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  • Calvin E. Van Wagner
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    Wall of Honor Level:
    Air and Space Friend

    Honored by:

    At the age of 15 (1953) I joined the "Reaction Research Society", a group of amateur rocket builders. The Society owned land at "Koen Dry Lake" about 20 miles north of Edwards A.F.B. We had both static and launch test facilities. Our solid propellant rockets reached an altitude of about 11,000 ft. I became the President of our local group and stayed active until I graduated from Cal Poly University, BSME. During this time we appeared on the national NBC program "WIDE WIDE WORLD", on Sept. 30,1957. We launched six rockets, each 6 ft long from the beach at Pt. Magu Naval Air Station, live, across the country. Next year we were featured in the Sept. issue of "POPULAR MECHANICS". I worked for Aerojet in Sacramento from 1961 to 1968 on the Titan II (ICBM and Gemini) and III projects. I worked in the group responsible for balancing the engines, predicting the performance level and annualizing flight data and resolving anomalies. I became responsible for the "Autogenous Tank Pressuriziao System". I then worked on the upgrades for the injector and thrust chamber for the Titan III. 1968 -1974 I worked (civilian) on developing test programs for the electrical systems for the F-105 and F-lll aircraft. This included cabling, programming algorithms and Depot testing on "live" aircraft. I also worked on the test system for the F-111 aircraft electronics. I did "in service" failure analysis on the radarpower tubes on the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS). The rest of my professional career was in the telecommunications engineering, management and long range planning for new technology applications.

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