Mary Jackson
In the 1970's Mary Jackson helped the youngsters in the science club at Hampton King street community center build their own wind tunnel and used it to conduct experiments. Mary's career path to an engineering at NASA was far from direct. A native of Hampton, Virginia she graduated from hampton institute in 1942 with a dual degree in math and physical sciences, she accepted a job as a math teacher at a black school in Calvert County, Maryland.
Mary returned home finding a position as a receptionist at the King street USO club, which served the city’s black population. Three career changes later Mary landed a job at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory segregated west area computing section in 1951. After about 2 years in the computing pool, Mary Jackson received a offer to work as an engineer names Kazimierz Czarnecki. In the 4-foot by 4-foot supersonic pressure tunnel, a 60,000 horsepower wind tunnel. Czarnecki offered Mary a hands on experience conducting experiments in the facility, and he eventually suggested that she enter a training program that would allow her to earn a promotion from mathematician to engineer.
Trainees had to take …show more content…
In the 1950’s, she was the only black female aeronautical engineer in the field. For almost 2 decades, she enjoyed a productive engineering career. She authored or co-authored a dozen or more research reports. The reports mostly focused on behavior of the boundary layer of air around airplanes. As the years went by, the promotions slowed, mary became frustrated at her inability to break management levels. In 1971, she made a final, dramatic career change, leaving engineering and taking a demotion to fill the position of langleys federal women's program manager. While there, she worked to impact the hiring and promotion of the next generation of all of NASA’s female mathematicians, engineers and
In the 1970's Mary Jackson helped the youngsters in the science club at Hampton King street community center build their own wind tunnel and used it to conduct experiments. Mary's career path to an engineering at NASA was far from direct. A native of Hampton, Virginia she graduated from hampton institute in 1942 with a dual degree in math and physical sciences, she accepted a job as a math teacher at a black school in Calvert County, Maryland.
Mary returned home finding a position as a receptionist at the King street USO club, which served the city’s black population. Three career changes later Mary landed a job at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory segregated west area computing section in 1951. After about 2 years in the computing pool, Mary Jackson received a offer to work as an engineer names Kazimierz Czarnecki. In the 4-foot by 4-foot supersonic pressure tunnel, a 60,000 horsepower wind tunnel. Czarnecki offered Mary a hands on experience conducting experiments in the facility, and he eventually suggested that she enter a training program that would allow her to earn a promotion from mathematician to engineer.
Trainees had to take …show more content…
In the 1950’s, she was the only black female aeronautical engineer in the field. For almost 2 decades, she enjoyed a productive engineering career. She authored or co-authored a dozen or more research reports. The reports mostly focused on behavior of the boundary layer of air around airplanes. As the years went by, the promotions slowed, mary became frustrated at her inability to break management levels. In 1971, she made a final, dramatic career change, leaving engineering and taking a demotion to fill the position of langleys federal women's program manager. While there, she worked to impact the hiring and promotion of the next generation of all of NASA’s female mathematicians, engineers and