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Memorial Tributes Volume 20 (2016) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:

ALBERT D. WHEELON
Pages 358-363

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 359...
... The mission of the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation was to help the US Air Force develop the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile program. These weapons eventually were to become the land-based deterrent force of "Minuteman" missiles.
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From page 360...
... In 1966 Bud left the government to accept an executive position at the Hughes Aircraft Company. He was recruited to Hughes by then CEO Alan Puckett, who assigned Bud to run a newly formed unit, the Space and Communication Group (often called SCG)
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From page 361...
... Like all good new markets, new and tough competitors emerged, but Hughes maintained a greater than 50 percent market share. Some very powerful and creative strategies were developed by Bud and his team during this period; probably foremost was combining commercial and government programs under one leadership, which permitted cross fertilization of technologies and management processes as well as balanced workloads.
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From page 362...
... The Hughes SCG NASA Division won the competition because Bud Wheelon was able to take one of the commercial satellites off the production line, cut the cylindrical spacecraft in half perpendicular to the axis of the satellite, and thereby create two smaller satellites. One of these would become the carrier of four atmospheric entry vehicles that would measure the motions of the atmosphere, and the second carried the imaging radar that made the map of the planet.
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From page 363...
... It is altogether fitting that Bud holds this award named after his first mentor. Bud was married twice; his first wife, the former Nancy Helen Hermansen, died in 1980, and his daughter, Elizabeth Wheelon, died in 2006.
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Key Terms

  • aircraft company
  • hughes aircraft
  • hughes scg
  • ballistic missile
  • satellites directly

  • simon ramo
  • alan puckett
  • nation lost
  • auspicious time
  • ramo founders

  • scientific program
  • commercial customers
  • imaging satellites
  • cynthia wheelon
  • talented practitioners

  • intelsat programs
  • probably foremost
  • management processes
  • business units
  • joined hughes

  • married twice
  • ceo alan
  • wife cicely
  • scg achieved
  • innovations led

  • permitted cross
  • pany founded
  • manufacturing satellites
  • newly growing
  • helen hermansen


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