In the mid-1950s a small group of overworked, underpaid scientists and engineers on a remote base in the Mojave Desert developed a weapon no one had asked for but everyone was looking for. This is the story of how that unorthodox team, led by visionary Bill McLean, overcame Navy bureaucracy and other more heavily funded projects to develop the world's best air-to-air missile. Author Ron Westrum examines that special time and place--when the old American work ethic and "can do" spirit were a vital part of U.S. weapons development--to discover how the dedicated team was able to create a simple and inexpensive missile. Today, some forty-four years after its invention, Sidewinder is still considered the best America has.
The result of twelve years of research, including hundreds of interviews, Westrum's study examines this unique military-civilian cult of creativity. McLean and his China Lake team produced an amazing array of technological and engineering marvels. Their powerful insights were coupled with outrageous creativity. In the intellectual pressure cooker provided by the isolation of the desert, the scientists dreamed and tinkered while test pilots such as Wally Schirra and Glenn Tierney took to the air, often risking life and limb to test the fledgling system. Westrum captures the guiding vision of McLean, the Caltech-trained physicist who intended to visit China Lake for two months but stayed for twenty-three years. An expert in group dynamics, the author shows why the team succeeded. He reduces arcane missile techno-babble to language both the specialist and lay reader will appreciate and enjoy, and he offers lessons useful for leaders and managers in and out of uniform.
In a time of billion-dollar weapons development contracts, astronomical cost overruns, and defense acquisitions scandals, this revealing, highly readable tale about one of the most successful weapons in history should be of interest to everyone concerned about national security.
Ron Westrum is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Eastern Michigan University and Professor II of Society and Risk at the University of Stavanger, Norway. He has published two books and many articles on complex organizations, corporate culture, innovation, and systems safety. He has presented many papers to national and international meetings on aerospace, medical, and nuclear safety. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
