Wednesday, April 9, 2003
|
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 |
Local man works with U.S. rocketsEDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. On a remote stretch of high desert, on the edge of California's Mojave Desert, the son of a Tyrone couple is playing a part in aviation's future from a place steeped in legendary exploits of aviation's past. Air Force 2nd Lt. Christopher S. Charles, son of Steven and Susan Charles of Tyrone, is part of an elite program that over the decades has left countless marks in aviation history. From Capt. Chuck Yeager's shattering of the sound barrier to numerous world speed records to the test and launch of the first space shuttle, this base in California's "Aerospace Valley" has been pushing the envelope in air and space exploration. Charles plays an important part in aviation's future as a rocket research scientist for the Air Force Research Agency Rocket Lab at Edwards. "I'm a research scientist, working in electric propulsion, testing 'Hall,' micro-plasma pulse and colloid thrusters. My day-to-day job includes working with vacuum chambers and laser optics to measure the composition, density and velocity of exhaust plumes," said the 1997 graduate of The Heritage School. "I also help manage some of the small business innovative research proposals. And I research or order parts needed for continuing operation of the projects I work on." The 360-degree vew from Charles' centrally-located control tower is worth a peek. It features the most military runways in one location at least 20 tarmacs are active with X-planes over a 12 million year old dry lakebed. This maze of airfields within airfields supports aviation's upper crust, from a NASA 747 that carries space shuttles on its back to a ridgeline full of military rocket scientists and numerous off-limits hangars that overflow with futuristic unmanned aircraft. "People think it's pretty cool that I'm a rocket scientist, although I have to endure a few bad jokes," said Charles, who is also a 2002 graduate of the physics and math programs at the United States Air Force Acadmey. "The importance of my job is the continual improvement on existing technologies to save the taxpayers money, keeping America's satellites in orbit longer and more efficiently, to make sure that our war fighters have the most updated information, from the most reliable systems. And if the time comes for us to visit our enemies, defend the American way of life, and protect the rights of human beings around the globe." Charles' high-desert ground station is the aviation equivalent of the world's leading automakers sharing a single experimental test track a place where scores of aviation and tech companies have projects going. The valley is steeped in space, aerospace and military history, with places like Haystack Butte and the Lockheed M artin Skunk Works hosting billion-dollar initiatives. The base has hosted the landing of the space shuttle 13 times, and it also supports Air Force Plant 42 where most shuttles, bombers, fighters and spy planes are born. All major U.S. aerospace companies have shops nearby and Charles is on their X-plane team. "Pretty much the entire job is hands on, and many of the things I work on are new experiences for me. You can read all the books and papers you want, but until you actually get in a lab, you can't imagine how much you actually don't know. You need to build on your base education and proceed very quickly into more in-depth and concetrated areas of technology. You really specialize in what you're doing, on something that very few people in the world are working on at the moment," he said. "Of course it's always interesting to set up new tests using optic tables, lasers, mirrors, lenses and specialized equipment. High voltages are also usually an issue, as are environmental concerns with some of the propellants used. Safety is number one. The best project I've had is designing and building a vacuum chamber from the ground up." From running a bombing range in the '30s, to shattering the sound barrier in the '40s, speed records in the '50s to super-mach spy planes and the space shuttle, Charles and his fellow test center innovators are out to set new boundaries for the 21st Century and beyond.
|
||