I dont know about then but now adays I don’t think it would be that hard until the final stages of construction. I think many fitters & welders are only concerned with the bead, plate & pipe right in front of them & not too concerned about how a new style drillship is laid out. Even at the finishing stages I bet the designers had a story for the workers with a feasible explanation of the different layout? The shipyard workers probably learned about the real purpose at the same time as everyone else.
Great book.
She was at anchor OPL West in Singapore for a long time before going to the breakers.
I did take pictures of her several time, but not able to find them now.
I spent some time in San Diego baby sitting a ship being sold to a foreign country. Process took awhile so my gig was to keep the A/C, generator etc running and a few of us lived aboard.
The Master sat daily at a picnic table by the gangway shooting the breeze with whoever happened by, and as he sat there, he swatted flies. By the end of the day, he’d massacred thousands. They’d come back the next day to begin the new assault.
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Kelly Johnson as far as I know proposed to the CIA interviewers the Mach 3 aircraft and of course they were ‘hooked’ , I’d heard he was a great salesman !!, the engine was the main hindrance but anyway…(i still consider the '71 americas first space craft))… project corona (sattelite) and the U2 all ready had paved the way for Johnson … area 51 was ‘made’ just for test flights of either U2 or '71 and of course now it’s ballooned.
i bought most of the books on the ‘71 … too bad i dont’ remember them !!, ok, what i was saying is that many of the people who worked on the corona and '71 went over to the glomar project. they had to design light bulbs and cameras that’d function at 8,000 psi and all manner of things … yea, it’s a total miracle it was a secret so long and the fact they had howard hughs on board as a excuse probably made it possible at all.
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“A matter of risk” was published in 1978. It’s a good read by someone who worked on the project.
since last E i found that book. yes it is listed in the bibliography under ‘varner’. there is a lot of bibliography included and he mentions that not all of his sources are listed but without doubt , some of what is in ''the taking of k129" included what is in “a matter of risk”. i liked that he spent one or two chapters discussing the crew that came over from kelly johnsons outfit and others. he also discusses in some detail what had to be ‘‘invented’’ in order to make the project feasible
I dont think Howard Hughes was involved only that he agreed to be the pretend owner?
they even created the steel for the tapered riser, yes lots of technology invented to enable that project.
true, hughes was about losing his brain about this time but his ‘‘handlers’’ indicated howard knew what was going on. in the end he handed over the keys to his constellation in person to … ? forgot. i guess he was still self aware but he must of been a pretty screwed up guy despite being a genius.
only one outfit could make that tube, aka “cable” … and it is the same outfit that made the gun barrels on the missouri class battleships… or , well , THAT class of battleships. 1.5 turns to lock each tube, 3 different diameters. the weight of the tube itself was unimaginable let alone hanging a soviet sub on the end … then, when it was to come out of the water the weight would increase !!
Absolutely amazing engineering!
Remember Hughes was the heir to his fathers Tool company and the father had the patent on that tri cone rotary drill bit. Most older Americans were aware of Hughes contribution to deep drilling tools for the oil industry and to put Howard Hughes up as the owner of the Glomar with it’s mission to mine the sea floor would have been a great cover for this project.
Given all the media coverage, once the Glomar sailed people would have assumed it would be out there in the middle of nowhere chipping away at those nodules. Nothing more to see here. And that’s when anything about it seemed to vanish from the news. Leaving the public looking for more interesting news stories and the Glomar sailing into the stacks of yesterday’s newspapers to covertly fish for the K 129…right under everyone’s noses.
And my old New Math Teacher being “sucked in” by this media ruse as he tried to make his students feel like losers for not studying our hearts out so we would soon be out there getting involved in this stuff. LOL So when the subject of the Glomar comes around this is what my mind flashes back to.
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Nice bit.
Howard Hughes was an exceptional character probably most well known as the builder and pilot of the Spruce Goose. He was also a pioneer in the film industry and credited with inventing the push up bra when he wanted an actress’s assets brought to the forefront. I first heard about him when I was a young flight instructor out of Santa Monica municipal airport. There was a hangar on the south side of the runway that was off limits to the public and patrolled by armed guards. Nothing ever went in or out. I was told that there was a DC4 in that hangar that Hughes had towed there from the factory on the north side of the field and that it was number 1 off the assembly line. It was reputed to still have zero hours on it as it had never moved from the hangar. He also had a grass landing strip where Hughes Helicopter manufacturing was between LAX and SMO which was meticulously maintained but never used. He just preferred landing on grass strips instead of concrete runways. By then he was off living in the penthouse of a hotel in Las Vegas so they were just toys he didn’t feel like parting with. He was also embroiled in several lawsuits and the big question was whether he was still alive or whether he was dead and his former handlers were using his name to conduct business.
There was a book written about him where the author reported spending time with him and answering questions every one had about him but it turned out to be a hoax.
imagine him with carbon and epoxy??
Very detailed story on Hughes by wikopedia. I’ve heard over the years he designed the Japanese Zero. True or not?
I don’t know that he designed the Zero. I think what I read in that article is that the Japanese adopted many of the design ideas for the Zero that Hughes created for his record breaking race planes. Whether that’s true or not, or provable, there is definitely a strong resemblance.
He didn’t.
Wasn’t it the Focke Wulf Fw 190 that was inspired by Hughs H-1 Racer ?
Move the cockpit forward on the H 1 and you’re looking at a 190.
Notice a resemblance ?
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