Sunday, February 24, 2013

Six Degrees of Separation

We were all connected to the C-141
by Lloyd W.

In 1962, I supervised tests at Lockheed’s engineering lab to certify the Taper Loc Fastening System. After these tests were completed, the system was installed on the center section of the wing joint assembly on the first C-141 cargo aircraft.

Fast forward 50 years. My wife and I moved to an assisted living facility where we met another resident, Jack Young, a former test pilot for Lockheed. We were interested to learn that he flew the C-141 on its first flight.

During the process of our moving, we distributed some 30 model airplanes that I had built for family and friends. They had been hanging in my two-car garage since I retired. These were models of planes I had personally worked on.

A friend from church, Will, requested the model of the C-141 on which he had been a passenger as he returned home from Vietnam. Unfortunately that model had been given to someone else. However, in our possession was a picture of that model I had given my father before his death and I offered it to Will. He gladly accepted. Soon there came a telephone call from Will saying that the plane he came back on had the same wing number as the one in the picture.