CoL49: (2) Giants of the Aerospace Industry

[Robin Landseadel]

On May 11, 2009, at 12:38 AM, Tore Rye Andersen wrote:

> Robin:
>
>> "Yoyodyne" points to Rocketdyne, one of the giants of the space
>> industry during NASA's heyday, developing their company by reverse-
>> engineering V-2's and expanding into making rocket engines for ICBM's
>> and the sixties space program.
>
> Good stuff about Rocketdyne, Robin - thanks. In addition to  
> Rocketdyne,
> I think it is safe to assume that Yoyodyne also has a lot in common  
> with
> Boeing, which Pynchon of course knew at first hand.

While looking for the connection of Rocketdyne to Boeing, found this  
re-post of a "Pynchon Notes" article on Pynchon's writing at Boeing:

	Early in 1960, after having graduated from Cornell and while
	writing V., Thomas Pynchon moved to Seattle and began
	working for the Boeing Airplane Company. What Pynchon did
	while working at Boeing has puzzled scholars almost from the
	moment of the very private author's literary debut. When we try
	to delve into his stint at Boeing--first mentioned by Lewis
	Nichols and Dick Schaap--we reach dead ends or find
	conflicting information. Yet Pynchon's time at Boeing is perhaps
	the most documented period of his life, and over the years a
	number of interesting (though not always accurate) bits of
	information have emerged.

	Here I first recount the previous scholarship on this phase of
	Pynchon's career and consider its weaknesses. Next, I detail
	my own research and conclusions, namely that while at Boeing,
	Pynchon wrote primarily for an internal newsletter--none of
	whose articles have bylines--called Bomarc Service News (first
	mentioned by Richard Lane), and that in two and a half years of
	work he produced some twenty-five to thirty technical articles for
	this newsletter. I discuss these articles and the criteria for
	attributing their authorship, and finish with a comprehensive
	annotated list of those I attribute to Pynchon. In this way, I hope
	to solve what has been one of the longest-running mysteries in
	Pynchon scholarship, as well as bring to light the depth and
	range of Pynchon's expertise on the Bomarc missile--an
	expertise which almost certainly inspired and underlies
	Gravity's Rainbow.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_6750/is_46-49/ai_n28819965/?tag=content;col1