Wednesday
Wednesday—Working in the Aerospace Industry
How did aerospace become a site of Cold War superpower competition—and cooperation?
After breakfast on Wednesday, participants will travel to the Wende Museum, a collections-‐based research and education institute that preserves Cold War artifacts from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. At the time of the visit, the Wende will have recently reopened in a new, larger facility in Culver City that represents the Cold War history of Southern California: an armory located in the midst of urban Los Angeles, it was built for the National Guard in 1950 as fears of Soviet attack were growing. Participants will explore a variety of Cold War artifacts from the US’s superpower rival, including objects and images celebrating Soviet aerospace achievements. This visit helps participants compare the ways the US and its superpower rival celebrated aerospace in popular culture. Dr. Jenks will discuss two topics raised by Tuesday’s roundtable panel: the space race in the context of the Cold War and joint US-‐Soviet ventures late in the Cold War—projects the roundtable panelists will share about.
Participants will then travel to the Air and Space Exhibit at the California Science Center at Exposition Park in downtown Los Angeles. Dr. Kenneth Phillips will provide a guided tour of Air and Space Exhibits at the California Science Center. The Sketch Foundation Gallery Air and Space Exhibit provides authentic and reproduction airplanes, jets, unmanned and manned space vehicles, and associated equipment that played key roles in the development of aerospace technology. All of the museum’s hands-‐on artifacts will allow participants to appreciate the products of aerospace research up close through the guided tour. Stan Barauskas, an Apollo 11 engineer who led last year’s tour to rave reviews, will join Phillips for this tour. The museum became home to the space shuttle orbiter Endeavour in late 2012.
After returning to Long Beach, participants will join in a short discussion of the day’s reading. The first reading, from Allen J. Scott’s Technopolis: High Technology Industry and Regional Development in Southern California, provides a large-‐scale demographic overview of the aerospace industry in Southern California. The other readings offer views of minority and working-‐class experiences. Josh Sides, “The Window of Opportunity: Black Work in Los Angeles, 1941-‐1964” particularly explores opportunities and limitations for African American workers, “while a chapter from Blue Sky Metropolis examines the experiences of Chinese Americans in the Cold War aerospace industry. After dinner, participants will have time on their own to work on their lesson plans.