It is a very long story. I will not be able to tell it here, in it's totality.Simply put...
We met Marta one night (Me, my wife and kids) at a very small and informal NASA lecture gathering. After the gathering, we spoke with her. Subsequently, we remained in contact, and this led to my family becoming witness to one of the very last flights of the storied SR-71 Blackbird. On a blistering July morning, the magnificent aircraft performed it's mission. Thanks to Marta, we were some of the ONLY people there to see.
Marta has recently passed on. She was a very special person. A brief biography is available below, courtesy of the NASA website. Included are the events of her loss...to us, and those many others that she touched.
The following is an excerpt from the NASA website:
Birthplace:Long Island, New York
Occupation:Chief Engineer, Dryden Flight Research Center
Quote:"Waste not your days, trying to prolong them; use your time."--Ian Fleming (writing in a James Bond novel)
Favorite Space Fact:Astronauts are people too! They have just had different experiences.
Father:Engineer
Mother:Teacher
Education:BS Aeronautical Engineering, EMBA
The Right StuffEditor's note: this feature was first published on April 26, 2004. Unfortunate new information is available here.
There's nothing like flying in an SR-71. Well, almost. "That is, without a doubt, on the Top 10 list," said NASA flight engineer, Marta Bohn Meyer, about her first flight aboard the sleek SR. "At risk of having to balance my personal life against my professional life, it's right up there at one or two. "And I won't tell you which is one and which is two." Oct. 3, 1991, was a day to remember for Bohn Meyer: She became the first female crew member to fly in the SR-71, and the second woman to fly in a triple-sonic aircraft. "To my dying day, it will always bring a smile to my face," she said. "That was the most invigorating, stressful, enjoyable, toughest thing I've ever done in my life - and it was also the most successful." Smiles abounded that day. As Bohn Meyer, now chief engineer at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, was doused with water by the project team in the traditional first flight ceremony, there were scores of NASA coworkers present, rallying in support of her historic moment.
Marta Bohn Meyer was the first female crew member to fly in the SR-71.
"There were people who came out to the ramp to congratulate me," she recalled. "It wasn't just the maintenance crew. Just people. And many of them were women." The moment remains indelibly etched in her mind. "It was an eye-opening experience to realize that to a lot of women here, I do represent something important." She takes that responsibility seriously. With the solid support of her parents, she has been an avid flyer since her teens. Nowadays, Bohn Meyer often speaks to young people, encouraging them to cultivate their interest in becoming pilots. "If I can affect just one person's life because I talked to them or I talked to their parents and encouraged them, then I'm happy," she said. "I'm a firm believer that if you don't have a hobby by the time you're 13 or 14 years old, you're lost," she said. "You've got to be special in your own mind and in other people's minds." Over the years, Bohn Meyer has discovered that there aren't many girls who believe they can actually become pilots. "And that's something we have to work to change." Bohn Meyer's success has been the result of what she calls the "Four Rights" - the right training, the right time, the right place and the right attitude. She has been at NASA Dryden since she graduated Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., in 1979, and negotiated for a position as an operations engineer that involved some flying. Since then, she has worked on a variety of research projects, specializing in flight test operations, developing test techniques and laminar flow research. She also served as the F-16XL project manager, as well as acting deputy director of aerospace projects. Her flight test training was primarily on-the-job and through NASA. "OJT brings it home real fast," she said. "You have to keep your eyes and ears open all the time, and that's not necessarily the easiest thing." As Dryden's chief engineer, she is responsible for assisting the engineering and management talent at the in their efforts to conduct safe, effective and efficient flight related research and test. She works with technical experts and leaders from Dryden as well as other NASA Centers, other government agencies, and industry to try to find ways to accomplish the techncial objectives while also remaining cognizant of her obligation to the American taxpayer - to spend their dollars wisely. "Sometimes it is a difficult challenge as often the cost of making revolutionary leaps in aeronautics and aerospace technology - which I believe is expected of us - is far greater than the expectations of those who authorize funding for our research and test endeavors," she says. "We are constantly asking ourselves, 'How can we do more, with even less?' Creativity and innovation - being able to use mature techologies in unique ways; and being able to develop unique and new technolgies which later may be matured by other entities - are key ingredients to our continued success." She credits much of her success to the support she received from mentors during her years at Rensselaer (through which she was a cooperative student at NASA Langley Research Center, Virginia) and in the years following. "All of my mentors have a very special place in my heart, because they made a big difference to me," she said. Because there were so few women involved in the field at the time, all her mentors were men. "They were all very supportive, cooperative and helpful." At the time, she was concerned with how she could ever repay their support. "I was smart enough to see what was going on, that these people were helping me. I always worried about what I was ever going to do for them. "The resolution basically was, just do it for someone else - some other young person who's struggling their way through," she said. "Give them a chance. Help them see what's possible for them."
Posted by: Dan L. & Family
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