheimer's clearance on 20 July 1943. The British and Americans exchanged nuclear information but did not initially combine their efforts; during 1940-41 the British project ( Tube Alloys ) was larger and more advanced. Britain rebuffed attempts by Bush and Conant in August 1941 to strengthen cooperation because it
9877-519: The land acquisition, which was not completed until March 1945, was only about $ 2.6 million—around $ 47 an acre. When presented with a proclamation declaring Oak Ridge a total exclusion area that no one could enter without military permission, the Governor of Tennessee , Prentice Cooper , angrily tore it up. Initially known as the Kingston Demolition Range, the site was officially renamed
9996-484: The military necessity continues". Wartime land purchases eventually came to 49,383 acres (19,985 ha), but only $ 414,971 was spent. Work commenced in December 1942. Groves initially allocated $ 300,000 for construction, three times Oppenheimer's estimate, but by the time Sundt finished on 30 November 1943, over $ 7 million had been spent. During the war, Los Alamos was referred to as "Site Y" or "the Hill". Initially it
10115-551: The military profile was lower, and physical security elements like high fences and guard dogs were less evident. Canada provided research, extraction and production of uranium and plutonium, and Canadian scientists worked at Los Alamos. Cominco had produced electrolytic hydrogen at Trail, British Columbia , since 1930. Urey suggested in 1941 that it could produce heavy water. To the existing $ 10 million plant consisting of 3,215 cells consuming 75 MW of hydroelectric power, secondary electrolysis cells were added to increase
10234-557: The mores of the United States ( Beyond the Black Stump ) and overt antipathy towards the post-World War II socialist government of Shute's native Britain ( The Far Country and In the Wet ). Shute's heroes tended to be like himself: middle-class solicitors, doctors, accountants, bank managers, and engineers—generally university graduates. However (as in Trustee from the Toolroom ), Shute valued
10353-573: The mutual consent of the US and UK. In June 1945, Wilson agreed that the nuclear bombing of Japan would be recorded as a decision of the Combined Policy Committee. The Combined Policy Committee created the Combined Development Trust in June 1944, with Groves as its chairman, to procure uranium and thorium ores on international markets. The Belgian Congo and Canada held much of the world's uranium outside Eastern Europe, and
10472-403: The necessary resources. The first step was to obtain a high priority rating for the project. The top ratings were AA-1 through AA-4 in descending order, although there was a special AAA rating reserved for emergencies. Ratings AA-1 and AA-2 were for essential weapons and equipment, so Colonel Lucius D. Clay , the deputy chief of staff at Services and Supply for requirements and resources, felt that
10591-499: The products of various technological and engineering disciplines including aerodynamics , air propulsion , avionics , materials science , structural analysis and manufacturing . The interaction between these technologies is known as aerospace engineering. Because of the complexity and number of disciplines involved, aerospace engineering is carried out by teams of engineers, each having their own specialized area of expertise. The origin of aerospace engineering can be traced back to
10710-422: The publication of his third to last book, On the Beach , in 1957. Shute's novels are written in a simple, highly readable style, with clearly delineated plot lines. Where there is a romantic element, sex is referred to only obliquely. Many of the stories are introduced by a narrator who is not a character in the story. The most common theme in Shute's novels is the dignity of work , spanning all classes, whether
10829-594: The research of Enrico Fermi and others into nuclear chain reactions . They had it signed by Albert Einstein and delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt . Roosevelt called on Lyman Briggs of the National Bureau of Standards to head an Advisory Committee on Uranium ; Briggs met with Szilard, Wigner and Edward Teller in October 1939. The committee reported back to Roosevelt in November that uranium "would provide
10948-567: The scale of operations was too great for the area, and it was decided to build the pilot plant at Oak Ridge and keep a research and testing facility in Chicago. Delays in establishing the plant at Argonne led Arthur Compton to authorize the Metallurgical Laboratory to construct the first nuclear reactor beneath the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. The reactor required an enormous amount of highly purified graphite blocks and uranium in both metallic and powdered oxide forms. At
11067-528: The site be located far from the existing uranium production facility at Oak Ridge. In December 1942, Groves dispatched Colonel Franklin Matthias and DuPont engineers to scout potential sites. Matthias reported that Hanford Site near Richland, Washington , was "ideal in virtually all respects". It was isolated and near the Columbia River , which could supply sufficient water to cool the reactors. Groves visited
11186-598: The site in January and established the Hanford Engineer Works (HEW), codenamed "Site W". Under Secretary Patterson gave his approval on 9 February, allocating $ 5 million for the acquisition of 430,000 acres (170,000 ha). The federal government relocated some 1,500 residents of nearby settlements, as well as the Wanapum and other tribes using the area. A dispute arose with farmers over compensation for crops, which had already been planted. Where schedules allowed,
11305-618: The size of girders in German airships. The calculations for just one transverse frame of the R100 could take two or three months, and the solution '"almost amounted to a religious experience." But later he wrote that '"the disaster was the product of the system rather than the men at Cardington"; the one thing that was proved is that "government officials are totally ineffective in engineering development" and any weapons (they develop) will be bad weapons. The R101 made one short test flight in perfect weather, and
11424-528: The time, there was a limited source of pure uranium metal; Frank Spedding of Iowa State University was able to produce only two short tons . Three short tons was supplied by Westinghouse Lamp Plant , produced in a rush with makeshift process. A large square balloon was constructed by Goodyear Tire to encase the reactor. On 2 December 1942, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiated the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in an experimental reactor known as Chicago Pile-1 . The point at which
11543-438: The two countries were reversed, and in January 1943 Conant notified the British that they would no longer receive atomic information except in certain areas. The British investigated the possibility of an independent nuclear program but determined that it could not be ready in time to impact the war in Europe . By March 1943 Conant decided that James Chadwick and one or two other British scientists were important enough that
11662-665: The usual problems of a new business, Airspeed Limited eventually gained recognition when its Envoy aircraft was chosen for the King's Flight . With the approach of the Second World War , a military version of the Envoy was developed, to be called the Airspeed Oxford . The Oxford became the standard advanced multi-engined trainer for the RAF and British Commonwealth, with over 8,500 being built. For
11781-569: Was "pervaded by an atmosphere of enthusiasm and urgency" in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States declaration of war on Japan and on Germany . Work was proceeding on three techniques for isotope separation : Lawrence and his team at the University of California investigated electromagnetic separation , Eger Murphree and Jesse Wakefield Beams 's team looked into gaseous diffusion at Columbia University , and Philip Abelson directed research into thermal diffusion at
11900-479: Was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons . It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was directed by Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers . Nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed
12019-573: Was already intimately familiar with the bomb design concepts. However, Oppenheimer had little administrative experience, and, unlike Urey, Lawrence, and Compton, had not won a Nobel Prize, which many scientists felt that the head of such an important laboratory should have. There were also concerns about Oppenheimer's security status, as many of his associates were communists , including his wife, Kitty ; his girlfriend, Jean Tatlock ; and his brother, Frank . A long conversation in October 1942 convinced Groves and Nichols that Oppenheimer thoroughly understood
12138-441: Was derived from testing of scale models and prototypes, either in wind tunnels or in the free atmosphere. More recently, advances in computing have enabled the use of computational fluid dynamics to simulate the behavior of the fluid, reducing time and expense spent on wind-tunnel testing. Those studying hydrodynamics or hydroacoustics often obtain degrees in aerospace engineering. Additionally, aerospace engineering addresses
12257-562: Was empowered to engage in research and large engineering projects. The NDRC Committee on Uranium became the S-1 Section of the OSRD; the word "uranium" was dropped for security reasons. In July 1941, Briggs proposed spending $ 167,000 on researching uranium, particularly the uranium-235 isotope, and plutonium , which had been isolated for the first time at the University of California in February 1941. In Britain, Frisch and Rudolf Peierls at
12376-452: Was filmed for television as six one-hour episodes in 1972, and as a two-part miniseries in 1987. Vintage Books reprinted all 23 of his books in 2009. Shute's final work was published more than 40 years after his death. The Seafarers was first drafted in 1946–47, rewritten, and then put aside. In 1948, Shute again rewrote it, changing the title to Blind Understanding, but he left the manuscript incomplete. According to Dan Telfair in
12495-531: Was for building and operating the plants that produced the fissile material . Research and production took place at more than 30 sites across the US, the UK, and Canada. The project resulted in two types of atomic bombs, developed concurrently during the war: a relatively simple gun-type fission weapon and a more complex implosion-type nuclear weapon . The Thin Man gun-type design proved impractical to use with plutonium , so
12614-580: Was given an airworthiness certificate for her flight to India to meet the minister’s deadline. Norway thought it probable that a new outer cover for the R101 was taped on with rubber adhesive which reacted with the dope. His account is very critical of the R101 design and management team, and strongly hints that senior team members were complicit in concealing flaws in the airship's design and construction. In The Tender Ship, Manhattan Project engineer and Virginia Tech professor Arthur Squires used Shute's account of
12733-547: Was ideal. Patterson approved the acquisition of the site on 25 November 1942, authorizing $ 440,000 for the purchase of pre-calculated 54,000 acres (22,000 ha), all but 8,900 acres (3,600 ha) of which were already owned by the Federal Government. Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard granted about 45,000 acres (18,000 ha) of United States Forest Service land to the War Department "for so long as
12852-464: Was immediately grounded and subsequently scrapped. Shute gives a detailed account of the development of the two airships in his 1954 autobiographical work, Slide Rule: Autobiography of an Engineer . When he started, he wrote that he was shocked to find that before building the R38 the civil servants concerned '"had made no attempt to calculate the aerodynamic forces acting on the ship"' but had just copied
12971-460: Was largely empirical, with some concepts and skills imported from other branches of engineering. Some key elements, like fluid dynamics , were understood by 18th-century scientists. In December 1903, the Wright Brothers performed the first sustained, controlled flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft, lasting 12 seconds. The 1910s saw the development of aeronautical engineering through
13090-443: Was put aside to concentrate on producing fission bombs. Teller raised the speculative possibility that an atomic bomb might "ignite" the atmosphere because of a hypothetical fusion reaction of nitrogen nuclei. Bethe calculated that it was "extremely unlikely". A postwar report co-authored by Teller concluded that "whatever the temperature to which a section of the atmosphere may be heated, no self-propagating chain of nuclear reactions
13209-408: Was reluctant to share its technological lead and help the United States develop its own atomic bomb. But the British, who had made significant advances in research early in the war, did not have the resources to carry through such a research program into development while a large portion of their economy was engaged in fighting the war; Tube Alloys soon fell behind its American counterpart. The roles of
13328-421: Was required. He spoke to Harvey Bundy and Generals Marshall, Somervell, and Styer about his concerns, advocating that the project be placed under a senior policy committee, with a prestigious officer, preferably Styer, as director. Somervell and Styer selected Groves for the post; General Marshall ordered that he be promoted to brigadier general, as it was felt that the title "general" would hold more sway with
13447-529: Was sunk by it, Charles Goodeve sent him a message concluding "I am particularly pleased as it fully substantiates the foresight you showed in pushing this in its early stages. My congratulations." His celebrity as a writer caused the Ministry of Information to send him to the Normandy Landings on 6 June 1944 and later to Burma as a correspondent. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant commander in
13566-417: Was therefore a success; key American physicists were now aware of the potential power of an atomic bomb. On 9 October 1941, President Roosevelt approved the atomic program after he convened a meeting with Vannevar Bush and Vice President Henry A. Wallace . He created a Top Policy Group consisting of himself—although he never attended a meeting—Wallace, Bush, Conant, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson , and
13685-469: Was to have been a military laboratory with Oppenheimer and other researchers commissioned into the Army, but Robert Bacher and Isidor Rabi balked at the idea and convinced Oppenheimer that other scientists would object. Conant, Groves, and Oppenheimer then devised a compromise whereby the laboratory was operated by the University of California under contract to the War Department. Dorothy McKibbin ran
13804-410: Was too close to a major population center (Knoxville) in the unlikely event of a major nuclear accident. Groves recruited DuPont in November 1942 to be the prime contractor for the construction of the plutonium production complex. The President of the company, Walter S. Carpenter Jr. , wanted no profit of any kind; for legal reasons a nominal fee of one dollar was agreed upon. DuPont recommended that
13923-770: Was unable to take up a commission in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War , which he believed was because of his stammer. He served as a soldier in the Suffolk Regiment , enlisting in the ranks in August 1918. He guarded the Isle of Grain in the Thames Estuary, and served in military funeral parties in Kent during the 1918 flu pandemic . An aeronautical engineer as well as a pilot, Shute began his engineering career with
14042-520: Was used for Chicago Pile 3 , the first reactor using heavy water and natural uranium, which went critical on 15 May 1944. The Chalk River, Ontario , site was established to rehouse the Allied effort at the Montreal Laboratory away from an urban area. A new community was built at Deep River, Ontario , to provide residences and facilities for the team members. The site was chosen for its proximity to
14161-554: Was working on military projects with his former boss at Vickers, Sir Dennistoun Burney . He was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) as a sub-lieutenant, having joined as an "elderly yachtsman" and expected to be in charge of a drifter or minesweeper, but after two days he was asked about his career and technical experience. He reached the "dizzy rank" of lieutenant commander, knowing nothing about "Sunday Divisions" and secretly fearing when he went on
#110889