Engineering Commons^™

Review: 'Storied Independent Automakers: Nash, Hudson, And American Motors', John Alfred Heitmann

History Faculty Publications

Nash, Hudson, and now even American Motors are automobile brands that have largely disappeared from the American memory. Yet, despite riding the twentieth-century economic roller coaster and operating in the shadow of the Big Three, these firms made sustained, significant technological and economic contributions. Charles K. Hyde’s Storied Independent Automakers is the author’s latest foray into the area of automotive business history, following work on the Chrysler Corporation and the Dodge brothers. A professor of History at Wayne State University, Hyde has written a needed critical business history on an important topic that complements the vast amount of “buff” and …

Review: 'Fighting Traffic: The Dawn Of The Motor Age In The American City', John Alfred Heitmann

History Faculty Publications

During the early 1960s, as the Golden Age of the automobile in America began to wane, several commentators, including Lewis Mumford, raised the critical question of whether the automobile existed for the modern city or the city for the automobile. How and when the automobile became central to urban life is deftly addressed in Peter Norton’s Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City. This study is certainly one of the most important monographs focusing on the place of the automobile in American society within a historical context to appear in recent times; it interestingly supplements …

Automobile Industry, John Alfred Heitmann

History Faculty Publications

During the 1990s, the American automobile industry was transformed in terms of products, leadership strategies, organization, and technology. Increasingly, the American industry has evolved into part of a global web of manufacturers, parts suppliers, and consumers.

Drive-By Shootings, John Alfred Heitmann

History Faculty Publications

Although often associated with Southern California and young gang behavior, the drive-by shooting became commonplace during the 1990s across America.

Auto Racing, John Alfred Heitmann

History Faculty Publications

As a consequence of new sponsors, personalities, race tracks, and television exposure, automobile racing — and in particular NASCAR — reached unprecedented popularity during the 1990s. Indeed, NASCAR became a "way of life" for many Americans.

Rolls Royce Declares Bankruptcy, John Alfred Heitmann

History Faculty Publications

Despite more than sixty years of engineering excellence, Rolls-Royce failed in its attempt to design and manufacture a radically new jet engine to meet contractual obligations with the Lockheed Corp. Consequently, both British and U.S. governments had to step in to avoid an unprecedented economic catastrophe.

Galileo Probe, Monish Ranjan Chatterjee

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The Galileo mission to Jupiter was formally approved by the United States Congress in 1977, several years before the space shuttle Columbia made its maiden flight into Earth orbit. The mission was a cooperative project involving scientists and engineers from the United States, Germany, Canada, Great Britain, France, Sweden, Spain, and Australia. Even though the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft had performed flybys of planet Jupiter and its sixteen moons in 1979, the Galileo mission was envisioned to initiate several novel observations of Jupiter, the most massive gas planet of the solar system, and its principal moons, and conduct …

Automobiles And Auto Manufacturing, John Alfred Heitmann

History Faculty Publications

In several important respects the automobile and automobile manufacturing proved to be at the heart of North American life during the 1950s. The decade was one characterized as the age of tail fins and chrome, and the automobile was recognized as something far more than ordinary transportation.

Neil Armstrong, Monish Ranjan Chatterjee

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

In addition to his outstanding and pioneering contributions to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) crewed spaceflight program, Armstrong served with distinction as a professor of aerospace engineering, chairman and director of several corporations, and member of presidential commissions.

Civilizing The Civil Engineer: How A History Course Can Serve As A Curriculum Capstone, John Alfred Heitmann

History Faculty Publications

Beginning in 1989 and then every other year thereafter, a unique course dealing specifically with the history of civil engineering has been taught to all civil engineering majors at the University of Dayton. What has evolved over time -- in response to student feedback, ongoing reform in the curriculum, and a maturing of faculty expertise -- is a course in the history of civilization that has as its major focus the discipline of civil engineering.

In reality, what happens in the classroom is a far broader learning experience than either the disciplines of history or civil engineering could provide standing …