100 scored a Collier Trophy: “Collier 1940–1949 Recipients,” National Aeronautic Association, https://naa.aero/awards/awards-and-trophies/collier-trophy/collier-1940-1949-winners.
100 Project 506: Robert C. Moyer and Mary E. Gainer, “Chasing Theory to the Edge of Space: The Development of the X-15 at NACA Langley Aeronautical Laboratory,” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 19, no. 2 (2012): 5.
100 close to Mach 7: Ibid.
100 Gas Dynamics Laboratory: “1247 Hypersonic Facilities Complex,” NASA Cultural Resources http://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/1247_Hypersonic_Facilities_Complex. Completed in 1952, the laboratory’s name was changed to Hypersonic Facilities Complex.
100 up to Mach 18: Ibid.
101 handed down a death sentence against Ethel and Julius Rosenberg: William R. Conklin, “Atom Spy Couple Sentenced to Die,” New York Times, April 6, 1951.
101 How to Spot a Communist: How to Spot a Communist, Armed Forces Information Film no.5, 1950.
101 “who don’t show their real faces”: Ibid.
101 accused of stealing classified NACA documents: Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton, The Rosenberg File (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 300.
101 nuclear-powered airplane: Ibid.
101 high-speed NACA airfoil: Ibid., 299.
101 based on NACA designs: Ibid.
101 ringing the doorbell in the evenings: Sugenia Johnson interview. Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson, “Sound Reasoning,” Hopkins Magazine, September 2003.
102 Eastman Jacobs, known for his left-leaning sympathies:
102 hours questioning Pearl Young: Pearl Young interview.
102 “New York communist people”: Ibid.
102 “practically impossible New York Jews”: Ibid.
102 caused a scandal: Ibid.
102 a “black computer”: Sugenia Johnson interview.
102 Air Scoop published a long list of organizations: “List of groups compiled in Connection with Employees Loyalty Program,” Air Scoop, October 26, 1951.
103 denied service to the Haitian secretary of agriculture: Mary Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007), 871.
103 Mahatma Gandhi’s personal doctor: Ibid., 878.
104 “Untouchability Banished in India: Worshipped in America”: Ibid., 755.
104 At the start of the Korean War: “The Beginnings of a New Era for African Americans in the Armed Services,” State of New Jersey, http://www.nj.gov/military/korea/factsheets/afroamer.html.
104 were called up: “Tan Yanks Face Action in Korea,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, July 8, 1950.
104 “The laboratory has one work unit composed entirely of Negro women”: Johnson, “Fair Employment.”
105 science textbooks and racial harmony: Walter McDougall, The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 8.
105 Christine Richie: Christine Richie, personal interview, July 20, 2014.
105 through the college grapevine: Elizabeth Kittrell Taylor, personal interview, July 12, 2014.
CHAPTER 11: THE AREA RULE
108 alongside several white computers: Richard Stradling, “Retired Engineer Remembers Segregated Langley,” Daily Press, February 8, 1998.
108 “Can you direct me to the bathroom?”: Ibid.
109 native of New Bedford: “14 Receive Service Emblems,” Air Scoop, December 3, 1954.
109 maintained an office in the Aircraft Loads Building: Langley Aeronautical Laboratory Telephone Directory, LHA, 1949.
109 “dead-weight of social degradation”: W. E. B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk (Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Co., 1903).
109 the American dilemma: In 1944, the Carnegie Foundation funded a groundbreaking, comprehensive report on the state of black America, entitled An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1946). Its author, Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal, pointed out the brutal circularity of a system that discriminated against blacks in virtually every aspect of their lives, then excoriated them when they failed to meet the marks set by whites.
109 answered Czarnecki’s greeting with a Mach 2 blowdown: Stradling, “Retired Engineer Remembers Segregated Langley.”
110 “Why don’t you come work for me?”: Ibid.
110 Ray Wright had the intuition: Donald D. Baals and William R. Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA (Washington, DC: NASA History Office, 1981), 61.
110 “long sought technical prize”: Ibid., 61.
110 as much as 25 percent: Richard Whitcomb’s Discovery: Richard Whitcomb’s Discovery: The Story of the Area Rule, video, NASA Langley CRGIS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZWBVgL8I54.
111 “wasp-waisted”: “Air Scientist Whitcomb Cited for ‘Wasp-Waist’ Theory,” Richmond News Leader, November 29, 1955.
111 a sit-down with CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite: “Interview Set for Whitcomb with Cronkite,” Daily Press, October 15, 1955.
111 “Hampton Engineer Besieged by Public”: Daily Press, October 9, 1955.
111 “an oil refinery under a roof”: Baals and Corliss, Wind Tunnels of NASA, 71.
112 aeronautical research scientist, graded GS-9: Hoover Personnel file.
112 publication of two reports: Frank Malvestuto Jr. and Dorothy M. Hoover, “Supersonic Lift and Pitching Moment of Thin Sweptback Tapered Wings Produced by Constant Vertical Acceleration,” Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, March 1951, http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19930082993.pdf; Frank Malvestuto Jr. and Dorothy M. Hoover, “Lift and Pitching Derivatives of Thin Sweptback Tapered Wings with Streamwise Tips and Subsonic Leading Edges at Supersonic Speeds,” Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, February 1951, http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19930082953.pdf.
113 Mary had done since graduating: “Mary W. Jackson, Federal Women’s Program Manager,” October 1979.
113 Mary Jackson had met Jim Williams: Julia G. Williams, personal interview, July 20, 2014.
113 wary of moving: Ibid.
113 Williams wasn’t the first black engineer: Ibid.
113 Several white supervisors refused him: Norman Tippens, “Tuskegee Airman James L. ‘Jim’ Williams, 77,” Daily Press, January 23, 2004; Williams interview.
113 raised his hand right away: Williams interview.
113 “Jaybird was as fair as it got”: Ibid.
113 “So how long do you think you’re going to be able to hang on?”: Ibid.
114 given an assignment by John Becker: Golemba, “Human Computers,” 64; Langley Memorial Laboratory Telephone Directory, 1952.
114 insisting that her calculations were wrong: Ibid.
114 the problem wasn’t with her output: Ibid.
114 John Becker apologized to Mary Jackson: Ibid.
115 It was a cause for quiet celebration: Ibid.
CHAPTER 12: SERENDIPITY
117 little sister Patricia: Katherine Johnson: Becoming a NASA Mathematician, Leadership Project, March 8, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLCwE4GdJdVRLOEyW4PhypNnZIJbYLRTVd&v=jUsyYvrz2qQhttp://www.visionaryproject.org/johnsonkatherine/.
117 vivacious college beauty queen: “Miss Goble Is Bride of Cpl. Kane Jr.,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, August 30, 1952. All details of the bride and groom’s attire, wedding decoration, and honeymoon plans are from this article.
117 still lived in Marion: “Marion, VA Couple Observes Golden Wedding Anniversary,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, September 19, 1953.
118 “Why don’t ya’ll come home with us too?”: “Katherine Johnson: Becoming a NASA Mathematician.”
118 “I can get Snook a job at the shipyard”: Ibid.
118 the director of the Newsome Park Community Center: Katherine Johnson: Becoming a NASA Mathematician.
118 coordinated community activities: “Newsome Park Community Center Dedicatorial Exercises Held,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, July 21, 1945.
119 stayed up nights making school outfits: Johnson interview, March 6, 2011.
119 live-in help: Joylette Hylick Goble, personal interview, October 10, 2011.
120 a painter’s job at the Newport News shipyard: Johnson interview, September 17, 2011.
120 the club’s assistant director: “Joins USO Staff,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, May 9, 1953.