Apollo M. O. Smith Oral History Interview
Interviewed by Jennifer K. Stine
Interview Sessions from 1995
- September 25, 1995
Abstract
An interview in September 1995 with aerodynamicist Apollo M. O. (Amo) Smith. Smith received his BS (1936) and MS in mechanical and aeronautical engineering (1938) from Caltech.
In this brief interview, he recalls his early experience building and flying gliders with John R. Pierce; his undergraduate years at Caltech; the testing of various aircraft in the ten-foot wind tunnel at GALCIT [Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology] as a graduate student; working on rocketry with Frank J. Malina, Edward S. Forman, and John W. (Jack) Parsons; his employment at the Douglas Aircraft Company, beginning in 1938 in its El Segundo division; and his two years of work (on leave from Douglas) as chief engineer of the newly formed Aerojet Engineering Corporation (1942-1944), developing the JATO [jet-assisted takeoff] rocket.
Archival record in collection guide
PDF version of transcript [0.36 MB]
Preferred Citation
Apollo M. O. Smith Oral History Interview, interviewed by Jennifer K. Stine, Caltech Archives Oral History Project, September 25, 1995, http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Smith_A_M_O.
Oral history interviews provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past. The views and opinions expressed in them are those of the interviewees, who describe events based on their own recollections and from their own perspective. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Caltech Archives and Special Collections or of the California Institute of Technology.