Harrison Storms

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Harrison "Stormy" Storms (15 July 1916 - 11 July 1992) was an aeronautical engineer best known for his role in managing the design and construction of the command module for the Apollo program.

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[edit] Early life and career

Storms grew up in Chicago's North Shore, the son of a traveling salesman. As a boy, he was a member of the Boy Scouts and enjoyed building model airplanes. He attended Northwestern University, where he graduated at the top of his class, and where he remained for a Masters degree in mechanical engineering. He then went to the California Institute of Technology to study for a second Masters degree in aeronautical engineering under Theodor von Karman. [1]

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.

[edit] Apollo program

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 to be given the chance to lead North American's expansion into the business of spaceflight. On September 11, 1961, North American won the contract for the S-II, the second stage of the Saturn V rocket. While this was a very significant achievement, Storms was not satisfied, as he was also aiming for North American to win the contract for the Apollo spacecraft itself.

Storms's relationship with NASA's program manager, Joe Shea was difficult at times. While Shea blamed North American's management for the continuing difficulties in the development of the command module, Storms felt that NASA itself was far from blameless. It 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 he did not understand or sympathize with the inevitable problems involved in the day-to-day work of manufacturing.[2]

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[edit] Reputation

Screenwriter Mike Gray profiled Storms in a somewhat controversial book titled 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."[3]

[edit] In popular culture

In the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Storms was played by James Rebhorn. In Stephen Baxter's alternate history novel Voyage, the character J.K. Lee is an amalgam of Storms and Tom Kelly.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Gray, Angle of Attack, pp. 22-23.
  2. ^ Gray, Angle of Attack, pp. 184, 188.
  3. ^ Barnes & Noble.com - Books: Angle of Attack, by Mike Gray, Paperback, Reprint

[edit] References

  • Gray, Mike (1992). Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-023280-X. 
  • Murray, Charles; Catherine Bly Cox (1989). Apollo: The Race to the Moon. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-61101-1.