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Today's Featured Biography

 
Philip Lane

Married to Angie (Rotunda), N. Allegheny Cl of 1959 for 47 years with two delightful daughters and 4 grandchildren.
Living in Southern California since 1963 -- (Unlike Pennsylvania, the snow and ice behaves in California; It stays on the mountain where it belongs until we want to go skiing.) I graduated from Carnegie Tech in 1962 as a Mechanical Engineer, and Angie and I immediately relocated to California. I was fortunate to get a job designing and testing liquid rocket engines at Aerojet General. I thought this was great -- they are really fast, make lots of noise and were exciting for a guy who thought hot rod Fords were as good as it gets.
In 1963, we relocated from Northern to Southern California where I worked for N. American Aviation on the Saturn V booster for the Apollo program and enrolled in a Master’s program at U. Southern Cal. I did the Saturn second stage flight dynamics simulation -- 5 big analog computers and lots of equations -- great fun and experience. The boss wanted us to work as close to 24/7 as we could on the computers. The college loans were paid in one year!
A year later I relocated to Ford Aeronutronic -- Ford Motor Company's missile division in Newport Beach, Cal. I finished the Master’s degree at USC and enrolled in the MBA program at Univ of Cal. Irvine. During the 10 years at Aeronutronic, Angie and I were blessed with two daughters, Sheri and Lisa. My sister Susie, brother Bob, and mother all relocated from Ingomar to California leaving only brother Rich in Pittsburgh. Angie allowed me to play with a 1959 Corvette (still have it) and two airplanes while working on missiles and satellite controls at “work”.
The next move was to Textron's flight controls division, Hydraulic Research. My first job was Program Manager of the Space Shuttle Main Engine control system. I was invited to see the first launch of the shuttle in Florida and its return landing in California in partial consideration for many long nights and weekends on the project. In 2005 after 32 years, I retired as the Chief Technical Officer and set about spoiling grandchildren. I still consult part time and crew on a Reno Air Racer, the Nemesis NXT.
The Nemesis with Jon Sharp as pilot has won the top Gold Sports Class race in both 2006 and 2007 at Reno. My task is simply to make the landing gear go up and down when told. This function took on importance when Jon made a gear up landing in front of the grandstand in 2004. Last year's winning speed was 380+ mph 50 feet above the desert.
Angie and I divide time between traveling, grandchildren in San Diego, and home in Santa Clarita. (Our last major trip took us to Alaska for 2 months - It was great. Mountains, wildlife and glaciers were spectacular.) We returned to PA for my reunion at Carnegie Mellon last year only to find N. Allegheny HS has disappeared, Interstates replacing Route 19 and enough change to make us feel really old! Angie visited with her HS friend Bonnie Speer but I could find nobody from the class of 58.
Best Regards, Phil

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