His name was Wayne Chamberlain. The kind of unsung hero we don't often hear about. Even though he did not have an official college degree in aviation engineering, his ability to solve problems was unsurpassed. He trained dozens of B17 flight crews in emergency procedures to help keep our airmen alive. He worked on P51's, B-25's, and the X-15 and did work on numerous landing gear systems. He designed a major portion of the B-29 instrument panel and worked on the avionics in the F-86. Much later he was called upon to help fix the oxygen distribution system on Apollo space craft after the tragic loss of the Apollo 1 crew. He would sleep on a problem, get up early, sometimes sketching out a part and then drive down to the shop and build one. No computer enhanced stuff- he just saw it and did it.
I always liked his story about the top secret crate he saw while working for North American. It was a captured FW 190 to be tested against the P-51. The 190 was allegedly crated up in England, put on a submarine, shipped to the US, and then to the North American test facility.
I guess it's true that the pilots took the most up front risks but it was not easy being an engineer or a mechanic- Wayne would sometimes pace back and forth and not sleep for nights because he worried about such things as an oleo strut having the right response so as not to throw a pilot off the run way etc.. The responsiblity was sometimes overwhelming.
The contribution of men like Wayne, and the mechanics who soaked their hands in solvent all day cleaning parts to keep our pilots safe, has been largely over looked in the media. The country owes these people a lot. They deserve our thanks and our prayers.
