Angle of Attack; Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon

New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. [6], 304 pages. Includes Author's Note and Prologue, 15 chapters, Epilogue, Bibliography, and an Index. In the panic that followed the Soviet launch of Sputnik, Harrison Storms, the legendary chief engineer of North American Aviation, captured the job of building the Apollo spacecraft. Storms was one of the country's foremost airplane designer, and at North American he is known, only half-jokingly, and The Creator. As Storms and his engineers feel their way through uncharted technologies on a killing schedule, the blizzard of changing orders from NASA keeps the design of the ship a constantly moving target. Harold Michael "Mike" Gray (October 26, 1935 - April 30, 2013)[1] was an American writer, screenwriter, cinematographer, film producer and director. In 1965, Mike Gray and Jim Dennett co-founded The Film Group, a Chicago film production company. In 1968, the pair produced the award-winning documentary American Revolution 2, followed by the trio's The Murder of Fred Hampton. He also wrote and directed Wavelength, an independent science fiction film starring Robert Carradine, Cherie Currie, and Keenan Wynn, with a soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. Gray next co-created the television series Starman. Following Starman, he became series writer/producer for the 1988-89 season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Screenwriter Mike Gray profiled Storms in his 1992 book, Angle of Attack. Publishers Weekly described it as a "swaggering portrait of NASA's Apollo project [which] might well be called Indiana Jones and the Engineering Mission of Destiny." Harrison Allen Storms, Jr. (July 15, 1915 - July 11, 1992), nicknamed "Stormy", was an American aeronautical engineer employed by North American Aviation, best known for his role in managing the design and construction of the Apollo Command/Service Module. North American came under severe criticism in 1965-66 by NASA's Apollo program director for cost overruns, delivery delays, and poor quality, and Storms was fired in 1967 in the aftermath of the Apollo 1 fire which killed three astronauts. Storms became an employee of North American Aviation. In 1955, he successfully led North American's bid for the contract to design and build the X-15 airplane, and, two years later, he became Chief Engineer of North American's Los Angeles division. In 1960, he was offered the opportunity to become head of North American's Missile Division, which at the time had only one contract: the AGM-28 Hound Dog missile. Storms was given the chance to lead North American's expansion into the business of spaceflight by Dutch Kindelberger and Lee Atwood. On September 11, 1961, North American won the contract for the S-II second stage of the Saturn V rocket. Storms was also aiming for North American to win the contract for the Apollo spacecraft itself, which they did on November 28, 1961. Through the efforts of Storms' team and NAA Marketing VP Tom Dixon, Storms became known as "the father of Apollo" at NAA. Storms was named President of the newly formed Space and Information Systems Division. In the first six months of 1962, employment expanded from 7,000 employees to 14,000 employees. North American's development of the S-II and the Apollo spacecraft did not always go smoothly under Storms' management. NASA's Apollo program director Samuel C. Phillips headed a "tiger team" sent to NAA in late 1965 to investigate program delays and cost overruns, and sent a critical report documenting his findings and demanding corrective steps be taken, to his superiors and to Atwood in early 1966. Storms' relationship with NASA's Apollo Spacecraft Program Office manager, Joseph Shea, was difficult at times. While Shea blamed North American's management for the continuing difficulties in the development of Apollo, Storms felt that NASA itself was far from blameless. According to Storms, NASA had delayed in making key design decisions and persisted in making significant changes to the design once construction had begun. While Shea did his part in attempting to control the change requests, Storms felt that Shea did not understand or sympathize with the inevitable problems involved in the day-to-day work of manufacturing. Shea became unfit for duty and was removed as ASPO manager, although not fired. CSM-012, to be used in Apollo 1, the first manned flight, had problems with electrical wiring and ethylene glycol plumbing which delayed this flight, some of which contributed to a fire which killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee on January 27, 1967. After the fire, NASA Administrator James Webb demanded the resignation of either Atwood or Storms. Atwood decided to fire Storms. Storms never surfaced again in any capacity in Aerospace and died in obscurity.