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
GS-13 to GS-15 grades, 255
Head Girls, 91–92
Langley Research administration, 264
as mathematicians, 115, 143, 166
NASA deputy assistant administrator, xiii
NASA Technical Assistant to Division Chief of Space Systems, 258
no-air girls, 58
in “Red engineering schools,” 158
research mathematicians, 81–82
scientists at Langley, xvi, 179–180, 257, 305
in soap box derby, 194, 196
test pilot Ann Baumgartner Carl, 55
theoretical engineers, 112, 115
Virginia Tucker recruiting, 5, 86, 197
Woodard,
Dudley Weldon, 13
Woods, David, xiii
Woodson, Carter G., 72–73
Wright, Orville, 46, 53, 55, 188, 283
Wright, Ray, 110
X for experimental planes, 57, 59
X-1 plane, 85, 99–100
X-15 rocket plane, 138, 163–164
X-15 simulator, 227
Yeager, Chuck, 85, 99, 227
Young, John, 246, 249, 314
Young, P. B., 34
Young, Pearl
FBI questioning, 101–102
Langley technical editor, 40, 85, 178
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MARGOT LEE SHETTERLY is a writer who grew up in Hampton, Virginia, where she knew many of the women in Hidden Figures. She is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow and the recipient of a Virginia Foundation for the Humanities grant for her research into the history of women in computing. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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CREDITS
Cover design by Elsie Lyons
Cover photograph used with permission of the New Journal and Guide
Background illustrations © Shutterstock
Author photograph by Aran Shetterly
COPYRIGHT
HIDDEN FIGURES. Copyright © 2016 by Margot Lee Shetterly. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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EPub Edition SEPTEMBER 2016 ISBN 9780062363619
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Hidden Figures Page 39
