Margot Shetterly - Hidden Figures

Shepard, Alan, 188, 208–209

Shetterly, Aran, xi, 270–271

Simone, Nina, 156

Skopinski, Ted, 164, 176, 177, 189, 190, 191–192, 210, 211

Smart, JoAnne, 157

Smith, Benjamin Lee, 157

Smith, Eunice (West Computer), 120, 168, 171, 186, 204, 232

Smith, Willianna (West Computer), 264

The Souls of Black Folk (Du Bois), 33, 109

Soviet Union

as ally, 36

atomic capability, 98, 152, 301

first full day in space, 215

first human to orbit, 208, 209

International Geophysical Year, 162, 175

Jim Crow influencer, 170

Rosenberg spies, 101

Sputnik. See Sputniks

as threat, 66, 98–99

women in engineering schools, 158

See also Cold War

Space Act (1958), 171

Space Task Group (STG)

formation, 183–184, 188–189, 190, 191

Friendship 7 launch, 223

Mission Planning Analysis Division, 218, 220–221

move to Houston, 209, 210

“three nines” risk standard, 233–234

spaceflight

high-speed flight applied to, 163–164

Introduction to Outer Space, 175, 305

NACA to NASA, 170–171, 183

self-education lecture series, 176–177

See also Moon shot

“Spacetown, USA,” xviii, 225, 273

Speegle, Katherine Cullie (scientist), 179–180

Sponsler, Blanche (East & West Computing)

illness, 89–91

West Computing section assistant, 40, 81

West Computing section head, 88–89, 91

Sputniks

education and, 142, 158

launches of, 150–151, 158

NASA birth, 170–171, 183

Rand report, 161

rocket built in metal shop class, xiv

Soviet threat, 152, 158, 162

watching, 161, 162

Stability and Control Branch, 127

Stability Research Division, 58, 82–83, 87, 102, 112

Stack, John, 43, 82, 100

Collier Trophy, 99, 110, 111

Star Trek (TV series)

Introduction to Outer Space, 305

Martin Luther King Jr. as Trekkie, 243

multiracial, mixed-gender crew, 242–244

Staton, Weldon, xiii

Stiles, Thelma (West Computer), 39, 42

Superfortress, 57, 59, 99

supersonic flight

Apollo capsule testing, 219

Chuck Yeager, 85, 99, 227

Collier Trophy, 99, 110

development, 84–85, 99–100

sonic booms, 100, 252, 261–262

spaceflight applications, 163–164

supersonic transport cancelled, 252

in transcontinental flight, 214

wind tunnel air flows, 110

Swigert, Jack, 248

Taft, Henry Waters, 72

“Tan Yanks,” 51. See also Tuskegee airmen

Taylor, Ophelia (West Computer), 16, 94, 165

television

John Glenn launch audience, 223

Moon landing, 235–237

NASA transparency, 171, 217, 222

no black commentators, 241

Teller, Edward, 54

Test Pilot (movie; 1938), 53

test pilots

aircraft design, 4, 55, 57

Ann Baumgartner Carl, 55

astronaut selection, 188

chief Melvin Gough, 316

engineer trained as, 127

John Glenn, 214

supersonic Chuck Yeager, 85, 99

Theodorsen, Theodore, 53

Theoretical and Physical Research Division, 58

Thompson, Floyd, 171, 229, 230

Thompson, James, 34, 35–36

Tillman, Bettye, 157

Tingle, James, 90

Titov, Gherman, 215

Tracey, Spencer, 53

tracking stations

film crews, 217

Gloria Champine as secretary, 258

Project Mercury, 206–207, 216, 217, 221

trajectories

Azimuth Angle report, 192, 211, 220

ballistics trajectory tables, 189

check of Glenn orbital trajectory, 215–217, 219–223

Melba Roy programmer oversight, 218, 255

Project Mercury, 189–191, 207, 214

transonic region, 100, 110–111, 137–138

Truman, Harry S., 102, 104

Tucker, Virginia (head computer)

accomplishments, 86

alma mater, 157

engineer at Northrop, 86–87

girl search, 5, 86, 197

head computer, 5, 40, 86

Tuskegee airmen, 51–52, 104

Tynes, Erma (West Computer), 122, 130

Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, 111, 165

United Negro College Fund, 158

US Civil Service Commission. See civil service

USO (United Service Organization)

assistant director Katherine Goble, 120

secretary Mary Jackson, 95–96

as segregated, 34

Vaughan, Dorothy (mathematician)

apprentice mathematician, 59–60

background, 12–14

Camp Pickett laundry plant, 9, 10, 11–12, 15, 17, 21

childrearing, 79, 168, 172, 203

electronic computer programming, 205–206, 218–219

electronic computer training, 139, 141

engineering training, 54–55

family visits, 21, 61, 62, 63–64

Flight Research Division assignments, 57

Hampton mathematical jobs, 15–16, 17, 21

homeowner, 173

Howard University inaugural math master’s, 13, 23, 24, 73, 74

Katherine Goble Johnson on, 173, 250

Katherine Goble Johnson promotion, 125–126

Langley first day, 37, 39, 49

lodging at Lucy house, 29, 44

marriage effects, 22–23, 63–64, 77

Mathematician appointment, 21, 22, 25

Newport News arrival, 27, 29, 36

Newport News lease, 61–62, 66, 67–68, 77, 173

permanent employee, 81

retirement, 263–265

service award, 229

as teacher of math, 10, 14, 15, 19–20, 21, 92

textbook author, xvii

West Computing dissolved, 171–173, 204, 218–219

West Computing downsizing, 165–167

West Computing friendships, 49, 67–68, 78

West Computing section head, 91–92, 107, 121, 125–126, 165–167, 172, 173, 264

West Computing supervisor, 81, 89

Vaughan, Howard, 14, 22–23, 63–64, 77

Victory, John, 43, 100

V-J Day, 64–65

Von Braun, Wernher, 152, 189

voter registration, 202–203

Voting Rights Act (1965), 240

VV (Double V), 35–36

war bonds, 20, 42, 48, 284

Washington, Booker T., 95

Webb, James, 230

Weigel, Barbara (East Computer), 205

West, Matilda (West Computer), 78, 102

West Area of Langley

computing operations centralized, 204–205

description of, 37, 38–39

size increase, 41, 107, 111

West Computing as segregated, 7, 37, 43–45, 48, 104–105, 167

West Computing boom, 105, 107

West Computing dissolved, 171–173, 204, 218–219

West Computing downsize, 165–167

West Computing section, 39–40, 48–49, 81, 87, 88, 102, 250, 264

wind tunnels, 56, 84

Whitcomb, Richard, 110–111

White, Ed, 233

Whitman, Ruth (scientist), 179–180

Wilder, Sue (West Computer), 219, 231

Wilkins, Roy, 228

Willey, Helen (computer), 143

Williams, James, 113–114, 166, 218, 219

Williams, Paul, 227

Wilson, Woodrow, 7, 32, 33, 94

wind tunnels

aircraft design, 3–4, 55–58, 107

Amelia Earhart’s coat, 53

computers attached to, 39

electricity rationing, 56

hypersonic complex, xii, 100–101

John Stack oversight, 43

Langley Field history, 37

Mary Jackson controlling, 143

Reynolds number, 56

simulators on computers, 254

slotted walls, 110

sounds of, 3, 56, 143

Spin Tunnel, 107

supersonic testing, 84

Unitary Plan Tunnel, 111, 165

XB-29 design, 59

Winston, Emily, 94, 96

Winston, Frank, 95, 96

Winston, Mary, 94–96. See also Jackson, Mary Winston

women

author Doris Cohen, xvii, 85, 290

ballistics trajectory tables, 189

from “colored girls” to “girls,” 167

computers, xvi–xvii, 4–5, 59, 81–82, 83–84, 115, 166, 180

engineers, 16, 144, 158, 197–198, 255, 257, 302

entry-level job ratings, 121

“girls” use in book, ix