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Houston
How Houston's 1940
Airport
Helped Me Figure Out
How to Keep Our Homes and Attics Coolerby
Ken Rudine |
It
was May 1952 when I boarded a flight to New York City from Houston
Continental Airport (as it was then-named). A member then of the USAF, I had
just completed a leave prior to shipping overseas. So the purpose of this trip
was to report to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey for ocean transportation to Bremerhaven,
Germany.
The aircraft type we boarded was a Lockheed Constellation. This
aircraft had four engines driving propellers and three rudders on the rear stabilizer.
It also had a sexy curved fuselauge. At this time, they had only been in service
about 2 years. |
| Lockheed
Constellation
Courtesy Ken Rudine |
We
boarded about 1AM. There was a small thunderstorm in the area but no rain was
falling as we used a roll-around boarding stairs to enter the aircraft. My seat
was on the right side, to the rear of the wing.
Darkness surrounded us
as we taxied away from the lights of the terminal building. Finally we arrived
at the end of the runway where it began to rain. Warming up one engine at a time
was accomplished as the rain became heavier with lightning flashing. As the props
rotated in those flashes of light, I could see spirals of water. Rain water was
being thrown off the propeller tips in giant corkscrews, maybe six feet in diameter
by at least twenty feet long. The lightning flashes, revealed those images to
me like flash photos. It was memorable.
It was daylight when we landed
at Idlewild Airport (now JFK). My plane averaged about 300MPH. There was nothing
significant during the trip or landing. In New York I checked into a hotel and
rendezvous with a sergeant for a trip to Camp Kilmer. |
| Times
Square in preparation of Mr. Rudine's Arrival
Courtesy Ken Rudine |
Although most of my stay
overseas was in North Africa, while I was in Germany I spent time in Lansberg
during the time Johnny Cash was also stationed there.
My
years in the service ended in 1954. By 1971 I had been a manufacturing manager
at a ventilation company for 7 years. During those years the company effort was
directed at products using natural rather than forced air ventilation. Our wind-powered
Turbovent was roof mounted in such a way to allow the installation of a motor-driven
fan that could boost the air it exhausted, if desired. |
| | Turbovent
promotional ad courtesy Ken Rudine |
| I decided
to make a few “fan sections” at customer’s requests. While doing so, I recalled
the “vivid spirals of rain water” I saw coming off the props of the airliner as
I left Houston for overseas duty in
1952. The spirals showed me that more air could be passed through the curved,
angled Turbovent blades by orienting the spiral of air to suit the path of least
resistance. |
| US
Patent for Turbovent
Photo courtesy Ken Rudine |
I filed a patent application
stating the primary claim as “Turning the fan blade rotation in the direction
of the path of least resistance would produce 80% more ventilation with only 20%
increase in vent rotation”. I received my first U. S. Patent based on the sight
I saw the night I made my first flight from Houston
Continental Airport. ©
Ken Rudine October
1, 2006 | |
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