Dr. Baker recalls 50 years at AEDC as ‘icing on the cake’

  • Published
  • By Raquel March
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN. --  Dr. Bill Baker, a 2004 Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) Fellow and branch chief in the AEDC Test Operations Division Analysis and Evaluation Branch, recalls his hire date of Aug. 13, 1964 with an emerging aerospace ground, flight testing facility as "icing on the cake."

"My first two weeks at AEDC were dominated by the fact that we had driven all the way across the country with my wife [who was] eight-and-a-half months pregnant and we had to have a place to live and find an OB-GYN doctor for the imminent delivery of our first child," Baker said. "Meeting my new coworkers and learning how things were done at AEDC was the icing on the cake."

As an aerospace engineering student at Mississippi State University, Baker participated in university trips to AEDC. After completing his master's degree in 1963, he received an employment offer with the Arnold Research Organization (ARO), Inc. but he had already accepted a job.

Baker said, "When I told Mr. Warren [with the ARO, Inc. personnel office] that I had accepted a job with North American Aviation, Inc. in Los Angeles, he said, 'Bill, when you get California out of your system, give me a call and come on home.' In July of 1964 I called Mr. Warren and on August 13, 1964, I drove in the front gate of AEDC as an employee of ARO."

Baker said that he was fortunate to be assigned to the Propulsion Wind Tunnel Facility (PWT) when he first arrived at AEDC.

"When I came to work, I was assigned to the PWT and Hugh DuBose was my supervisor," he said. "He led a section that was dual functioned in that it was the Dynamics Section as well as the Research Section. That was a great opportunity for me because it gave me the ability to work on both test projects as well as research projects. I was able to participate in testing and technology projects that were led by most of the people in the section during the first few years that I worked in PWT.

"I was assigned to work closely with Dick Lowndes as my mentor and the first project that I worked on with him was the measurement of the dynamic stability of the Apollo Escape Module. The escape module consisted of only the Apollo crew capsule, the escape rocket and the structure that attached the rocket to the capsule.

"The purpose of the test was to ensure that, if the Apollo crew had to abort the mission and escape from the Saturn Booster, the escape module would fly correctly and not tumble out of control because it was not dynamically stable."

Memorable projects through the decades

Baker recalls memorable aerospace projects in aerodynamics, space and hypersonics that he considered key to his professional growth, such as arc heater testing for re-entry nose cone materials and the leading edges of hypersonic vehicles.

Baker said, "There was a need to develop diagnostic instrumentation for the measurement of flow properties in these high temperature flows. To fill this need, Harry Kaupp and I developed the Research Arc Heater to better understand the performance of arc heaters and to develop high-temperature diagnostics for pressure, temperature and enthalpy in the arc heated flow."

Baker admits that multiple memorable projects followed the arc heater development but he remarks that one project most important to his career in the late 1960s and early 1970s was the Bomber Defense Missile.

"This program considered carrying missiles in the bomb bay and performing a maneuver where they pivoted around in mid-air and flew to the rear of the bomber to defeat aircraft attacking from the rear," he said. "To perform this maneuver, the missile would have to turn around in the air exposing the missile to angles of attack from zero to 180 degrees (i.e. flying backwards). There was not a missile aerodynamic coefficient prediction technique available to make these computations. For my Ph.D. dissertation, I developed the High Angle of Attack Missile Aerodynamics Prediction Code."

Data was needed to develop the prediction code and Baker planned the testing, guided the design of the models, worked as a project engineer for the testing and built the transonic and supersonic database for missile-specific parameters.

Other memorable projects Baker worked on, with other analysis team members, included multiple opportunities for store separation testing and analysis for the Air Force Seek Eagle Program Office and the F-22 program.

Baker was employed by five contractors at AEDC before retiring with Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) in 2004. However, he continued to work with ATA on a part-time basis until 2010 when he accepted his current position with the Air Force at AEDC.

Dr. Donald Malloy, an AEDC lead aerodynamics analysis engineer in the AEDC Analysis and Evaluation Branch, worked closely with Baker before his retirement and consulted him after his retirement on a project.

"My most memorable work experience with Dr. Baker occurred during his semi-retirement years when I was leading an AEDC team supporting flight testing of a legacy aircraft," Malloy said. "My biggest challenge was convincing AEDC leadership that I needed more of Dr. Baker's support as a retiree (reserve core team member) to lead a study to estimate thrust and drag increments for a proposed configuration to increase flow through the engine bay and ejector nozzle to mitigate engine bay overheating problems when there was a high level of uncertainty in the workload at AEDC."

AEDC Changes and the future

Baker said one significant change he has recognized over the years is how the government has become more involved in the testing and evaluation processes at AEDC and he sees a bright future for the Complex.

"I see a very bright future for AEDC and its increasingly important role in the development of new weapon systems," Baker said. "A significant part of the cost of a new weapon system occurs in the technology development and engineering and manufacturing development phases of the system. AEDC plays a very important role in both of those phases of development. As AEDC works to reduce the cycle time that a program spends in these two phases, we will be able to help reduce the total cost of the system.

"A significant challenge will occur with the total change in the way that AEDC is managed for the next contract and the increase in the technical role of the government in the operation of the test and evaluation mission of the Complex. I think that there will be growing pains but the end result will be in the best interest of AEDC."

Baker who is a resident of Rutherford County plans to continue his service at AEDC.

"I still look forward to coming to work every day and I very much enjoy my job," he said. "I am excited about the revival of analysis and evaluation at AEDC and I want to participate in it for as long as I can."