Acknowledgments

I first would like to thank Virginia Dawson for serving as a mentor for so many years. She first invited me to work with her as a coauthor on an article on the Advanced Turboprop Project in 1995.’1 This was the start of a long collaboration with her that blossomed into many historical projects at History Enterprises. Inc. Dr. Dawson and her expert historical work on Lewis Research Center have been and continue to be an inspiration. She also provided her insight on a draft of this monograph. I would like to thank Joseph R. Chambers for providing points on contact on the ACEE program at the Langley Research Center and for his careful reading of this manuscript. The monograph is vastly improved because of the assistance of Dr. Dawson and Mr. Chambers. [31]

Gail S. Langevin helped to coordinate my research trip to Langley and ensure I had everything I needed during my stay. The Langley library staff was supportive and assisted in the location of key materials. The archivists and librarians at Glenn Research Center were of tremendous assistance with my numerous requests. 1 would like to sincerely thank Kevin Coleman, Robert Arrighi, Deborah Demoline. Anne Powers, Suzanne Kelley, and Jan Dick for all their assistance over the years.

1 am grateful to Elizabeth Armstrong for her expert assistance in shaping the manuscript. I also want to thank the Communications Sup­port Services Center team at NASA Headquarters for its contributions, including Greg Finley for copyediting, Stacie Dapoz for proofreading, and Janine Wise for design. Heidi Blough expertly compiled the index.

I also appreciate those who offered their time to be interviewed for this project, including Herm Rediess, Richard Wagner, Raymond Colladay, John Klineberg, and Dennis Huff. Dr. Dawson and I also conducted interviews with Donald Noted, G. Keith Sievers, and Daniel Mikkelson for a previous article we published on the Advanced Turboprop Project. The efforts of Donald Nored in preserving the rich documentation associated with the ACEE project were essential in helping me to reconstruct this story. Without his archival spirit and sense of historical importance, many of the details would have been lost. Finally. I want to thank those who commissioned this series of aerospace monographs. They include Anthony Springer from NASA, and Lynn Bondurant. Gail Doleman Smith, and Dorothy Watkins, from Paragon Tec. NASA’s willingness to engage historians and the academic freedom it ensures them is always a pleasure

I also wanted to thank Dr. Jon Carleton, the department chair of his­tory and military studies at American Public University System. It has been a highlight of my academic life to be a member of his faculty and to engage with students from around the world on a daily basis.

No acknowledgment would be complete without recognizing the love of my family, which is the single most important force in my life.

My wife of 19 years, Nancy, has been a cherished partner of mine in anything worthwhile that I might have done in life. We have a 9-year-old daughter, Isabelle, who each day finds new w-ays to enlighten and enrich our lives. In February 2009, we welcomed twin girls to this world —Emma and Sarah. It is to the four of them that this book is dedicated.