More Than an Engineer

Ransone has penned an amazing history of his professional and personal life. It is obvious he did his homework before going to the keyboard . As 2Lts we spent spent USAF careers together with both flying to Mach 2 in the B-58. I admired his engineering expertise as experienced and now through his book. I strongly recommend this book.

Enjoyable read that covers some interesting aircraft during a period of exceptionally prolific experimentation.

I enjoyed reading about the author's career; very informative.

“Six munce ugo I culdnt even spel inginear an now I are one” In the late 1940s when my own career was starting to form, a cartoon of a gawky youngster with the above caption was circulating on college campuses. It got lots of laughs and it spread in multiple versions, almost as if there had been an internet.Engineers win a fair share of this culture's razzing and roasting, In contrast Rob Ransone, in his latest book More than an Engineer lays claim to a place above the upper fringe of the profession. The claim is well supported throughout the book.Graduating from Texas A&M with a degree in aeronautical engineering, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the USAF Reserve and reported for duty at Edwards Air Force Base. He rapidly distinguished himself, earning a comment that his grasp was about the equal of that of a typical lieutenant Colonel.The B-58 bomber was not only a new design; it was entering a new and unpredictable environment. 700 mph at 30,000 feet is well studied, but you can't get from there to 1400 mph at 60,000 feet by doubling things, Rob designed and carried out an exhaustive range of tests: what happens if this, that, or the other thing fails, and always at the most inopportune moment?Test Pilots earn hero-worship for putting their lives on the line in bug-prone new aircraft—too seldom do we notice that they rarely fly alone. A Flight Engineer may do his duty keeping performance records or, by quick thinking, may save the flight from disaster, By even quicker, more complex thinking he may force cancellation of a doomed flight or even of an internationally-linked aircraft design. In the latter case, Rob worked with the engineers at Wright-Patterson AFB to define safe flight specifications for a US/West German VTOL fighter, knowing full well that the concept could not meet those safety specifications— this resulted in cancellation of the project. Much hinges on the makeup, mettle and merit of the man. Rob keeps you on the edge of your chair with snapshots from his history- changing career.In time he and wife Paula grew weary of desert living, There were fresh challenges on the frontiers of aviation. Some air corridors of the world, notable the eastern seaboard of the United States, were so congested that travel demands could not be met. Local Governments will not raze several suburban square miles to build another airport, so a new mode of travel must be invented.Rob studied the field of aircraft that can operate out of facilities measured in acres rather than square miles, yet capable of servicing long routes, as helicopters cannot. They are named variously VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) and VSTOL (Vertical and Short Takeoff and Landing), aircraft. Operating space might more readily be found close to urban centers, even floating platforms in harbors.Long story short, in an employment interview at American Airlines he made a colossal impression. On his first day on the job Frank Kolk, Vice President for Development. Engineering, summed up his carte-blanche instructions thus, "I want American Airlines to be the leader in STOL and VSTOL technology among the airlines. I want you to figure out what your job is and 1 want you to let me know what you are doing."What would you do with a commission like that? Fun to dream, isn't it. Rob gave it his all Ultimately, the socio-political problems proved to outweigh technology and the project was scrapped. But Rob’s work with the citizens group that opposed the project emphasized that engineers should consider the economic, environmental, and sociopolitical aspects of their technology implementation, as well as the technical and operational aspects. This is why his book is titled More Than An Engineer.Incidentally, Rob’s work with the citizens group was included in an exhibit of Confrontation of Technology with Society at the new Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

Rob is certainly not above tooting his own horn, which isn't really bad as he has done plenty to earn it. There are a lot of good lessons learned in there for sure but he often has odd tangents talking about what places he ate to the history of French wine. I think it was to keep the book from getting dry (pun intended) but often detracted from the point. There was a lot of overlap with "Flight Testing at Edwards: Flight Test Engineers' Stories 1946-1975" and in the end, I would recommend reading that book instead.

Very well written and interesting vignettes of 60s leading edge aircraft, especially the B-58, and a variety of helicopters and VTOL experimental aircraft.

very well written and very human look at both the challenges of leading edge technologies. As a retired engineer I could really relate to the carreer choice problems.

Excellent- technical subjects , described in layman's terms.

Sadly the writer was on an ego trip - I suppose only to be expected by the title - More (i.e better) than an engineer.And the words 'it was fun' are used too often and in many cases, just after mentioning that somebody had been killed.