Imagine having a job so secretive that you couldn’t even tell your spouse about it. James W. Plummer was given the job of Lockheed Corporation’s program manager for the satellite Corona. This satellite was used to spy on the Russians, after they had told America that they were going to blow us up. He had many failures, and many successes, which have all molded him into the humble and auspicious man he is today.
On January 30, 1920, James W. Plummer was born to Edwin Leroy Plummer and Mary Halliday-Plummer in a little gold mining town of Idaho Springs, Colorado, high in the Rocky Mountains. He was the middle child, with his older brother Roy, and younger brother Robert. After the mine where James’ father had worked as a machinist closed, he took his family to southern California. There, James and his brothers, grew up. All three brothers had always been interested in designing and building. They were all very inspired, also, by their Uncle George, who was an outstanding civil engineer with many honors. After James’s older brother, Roy, graduated and got his degree in electrical engineering from Berkeley, James and his younger brother Bob followed in his footsteps. While James and Robert were working toward their degrees, all three brothers also entered World War II. “My role in WWII, flying off a carrier, was certainly an experience, but not one I would choose. Wars are not good. But all three of us brothers came back alive, with experience that would help us in life.”
After the war, James began working in the field of Engineering, and was responsible for designing and manufacturing military satellites for Lockheed Corporation. During the Cold War with Russia,Government leaders had been demanding solid information on Russia’s military strike power after Russia told us that they had nuclear bombs to destroy the USA. No one knew if this was true or not. Engineers at Lockheed won the Air Force competition to design and build a satellite system capable of detecting aircraft and missile activities by Russians. President Eisenhower needed a quicker way to see what the Russians were doing. “That was CORONA, and I was the responsible contractor."
“The very early days of Corona were the hardest,” James Plummer quotes. He was given only nine months to design, build and launch their first attempt. Along the way many mistakes were made. "When one tries to do things he will certainly make mistakes. However, mistakes in design lead to revisions which succeed. This is true for all of life." James worked long and hard on this project, and he and his team were ready for Corona's first launch by the time the nine months were over. They had many problems with the net space design element, but were, in the end, eventually successful. Besides the Corona program, James Plummer served as Under Secretary of the U.S. Air Force, Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, Vice President of Lockheed Corporation, and as Chairman of The Aerospace Corporation. He was designated as a Space and Missile Pioneer by the U.S. Air Force in 1989 and was honored by the Director of Central Intelligence as a Corona Pioneer in 1995. In 2005, He became a recipient of the Charles Stark Draper Prize, for the " design, development, and operation of Corona, the first space-based Earth observation system."
James W. Plummer is the perfect example of a man that works hard and learns from mistakes. He was extremely hard working, and has a strong passion for engineering, which led him to being an important part of a significant job for President Eisenhower and the USA.
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