Autobiography

Ellis was born 21 November, 1921 in Atlanta, GA. As his Dad was a traveling salesman, the family moved every now and again to his base of sales: Chattanooga, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia, Providence...and back again to Atlanta and, then, Jacksonville. At one time, Ellis and Marjorie (unbeknownst to one another) were in the same elementary school in Atlanta: the 10th Street Elementary [but I, of course, was an "upper classman"] All through elementary school, Jr. High (O'Keefe), and part of high school (Boy's High), his constant and best friend was Hiram Horne...his parents were Ellis's parents and vice versa. It was painful to leave him when the family, in the summer of '37 moved to Jacksonville.

Ellis attended Robert E. Lee High in Jacksonville, FL where he soon made wonderful friends. Of particular note is Billy Lasarow of Studio City; he and Billy continue to enjoy long walks and talks in the hills surrounding their homes. Ellis, Harvey Leitman, and George ("Bubba") Benjamin were among the founding members of the still-extant Esquire Club and you will note (below) a listing of the "officers"...and Ellis played first-string Left Tackle on the Lee championship football team when they won the Florida State "Big-Ten" Championship in 1939-40. "Arnie" [Silverberg], my best friend, is also seen in the "All Star's" photo

After graduation from Lee, Ellis with Billy and other close friends entered the University of Florida in Gainesville, Class of '44. And they became members of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity with experiences that continue to afford many pleasant memories.

Of course, Dec 7, 1941 pretty much shook up things on campus and a number of "brothers' went to war but most engineering students, of which Ellis was one, were deferred to complete their studies. By the summer of '43, Ellis entered Georgia Tech to complete his last semester. After graduation, he was hired by Bell Aircraft in Marietta, GA as a liaison engineer for the manufacture of the B-29 bomber aircraft. As the war ended, he happily took a job in aeronautical research at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at Langley Field, VA (outside Hampton). The "happily" word refers to the fact that it was from Hampton that Ellis was invited to attend an afternoon tea party in Richmond...and it was there, that Ellis first saw his beautiful Marjorie.

I met the "Love of My Life", Marjorie Ruth Blumberg, at a Sunday Dance/Tea Party in Richmond, March 1946, just as she was completing her studies at William & Mary's College of Fine Arts in Richmond. On the 28th of July 1946, in Chattanooga, her birthplace, Marjorie Ruth married Ellis Katz for a lifetime of love, three sons and families, and happiness.

Retirement in early 87 has led to some of the best years of our lives. Marjorie and I have driven through France, Sicily, Italy, Spain; hiked the English Cotswolds, the Alps, the High Sierra and our local Santa Monicas; joined the Calabasas Golf & Country Club where we played lots of great golf and celebrated our 50th Annivesary; made many new friends; and I joined the SAGE Society and have participed in and led many studies of wide-ranging interest.

My Connection with the Manned Lunar Landing Program (APOLLO)

Much of my career has been associated with rockets in one form or the other. It began in 1945 with my job as an "Aerodynamics Research Scientist" at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) at Langley Field, Va. It was there that I began to launch aerodynamic research models on rocket boosters at Wallop's Island, just off the east coast of Virginia. These rockets were surplus WWII solid propellant units that we used to achieve supersonic speeds for our research.

In 1951, I left the government (NACA) for jobs in industry: first with Fairchild Aircraft Missile Davison in Long Island, NY and, then in 1955, with North American Aviation's Missile Division in Downey, Ca.

In late 1956, at North American Aviation, Downey, I led an advanced engineering group in a proposal to the U.S. Air Force for a study to create a lunar base on the moon.. The idea behind the proposal was that a base on the far side of the moon would provide an ideal site for military surveillance and authority over the entire face of earth. The study was not funded.

The Russian "Sputnik" spacecraft flew in Oct 57. The event had global repercussions, especially in the U.S.

In 1958 I briefed Werner Von Braun at Huntsville on a proposal to use the existing North American Navaho rocket booster for an orbital mission. The proposal was judged too far ahead of its time.

In 1959, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formed out of the NACA to put a man in earth orbit before the USSR. The main effort was led by the staff of the former Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD) at Langley Field, VA. (As noted above, I was one of the original staff (circa 1945) of PARD but had left the NACA by the spring of 1951 to join Fairchild Aviation in Long Island, NY..)

In early 59, I led a North American design team in a study of very large rocket boosters, which would be needed for space missions. I presented our study results to top management at the newly-formed NASA Headquarters.

In 1959, in response to an RFP (Request for Proposal) from NASA, I led a North American engineering team to design and propose a large rocket booster for space missions. The program was awarded to McDonnell Aircraft.

In 1960, following the loss of the above proposal, I joined Hughes Aircraft as Director of Advanced Manned Space Programs. As Hughes was the leader in air and space-borne computer technology, my job was to develop business opportunities for Hughes in the budding manned space flight program. In that capacity I led a study of potential hazards during a lunar landing mission that could require an onboard computing system to safely return astronauts to earth.

From my study of lunar mission hazards, I prepared a paper, "A Mission Management Subsystem for Advanced Manned Space Missions" which I presented at the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) Annual Meeting in NY in Jan 61.

After Gagarin flew the first manned space orbit in Apr 61, things really heated up. In May 61, President Kennedy announced a national goal of placing a man on the moon before the end of the decade.

The Space Task Group, which had been, formed out of PARD (see above), succeeded in flying a manned sub-orbital mission (Alan Shepard) in May 61 and, a year later, an orbital mission by John Glenn.

In late 61, North American won NASA Apollo contracts to engineer and build the Command Module and the second stage (SII) of the Apollo rocket booster.

Following the Dec 61 SII award, North American asked me to return to participate in the program. However, it was not until a second request (and a much more favorable offer) in Dec 63 that I accepted the position of Director of Systems Engineering..

During the next four years, I led a large team of engineers to resolve problems and interface issues regarding the various systems, (e.g.: hydraulics, fuel, propulsion, etc.) which made up the Saturn II stage.

My final activities with regard to the Apollo Program came to an abrupt conclusion as a result of the Apollo 1 fire in Feb 67. As a result of what was perceived as a national calamity, all higher management of the North American Aviation's Apollo programs was "fired"…including myself. The wholesale "firing" was widely regarded as a required catharsis to heal a tragic break in the program. To compensate, a job was created for me: "Director of Advanced Launch Vehicles", which I held until moving to Rocketdyne's High Energy Laser Projects in Oct 1980.

A Love Story

Their first home was an apartment in Hampton where Ellis was an aeronautical engineer at the NACA, Langley Field. Here they are with a group of friends at an outing. Their special friends in Hampton were the Savages and the Gales who later joined them for their 50th wedding anniversary.

Their first home was a small one-bedroom garden apartment in Hampton, VA. Hampton was the site of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics {later NASA) where Ellis was an Aerodynamics Scientist. They were happy there and,without a car, they walked and walked and walked: to “downtown” Hampton, to the little inlet on the Hampton Roads, where, for a while, Ellis docked a small sailboat, to the Hampton Institute (an all-black college) to see performances of operas, plays, and concerts. On some occasions, they would get a ride with friends to Williamsburg or to the Blue Ridge mountains.

The young couple made close friends in Hampton who have remained dear throughout the years: Phyl and Mel Savage and Harriet and Larry (now gone) Gale…who now live in Boca Raton FL. Both couples were here to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in 1996.

Ron came along on 28 Feb 50 and their little family was on its way. They moved out of their one-bedroom flat in Hampton to a “spacious” two-bedroom apartment in Newport News. By this time they had a car of their own: a 49 Ford!

In May 51, they moved to Levittown, NY, where Ellis began work for Fairchild Aircraft Guided Missile Division. After a year, they rented a small house on St Marks Lane in Islip (farther out on the island). They were very happy there and decided to build a home nearby. Marjorie and Ellis were thrilled to finally have their own home (below), but, unfortunately, Fairchild began to lose business. In May 55, Ellis was offered a promising position by North American Aviation in Downey, CA and, so after one year in their new home, they moved to California.

In May of 1951, Ellis was offered an attractive job at Fairchild Guided Missiles in Wyandanch, NY…So the couple, with son Ron, traveled to Long Island and rented a Levittown house for a year. It was the first time Ellis gave in to the idea of watching TV…the house had a built-in unit. One year later, they moved to a rented house in Islip, a community far out from the city and where the couple felt they would want to live for the rest of their lives. So they began to build a home in Islip and, each day, Marj and Ron (in his little red pedal car) would go the several blocks to the building site and watch the construction. It became a lovely home and the family moved in by the fall of 1954.

Unfortunately, by that time, Fairchild had begun to hit the skids and, by early 1955, Ellis was enticed to accept a job offer from North American in Downey, CA. Also, by that time, Marjorie was “with child”….to become Danny.

While Ellis traveled to California in May ’55 to find a home and begin work at North American, Marjorie with Ron traveled to Dalton, GA (her parents had been living there for years as proprietors of a jewelry store) to give birth on 24 June to second son, Daniel Marshall.

Whittier is a lovely Quaker-founded town to the east of Los Angeles. The family lived near a beautiful WPA-constructed park that was like the family’s playground. Very soon Marj and Ellis made good friends of Florence and Harold Ehlers and some of Ellis’s co-workers. Harold, to this day, is one of their closest friends and living in San Luis Obispo.

On 20 Sep ’58, Marj gave birth to third son, Paul Elliott, as happy a “happening” as could ever be. Grandparents, Bob and Ethel Katz, were overjoyed to be present at that wonderful moment. God had been good…the family was happy and healthy and active. There were excursions (often with the Ehlers) to the beaches, to the mountains and snow, to Sequoia National Forest, to Big Sur, and to Mexico. Ron became the leading pitcher for the baseball Little League of Whittier and, later, in Encino.

As Marjorie was about to give birth to her second child, she traveled to Dalton, GA, to be with her parents where on, 24 June 55, Dan was born. Ellis, meantime, had found a house on Penn St. in Whittier and, so by July 55, the family was reunited. The family enjoyed nearby Penn Park and became good friends with the Ehlers family who lived nearby. On occasion there were trips to Baja, Mexico, to the beaches and to nearby mountains. But a special treat was being able to visit with Ellis’s parents who had moved to Los Angeles back in 51. By 20 Sep 58, Paul rounded out the happy family.

At the time, Ron was 10, Dan 5, and Paul 2. Marj was always at home to see that the boys were provided for, to see them off to school, to prepare their lunches, to be home for them when they returned from school, to take them to the park, to prepare the family dinner. Dinnertime was very special for the family; it was more than a time of delicious food…it was also a time for conversation about what had happened at school, what happened in the city or country, and a time to reflect upon events. It was most special on Friday nights (the “Shabbat”) when Ellis would arrive home early from work, and the family would dress for dinner in the Dining Room, and Marj would light the candles and say the blessings. Those beautiful moments remain with us all.

In May 60, Ellis was offered a substantial promotion by Hughes Aircraft in Culver City. As the commute from Whittier was difficult, on Labor Day 60, the family moved into their present home on Hayvenhurst Drive in Encino.

Encino became a very happy home for the family. They became active members of Temple Judea, made many friends, explored the beautiful mountains and seacoasts and have been blessed with health and prosperity.

During all the years of raising her family, Marjorie had put off her love for creating fine art. Now…she took up her her brushes and began to display and sell her works in local art galleries. The photo is of Marjorie standing before her self-portrait at a local art show.

There were many happy moments with friends…their Havurah group from Temple Judea (below on an outing to Napa Valley) and Marjorie’s Investorette stock (and social) club

Walking and hiking were always a part of their lives. They have hiked the High Sierra, the Cotswold’s (England), the Swiss Alps, and trails in Spain

And there were adventurous driving trips through the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Sicily, and Switzerland. Here on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, they enjoy a scene with their friends, the Goodman’s.

…And their sons grew and prospered. Ron became a Memphis entrepreneur and businessman, Dan created a successful advertising company, and Paul became an attorney-at-law.

…And here is where their “cup did truly runneth over”! Their sons gave to Marjorie and Ellis three darling daughters: Susan, Michelle and Tina who brought beauty and love into their family… and four grandchildren: Byron, Elysa, Erica and Joelle. And Byron, with Dearest Susanne, living in Atlanta, has now added a great grandson, Cameron, while Elysa has married Dan Simone and lives in Portland, OR.

But the most wonderful moment of all for the happy couple was their children’s gift of their 50th Wedding party held at the Calabasas Country Club. It was a festive occasion with their family and friends from far and wide.

Letter to the inlaws, asking for Marjorie's hand in marriage, May 9, 1946

Envelope side 1 Envelope side 2 page 1 page 2 See Marjorie's letter

My dear Mr. and Mrs. Blumberg,

I hope my letter find you in the best of health and spirts. I'm going to do my best to write to you of some very serious thoughts which have been in my mind recently.

Your daughter, Margie, and I have known each other for only a relatively short two or so months; if I recall correctly, I related to you in my first letter the story of our meeting.

However, in the short time which has elapsed since our introduction, Margie and I have shared a number of fine experiences and have learned a great deal about each other. Every one of our weekends has been wonderful and vividly different from all the others. We've played and had great fun and we've also seriously studied one another and found ourselves in happy agreement with each other's principles and ideals. We each find in the other the same zest and flavor of eagerness for living that we do our own selves. In short, Mr. and Mrs. Blumberg, your daughter and I find ourselves very seriously in love. I don't believe that I am really revealing much to you that you haven't suspected. I shaln't go into my feelings for Margie but only to say that I am sure that she is the most wonderful person for me and that I love her very dearly. Our acquaintance and love began in our mutual understanding of and reaction to a way of life that we both love.

I wouldn't, and I'm sure that Margie feels the same, have had it any other way.

I've asked Margie to be my wife so that we can continue together to best realize the true happiness that can't fail with our love. I am very earnestly seeking a happy successful life and I'm sure, that with Margie, I shall not fail for, if I know my own heart, she shall be my inspiration.

I haven't as much to offer Margie as I would like; that is, with respect to material comforts. At the present, I am an Aeronautical Engineer on Civil Service and am drawing an annual salary of about three thousand dollars. I expect to do better in the not-too-distant future. We would be able to live in comfort but some of the luxuries to which we have both been accustomed will have to be dispensed with as is evident. But Margie has expressed a willingness to sacrifice some of her old life for a new one which I shall insure with my devotion.

And so I ask you, Mr. and Mrs. Blumberg, for your daughter as my wife. To quote the familiar, I only hope that you will feel as tho you are gaining a son rather than losing a daughter. Margie and I would like to announce our engagement on her graduation and be married this summer with your permission. I shall look forward to our meeting on the seventh of June in Richmond when we shall discuss more at length the future in store for Margie and I.

Hopefully, your son-to-be,

Ellis

Missile Division
Downey, California
Where The Hound Dog Was Born
NAApin302

The Downey division pioneered advances in missile technology that became the cornerstone of America's rocket industry. The Downey plant produced the GAM-77 (AGM-28 Hound Dog Missile) Hound-Dog, an air-to-surface nuclear missile carried under the wings of B-52 bombers.

The Downey U.S. Air Force Plant 16/North American Aviation, Inc., occupied the same Downey land that E.M. Smith had bought in the 1920s to found an air field and aviation company, and which Vultee made great during the World War II years.

The project, the Hound Dog Air-to-Ground Missile Program, was to aid the mighty U.S. fleet of B-52s hit targets while remaining at a relatively safe distance. It used much of the tracking technology already developed for the Navaho Missile.

July 1957: Proposal for GAM-77 Hound Dog is submitted to Air Force. The contract was awarded North American in Oct 1958, two and a half years after the Strategic Air Command had realized its need.

The Hound Dog was the mainstay of the company through the early 1960s, turning out missiles to arm SAC's 29 B-52 squadrons. Production ceased in 1963.

A Brief Account of the Beginning of the Hounddog (GAM 77) Program

By: Ellis Katz

I joined the Missile Division of North American Aviation at Downy in May of 55 assigned to the Preliminary Design Section under Bill Parker. Reporting to Bill was Bob Wilson for Design and Bernie Chew for Operations. My background at the time was aerodynamics and missile design. I was identified as a “Responsible Engineer” under Gordon Olson and George Jeffs. As an RE, I was to lead project teams on projects to which I was assigned.

The following is my best recollection of the events of late summer and fall of ’57, which culminated in the Hounddog program.

In the summer of ’57, the North American Navaho program was abruptly canceled. The cancellation was a result of the successes of the Atlas ballistic missile program; the Navaho 3000 mile ramjet cruise missile was not deemed competitive for the mission.

Shortly after the cancellation (within weeks), the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, (I think his name was Ford), invited North American to come up with a design for a ”lightweight air-to-surface missile”. It was to be carried by the B-52 with a weight of not more than 12,500 lb. fully armed and fueled. We were told it was a ”hurry-up” project and that the concept had to be back in Washington within a week.

I was assigned the project under Jeffs and recall working the weekend with a team (including Lou Walkover.....best layout designer ever, Norm Ryker for structures, Bobby Crawford [later Johnson] for aerodynamics, Fred Ethridge for propulsion and others) to evolve a design that might be acceptable. We based the configuration on the X-10/G-38 canard type to carry over as much data as had been complied on the Navaho program.

As I recall, Bob Wilson and Bill Parker carried the concept back to the Pentagon and later returned with smiles.

By that time we came to know we were in a competition with Chance Vought who had an air-to-surface adaptation of their Regulus Navy ship-board launched missile. Of course, we didn’t know then that the ”dice were loaded” for us as consolation for our loss of the Navaho program [this view was shared by many of us but not officially noted].

Although the general configuration of the first design was pretty much a scaled-down X-10, there were some significant configuration issues. Lou Walkover resolved the first issue: how to arrange the internal components (guidance & control, APU, etc) of the bird so that it could be readily maintained while slung under the 52’s wing. Lou immediately came up with the design that used a cantilevered ”I-beam” projected from a forward bulkhead; all components would be mounted on both sides of the beam and easily accessible once the nose ”cowling” was removed. Although there was some issue about the guidance system (pure inertial vs a star-tracker system), we had no trouble settling on Autonetics inertial system.

The major issue was the choice of the turbojet engine. General Electric had come up with the small J-85 engine (I think it had been developed to power small commercial jets), which, in a two-engine configuration would be just sufficient to drive the bird to Mach 2.0 with the engines placed on either side of the after-body. GE had the test data to prove its case and we quickly (too quickly as it turned out) focused on that configuration. In fact, we had models made for publicity, which featured that configuration. However, Pratt & Whitney came to us proposing that we use their recently developed J-52 engine. The advantage of the non-afterburning J-52 was that a single engine might do the job.....but the test data did not prove that it would be adequate. So…we sent P&W back to the showers. They came back with more data but still we were unconvinced. By late September, the competition was nearing a close and, as the project leader, I (and others) did not want any ”changes” made at that time. How naive I was.....P&W went to the Air Force and the Air Force came to us and with test data still wet on the paper, the J-52 became the power plant. Of course, as it turns out, that was the right choice.

I recall Joe Berrer (Joe was president of the Missile Division at the time; not sure of the spelling of his last name) retuning from Inglewood where he had met with Dutch Kindleberger and Lee Atwood regarding the contract award and telling us that it had been decided to name the GAM-77 as "Hounddog". At the time Elvis was "King" and his musical fame carried over to our bird.

With the award of the contract and the beginning of the production program, Martin Boe was named Chief Engineer and Sandy Falbaum as Assistant Chief Engineer. I think that Dale Myers may have been named Program Manager. Being an advanced concept/preliminary-design type, I retuned to Preliminary Design.

Hounddog was a highly successful program and an important revenue source for North American in the post-Navaho period. Most important, it kept a very talented cadre of engineers together for the eventual competition and development of the Apollo/Saturn programs.

The Hound-Dog missiles were built in the HUGE (1 million square foot) building next door to mine...formerly the Chance Vultee aircraft building where they built WWII fighter aircraft. Quite often I would go over and wander about to see the missiles being put together. We had a missile test facility on the old runway, behind security locks, and I'd spend countless hours running my programs on the system and checking to make them perfect.

I became an expert on programming the electronic check of the Hound-Dog missile and the B-52 G&N system. My programs would check out the Bomb-Nav package, missile-tie in converter, astro-tracker (yes, the Hound Dog missile had access to a star tracker mounted in the B-52 pylon..the Kollsman star tracker was so sensitive it could track a star 10 degrees from the sun in daylight...) navigator panels with all their position servo displays, all the relays in the Hound-Dog, right to the spooky "Arm Warhead" and "Fuse" relays, and all the diodes, analog to digital and digital to analog devices in the systems. I also worked on programs to check the astro-tracker in the missile pylon, and a first-time-ever program that checked the the commutator contacts in an PIGA (accelerometer) for lead and lag failures.

At one point, I worked with my friends Dick Mueller and Phil Williams on a program called CEL (Combat Evaluation Launch). We ran flight tests on our various programs out of bases across the nation...the B-52 would fly, and the missile would pretend to launch, all the while gathering telemetry on its ability to do its job. There were something like 1300 launches a month going on during that period.

Some of the launches were live, down the AMR (Atlantic Missile Range). I liked to use one of those launches in my Math classes to exemplify the problems with a lost sign in an arithmetic process. I won't mention his name but Ray ______ accidentally changed a sign in the Cross Track equations and a Hound Dog turned around and went the wrong direction. It created some problems for us. It occurred the week I was getting married and we had to work over 100 hours to find all the problems.........

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