dcn@ihuxl.UUCP (Dave Newkirk) (12/02/85)
Not everyone was happy about the escalating preeminence of automation. Many of Douglas's own people opposed the the ubiquitous computer. In fact," an automation expert at Douglas admitted, "the company was surprised to find that its equipment took the automation more readily than did its engineers." In the pre-Saturn days of rocket and missile operations, many checkout procedures were performed manually and worked well with complex vehicles like the Thor-Delta. Douglas engineers used manual checkout techniques for the earliest S-IV stages; pre-checkout, acceptance firing, and post-checkout required a total of 1200 hours per stage. Verteran `switch-flippers,' who for so long scanned gauges and dials, flipping the right switch in a critical situation, had been vital links in the overall loop. They were now replaced by ranks of grey-enameled computers. For checkout procedures on the Saturn V third stage, the S-IVB, fully automated techniques replaced the manual checkout for the first time. Although the magnitude of testing rose by 40 percent per stage, the new automated systems reduced the checkout time to about 500 hours total. H. E. Bauer clearly remembered the occasion when men and the new machines first confronted each other. "One seasoned switch flipper came into the blockhouse after the equipment was installed; he watched the blinking lights, the scanners, the recorders - everything was working automatically, heaving out wide and endless runs of data printouts..." The man balefully surveyed the mechanically throbbing interloper and growled, "It's the Gray Puke!" It was not an isolated reaction. As Bauer recalls, the ghastly name stuck and became part of the permanent lexicon associated with the S-IVB stage. From "Stages to Saturn - A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles", available from the Superindendant of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. Order NASA SP-4206, $12.00. -- Dave Newkirk, ihnp4!ihuxl!dcn