Convairiety, Volume 7, Number 15, Wednesday, July 28, 1954 Page: 4 of 8
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Page 4
CONVAIRIETY
July 28, 1854
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roa^3T°2o7?n^,ttVaa;:;renTcClW^ C°onvaIr'5*0° recently "£££ Ztt hTZ ? ? mi ^ '«-* b“p
when Packard at right above (still a sharp looking number) was in vogue soon after award from W w*' ,?ept* 101 Seneral foreman receiving Mug o' the Month
rug skirts and Clara Bow? At wheel is Z. C. Keener of SD ohotooraotfc iTJlZ ^ bc°T “ 5 R’ 5?.™"°" D*P*- 26 sub-
fUfLSljtS\v^n<o ^ara ®oy1.2 At wheel is E. C. Keefer of SD photographic laboratory
with H. W. Rubottom, SD training supervisor, in rumble. Standing is C. E. Nevitt,
contracts, receiving Mr. MacSave-it award from Barney Gibbons, material manager.
This was July meeting, at Balboa Club.
SD Dept. 203 Again
Leads in ESs, CIPs
Dept. 203 at Convair San Diego
(welding-heat treat) continues to
lead the parade in Employee Sug-
gestions and Cost Improvement
Proposals, holding first place at
the end of June, the same posi-
tion it held at the end of May.
In second place is Dept. 202
(sub-assembly), which was third
at the end of May, and in third
spot is Dept. 103 (heat treat)
which moved up from fourth
place. Dept. 27 (quality control) j
is fourth and T-29 final is fifth, |
the latter moving up from 12th I
position previously. T-29 wing I
also jumped ahead, 17th at the j
end of May but now sixth.
Check Stubs Proof
Of Con-Tr/b Gifts
Con-Trib-Club members
throughout Convair were advised
this week to be on the safe side
and save their pay check stubs,
just in case Uncle Sam might ask
for proof of Con-Trib donations.
“It is not possible for Convair
to make individual tab runs to
supply proof of Con-Trib-Club
donations, for income tax pur-
poses,” J. K. Field, employee
service supervisor at San Diego
advised. “So, it is a good idea to
save the check stubs, just in case
your tax returns might be chal-
lenged.”
FULL DAY—C. J. Chamber
lain, FW's Dept. 4, clocks in tc
start another full eight hour
after working full time at Hens
ley Field. Chamberlain was re
called to active duty for twe
weeks this month.
FW Man Soldiers
In Daytime, Works
Nights at Convair
MAN SIZE — Susie, eight-
week-old Manchester terrier
owned by Gale Kendrick, FW
design engineer, appears over-
whelmed by magnitude of sur-
roundings. Pup posed recently
for shutters of FW camera ac-
tivity.
SNUG—Twelve feet up on a work stand at SAM-SAC work
station No. 23 a scissor-tail flycatcher is raising a family at Convair
Fort Worth. Feet that go up and down ladder nearby every day
fail to disturb her, or her two little ones.
"Tom came home so tired from crawling through planes all day . . .
I sent him right in to bed."
C. J. Chamberlain, release
analyst at Convair Fort Worth,
had his hands full for two
weeks this month.
In the daytime he soldiered
I and in the evening he was busy
I working the second shift at
| Convair.
He was called to active duty
July 4 through July 18 as
senior air operations specialist
in base operations for the
8708th Pilot Training Wing at
Hensley Field, Grand Prairie,
Texas.
“Luckily, it was only tempor-
ary,” said Chamberlain, who
daily clocked-in while still in
uniform. “It was all getting to
be quite hectic.”
ROTC Cadets View
Convair FW and SD
Air Force ROTC cadets have
been visiting both Convair San
Diego and Convair Fort Worth
this summer as part of their
training.
Some 400 representatives of
various colleges and universities
have gone through Convair SD
and about 145 cadets saw Convair
FW during July alone. The lat-
ter group was from Perrin AFB.
Attends Convention
Mrs. Bessie Cooper of parts
sales at San Diego this week is
attending the state convention of
the American Legion Auxiliary in
San Francisco. She is chairman
of the department of finance, of
which she has been a member
since 1951. Mrs. Cooper, who was
honor guest at a parts sales birth-
day party July 16, has been with
Convair 12 years.
New Wrinkle
Convair Airplanes Reproduced
In Toothpicks by Young Texan
Thousands of toothpicks, a few
cents worth of aircraft cement
and the patience of Job have been
parlayed into a unique hobby for
a 15-year-old San Antonian whose
favorite pastime is building
models of Convair airplanes.
He is Clement J. Miller, son of
William E. Miller of the fire and
crash department at Kelly Air
Force Base, home of the Air
F orce’s Convair-built XC-99,
world’s largest operational air-
craft.
“I started in with a radar
tower, then built a radio antenna
before I decided to try a plane.
The B-36 was my first one with
the toothpicks, although I had
built many different planes from
the regular model kits,” he ex-
plained.
There are 1,850 toothpicks in
the 36 and it is a remarkable
likeness to the Convair variety,
even down to the buttons which
serve as landing gear. Thirty-
one inches long, the B-36 has a
wingspan of 42 inches. Consider-
ing that Miller worked from a
single picture of the bomber, pro-
portions of the wing and body are
remarkably close.
After the 36, planes started
rolling out of Miller’s “toothpick
factory” in production line fash-
ion. He has completed many
others, including the XC-99 and a
YB-60. The 99, his biggest com-
plete job to date, has 2,442 joined
splinters in its framework and
boasts a wingspan of 5414 inches.
Also his most expensive model,
the 99 cost close to $1. The 36
cost 74 cents and the 60, which
took only four days to build, set
Clement back 50 cents.
None of the planes has been
constructed from plans. All are
solely the fruit of Miller’s in-
genuity and imagination, plus a
few pictures. He started building
planes three years ago with kits
and a full set of plans, then built
several models from his own plans
before he started in on toothpicks
again.
Although he isn’t particularly
sure where he is headed with his
hobby, he hopes that it will take
him into some phase of aviation
when he gets a little older.
6000 TOOTHPICKS—Clement J. Miller, son of an employee a
Kelly AFB, shows toothpick models of Convair-designed aircraft
He holds Air Force's XC-99. At left is B-36 and at right YB-60
An estimated 6000-plus toothpicks went into their making.
Service Engineers Show Close 'Personal Interest'
As They Inspect DC3 Riddled by Red Fighter
Mel Clause, SD service engineer
currently on duty with JAT in
Jugoslavia, reported recently that
he had inspected a Sabena DC3
which was attacked by a MIG
near Graz, Austria, resulting in
death for the radio operator and
a wound for the plane’s captain.
“It was of more than ordinary
interest to Ed (Ed Griffin, an-
other SD service engineer) and
me, because we have flown the
same route several times,” Clause
wrote.
The DC3 was carrying a load
of pedigreed pigs and several of
these were victims.
“The airplane appeared to have
been fired upon from the right
and above. The fuselage center
section forward had been struck
by explosive projectiles, prob-
ably 20 mm. Numerous perfora-
tions from shrapnel could be seen
in the fuselage outer skin and
wing center section. The captain’s
windshield was struck . . .”
Convair Recreation Association
operates for your pleasure. Look
over the activities on page 6 and
take your choice.
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General Dynamics Corporation. Convair Division. Convairiety, Volume 7, Number 15, Wednesday, July 28, 1954, periodical, July 28, 1954; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth777528/m1/4/: accessed June 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.