About George A. Carroll (1902-1987)
Principal Founder of Stony Ridge Observatory

Above: George Carroll (left) and Tony Heinzman at Stony Ridge Observatory, May 1982. Photo by Mike O'Neal.

 

Lockheed Aircraft Years,
The "Skunk Works" and the Solar Observatory.

In 1943 Lockheed-California formed a division called the Advanced Development Projects (ADP) Unit at their expanding facilities in Burbank, CA. The ADP produced classified, cutting-edge experimental products for aviation, the military, and later, for space research. It acquired the title of the "Skunk Works," as an offshoot reference to the popular comic strip, L'il Abner, where all kind's of smelly, strange potions were brewed up. For Lockheed Skunk Works employees, the smells emanated from a nearby plastics manufacturer.

George was associated with the Skunk Works during the period between 1943 and the early 1960's. His association with the future Stony Ridge Observatory began to develop in 1947, during these Lockheed years.

Some SRO members who knew George say that he had some sort of connection to the Skunk Works, but were uncertain as to what he did there. George was somewhat of an internal person.

Not surprisingly, this author has not been able to obtain much specific information about George's role at the highly-secreted research facility. After all, the founder of the Skunk Works, Kelly Johnson, laid down 14 Rules to which all employees must abide. Rule #13 was " Access by outsiders to the project and its personnel must be strictly controlled by appropriate security measures." HOW they accomplished their goals was not restricted, and has been used as an efficiency model that many, in numerous industries, follow today.

It can probably be said of George, that he obeyed Kelly Johnson's rule #13.

From a eulogy written by George Carroll, Jr. in 1987, he wrote that over his lifetime, his father had built 20 aircraft, including a gyrocopter in the 1960's.

It is this author's suggestion that the gyrocopter mentioned by George's son, could possibly be in reference to the redesign of the Lockheed CL-475, originally constructed in 1959, and refined in 1961. The first Lockheed design, with a 2-blade rotor, proved to have serious vibration problems. The remedy to the problem was assigned to the Rye Canyon Research Center in the 60s. That group came up with a successful 3-blade, aluminum rotor design in 1961. Perhaps George was involved in this improvement, perhaps not. But, his history seems to validate that he certainly could have been.

It is well documented in the science literature of solar research that George was on the staff at Lockheed's Briar Summit Solar Observatory, later called Lockheed Solar Observatory which was located at Lockheed's Rye Canyon Research Center, a.k.a. the Skunk Works.

George's role for the Lockheed Solar Observatory was significant. He designed and built 2 spar telescopes for the observatory, one of which was featured in a Sky & Telescope article published in their July 1970 issue, "The Spar Telescope of Lockheed Solar Observatory" by George A. Carroll, pp10-13.

Notably, the pictures and text about that telescope clearly show the Carroll design features that were taken from the SRO 30-inch telescope.

The Stony Ridge Years

1947 - George and 2 others, Jerome B. White and Ernest R Siefkin, formed the "Association of Amateur Astronomers."

In 1957 the Association of Amateur Astronomers, then numbering 15 members, filed papers to change the name of the organization to Stony Ridge Observatory, Inc (SRO).

Construction began immediately to build an observatory housing a large reflecting telescope for the benefit of amateur astronomers. Again, George Carroll led the design and engineering for this facility.

1963 - With financial help from the Lockheed Corporation, Stony Ridge Observatory was completed in 1963. Lockheed had become increasingly occupied in the U.S. space program, and were looking for an observatory in which they could take high-resolution images of the lunar surface for charting possible landing sites for the Apollo program. Money was paid upfront to SRO to finish the construction on the new observatory, in return for 1600 hour's worth of telescope time at its completion for their lunar mapping project.

In 1971 George Carroll was awarded the "G. Bruce Blair Award," by the Western Amateur Astronomers for his important contribution to amateur astronomy. This award has been called the "Nobel Prize" for amateur astronomers.

2004 - An asteroid was discovered from Stony Ridge Observatory using the Carroll designed telescope. Five years later, the object was officially numbered by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) section of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Our discovery was assigned the number 144633 in their catalog of all asteroids with sufficiently high-precision orbital data that enables accurate predictability of their positions on the sky at any time, many decades into the future. When numbering is achieved, the naming of the new minor planet is given to the discoverer(s). The name "Georgecarroll" was suggested by the discoverers at SRO (-> see Projects->Faint Object Follow Up), to honor the founding force behind SRO. The number/name (144633) Georgecarroll was officially accepted by the MPC and IAU. Thus, this little planetary neighbor (about 3 miles, or 4.5 km in diameter), residing between Mars and Jupiter, will be a reminder, and a continuing acknowledgment, to the past contributions of George Carroll to the science of Astronomy.

scb Apr 26, 2010.