Dennis R. Jenkins
Author of Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System The First 100 Missions, 3rd Edition
Works by Dennis R. Jenkins
Space Shuttle: The History of the National Space Transportation System The First 100 Missions, 3rd Edition (1993) 119 copies, 1 review
Dressing for Altitude: U.S. Aviation Pressure Suits, Wiley Post to Space Shuttle: U.S. Aviation Pressure Suits, Wiley Post to Space Shuttle (2012) 17 copies, 2 reviews
U.S. Air Force Aviation: A Military Photo Logbook, Volume 1 (Military Photo Logbook Vol 1) (2007) 3 copies
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Jenkins, Dennis R.
- Birthdate
- 1957-06-19
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- aerospace engineer
aerospace historian
author
project management consultant - Organizations
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
United Space Alliance
Lockheed Space Operations - Short biography
- Dennis R. Jenkins has worked as a NASA contractor for the past 32 years, mostly on the Space Shuttle program in a variety of engineering and management roles. After supporting the first few Space Shuttle launches at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), he spent 5 years activating the Vandenberg Launch Site in California before the facility was closed following the Challenger accident. Returning to KSC, he supported the recovery of the Shuttle accident and a variety of special projects. During the late 1990s, he was the ground sys-tems lead for the X-33 program. Afterward, he managed a variety of upgrade projects at KSC. He spent 2003 on the staff of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), 2004 as staff to the President’s commis-sion on the Future of Human Space Flight, and 2005 as the Verville Fellow at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM), after which, he returned to KSC. In 2010, he began participating in the Orbiters on Display Working Group that planned the delivery of the Space Shuttle orbiters to their display sites at the NASM; the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum; the California Science Center; and the KSC Visitor Complex. (2011 Biography from NASA publication SP-2011-593)
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- California, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- California, USA
Members
Reviews
Another book from the hoard that it's taken me forever to get to. When I was a kid, the vibe about this plane, was "what if," though I don't remember the sort of vehement resentment that the cancellation of the British TSR.2 or the Canadian CF-105 Arrow generated. There is a little bit of wistfulness in this book from the authors, but it's heavily tempered by the understanding that the operational requirement was almost impossible to meet within a reasonable timeframe, and that this plane show more only made sense in a force structure where there were "Mach 3" fighters, along with "Mach 3" bombers, and that world didn't happen. There were just easier and more efficient ways to maintain a nuclear strike force.
As for work itself, it's very nuts-and-bolts, as the authors take you through the technology incorporated in the plane; the visual documentation is great. The development path of the plane also turns out to have been very convoluted as, to a certain degree, the Valkyrie was a parallel option to building a nuclear-powered bomber (speaking of shudder-inducing technology). Frankly, having read about most of the very-fast aircraft of this period, several generations after the fact they look like dead-end efforts, where the technology needed to operationalize these machines really didn't keep up with the aerodynamics. There's a book to be written on materials science, metallurgy, and high-performance aircraft.
About the only down-side to this book is that the hardcover is an expensive collector's item if you need to own it, though it does seem readily available if you live in the United States and go the inter-library loan route. show less
As for work itself, it's very nuts-and-bolts, as the authors take you through the technology incorporated in the plane; the visual documentation is great. The development path of the plane also turns out to have been very convoluted as, to a certain degree, the Valkyrie was a parallel option to building a nuclear-powered bomber (speaking of shudder-inducing technology). Frankly, having read about most of the very-fast aircraft of this period, several generations after the fact they look like dead-end efforts, where the technology needed to operationalize these machines really didn't keep up with the aerodynamics. There's a book to be written on materials science, metallurgy, and high-performance aircraft.
About the only down-side to this book is that the hardcover is an expensive collector's item if you need to own it, though it does seem readily available if you live in the United States and go the inter-library loan route. show less
Excellent book on a extremely interesting and advanced attack helicopter that did not see active military service and for its manufacturer (Lockheed) marked the end in development and manufacture of rotary craft.
Book goes through lots of details - it starts from early days of helicopter and development of armed helicopter in Vietnam War to bring us to the requirements for fast moving attack helicopter capable of escorting fast transport helicopters (this was surprise, I was not aware that show more Chinook was that fast) and loiter capability for longer time periods than modern jet warplanes could provide [than and now]. And here we end up with Lockheed's proposal that will soon become known as AH56A Cheyenne.
I wont go into much discussion, book contains all of the details. Cheyenne was truly revolutionary and would be more of a aircraft/helicopter hybrid than Osprey ever was if you ask me, but development took long, slowly crawled towards the end phase of Vietnam War which caused change in requirements (more toward anti tank role than general gunship), it used a lot of very advanced technology that caused this delay and finally price model was ...... weird (maybe precursor to modern day marathon development of F35 by the same company) ........ such that it managed to irritate US Army (noobs at the time when it comes to aircraft procurement on their own) which definitely did not help.
But everything aside I will never understand how you can develop advanced gunship helicopter, capable of incredible speeds on horizontal axis, great maneuvering, long loiter time over battlefield, huge amount of gun, grenade, unguided and guided rockets/missiles firepower (with more definitely coming up), swivel gunner position capable of directing majority of weapons in almost any position no matter the flight path (think Millenium Falcon swivel gun controls), helmet mounted automatic sighting and targeting ..........
And you do not provide means for all weather, day/night flight and combat, after all this time to make it more interesting for the Army. Are you telling me that affordable thermal imaging equipment of size to be installed on the vehicle was not available at the time? Please.
Book is full of technical details and information on this wonderful piece of technology that unfortunately met its premature end and ended any further Lockheed development when it comes to helicopters.
Highly recommended. show less
Book goes through lots of details - it starts from early days of helicopter and development of armed helicopter in Vietnam War to bring us to the requirements for fast moving attack helicopter capable of escorting fast transport helicopters (this was surprise, I was not aware that show more Chinook was that fast) and loiter capability for longer time periods than modern jet warplanes could provide [than and now]. And here we end up with Lockheed's proposal that will soon become known as AH56A Cheyenne.
I wont go into much discussion, book contains all of the details. Cheyenne was truly revolutionary and would be more of a aircraft/helicopter hybrid than Osprey ever was if you ask me, but development took long, slowly crawled towards the end phase of Vietnam War which caused change in requirements (more toward anti tank role than general gunship), it used a lot of very advanced technology that caused this delay and finally price model was ...... weird (maybe precursor to modern day marathon development of F35 by the same company) ........ such that it managed to irritate US Army (noobs at the time when it comes to aircraft procurement on their own) which definitely did not help.
But everything aside I will never understand how you can develop advanced gunship helicopter, capable of incredible speeds on horizontal axis, great maneuvering, long loiter time over battlefield, huge amount of gun, grenade, unguided and guided rockets/missiles firepower (with more definitely coming up), swivel gunner position capable of directing majority of weapons in almost any position no matter the flight path (think Millenium Falcon swivel gun controls), helmet mounted automatic sighting and targeting ..........
And you do not provide means for all weather, day/night flight and combat, after all this time to make it more interesting for the Army. Are you telling me that affordable thermal imaging equipment of size to be installed on the vehicle was not available at the time? Please.
Book is full of technical details and information on this wonderful piece of technology that unfortunately met its premature end and ended any further Lockheed development when it comes to helicopters.
Highly recommended. show less
I've had this monograph sitting around forever and my first impression is that it's held up rather well all things considered. There is some gnashing of teeth that such an advanced machine was allowed to whither on the vine, and some bashing of Bob McNamara's procurement policies, but the authors do admit that by the time the U.S. Army were able to get this machine to work the requirements had changed; what was really wanted was a survivable gunship, as opposed to a high-speed escort. The show more other thought that comes to mind is that there is a need for a modern overall history of the helicopter gunship. show less
Dressing for Altitude: U.S. Aviation Pressure Suits, Wiley Post to Space Shuttle by Dennis R. Jenkins
Interesting but very technical and dry history of pressure suits. Those are the suits that pilots and astronauts wear while in their vehicles, as opposed to spacesuits which are designed to be fully exposed to the space environment. There is also a (very long) chapter on G-suits, those garments designed to allow pilots to endure a higher G load without suffering from the effects. Unless one has an overwhelming interest in these subject one might find the book a bit too tedious.
It is show more available as a free e-book from NASA. show less
It is show more available as a free e-book from NASA. show less
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