【誰にともなしに、独り言レス―その3091】
その2005～2014
正しいガス・グリソムの実像について（Aviation – airports, aircraft, helicopters …“GRISSOM DID NOT BLOW THE HATCH” October 30, 2015）
証言－１ ジーン・クランツ
"I spent a lot of time with Gus,"Kranz stated. "Everybody alleges that the guy panicked. Gus is not the kind of guy who would panic… he is a very controlled person. I also knew we had an inherently different hatch design, from the standpoint of a release mechanism, to the other [Shepard] one. I knew the limitations in testing, and if Gus says he didn't do it, then he didn't do it. It's that straightforward."
証言－２ ギュンター・ウェント
Another front-line exponent of Gus Grissom was McDonnell engineer Guenter Wendt, who helped insert Grissom and the other early astronauts into their spacecraft prior to hatch closure. Wendt, who died in May 2010, was a staunch admirer of Grissom. "We cannot prove what happened," he told interviewer in June 2000. "It was an unexplained anomaly. But we know that Grissom did not blow the hatch."
"That is the one [possibility] that I believe in," Wendt concluded. "It is the most logical explanation.Can we prove it ? No."
When asked to characterize Gus Grissom in the light of later criticism of him and his actions that day – particularly in the movie adaptation of Tom Wolfe's book, The Right Stuff – Jim Lewis expressed his particularly strong recollections and feelings.
"Gus flew 100 combat missions in Korea. He was a successful test pilot. He had been selected to be an astronaut. Many applied, few were chosen. He was selected to fly the second manned U. S.space mission. He was later selected to command both the first Gemini mission and the first Apollo mission. Those kinds of things do not happen to a ‘screw up.’
"That kind of person would never have survived combat or been a test pilot, and would not have been selected to be the first in line to blaze the way for new space programs… Gemini and Apollo. NASA obviously had confidence in Gus. I am sad that Wolfe and his media apparently chose to ignore what, to me, is the obvious. I went through the same flight school as Gus – a bit later – flew in the Far East, and was an engineering test pilot. Nothing in Wolfe's book about flight school or the MR-4 mission or flying in general was characterized the way I would have chosen, but Wolfe neither interviewed me nor asked my opinion.
"In addition, think about this. MR-4 had a large window – the first spacecraft to have such – adjacent to the hatch. When the capsule was floating, Gus looked right out that window and could see water above the hatch sill and above the lower edge of the window, which was lined up with the lower sill of the hatch.
Do you think anyone would have purposefully released a hatch under those conditions ? I would add that since we had practiced such things, he also knew that I wasn't there yet and obviously hadn’t lifted his spacecraft clear of the water. So then, did he accidentally hit the release ? NASA records show that every astronaut who used that plunger to release a hatch got a bruise or skin abrasion from the rebound of the plunger. Gus's post-flight physical documented that his body was totally unmarked. This is positive evidence that he did not ‘accidentally’ hit that plunger. Had he done so, he would have been even less able to escape its rebound than any of those who actuated it on purpose.
"Gus was a consummate pilot, a very bright individual, and a skilled engineer who had everyone's respect. No one who knew him could or would argue with that statement, and that is how he should be remembered."
※ but Wolfe neither interviewed me nor asked my opinion ―銘記されたし。
