Peter Leibert's Page

The Army 

One of my assignments at Northrop was to head a group called the Machinery Monitoring Unit.  Our charge was to pursue contracts for test systems that would be capable of testing machinery using the technology that had been developed for our navy programs, including the Polaris missile testing work, and the commercial vehicle testing section of a subsidiary of the Northrop Anaheim division.  

This was actually a very interesting area.  During the late 1960s and early 1970s relatively little attention was being given to making it easy to maintain machinery.  We did find some engine and vehicle manufacturers that were experimenting with building-in some sensors, but very, very little of these approaches ever made it into the designs for production units.   

The two companies that seemed to be the leaders in having engineers give more priority to maintainability were Volkswagen and Cummins.  Both had work going on in their laboratories targeted at improving access to internal pressure and electrical information concerning the health of an engine.  The work of both companies was focused on performance tests, how well the engine was working, and not directly aimed at diagnosing what was the part that actually was causing a loss in performance.   

Volkswagen also was trying to develop a diagnostic tool to assist the mechanic to determine what replaceable part was causing a lost in engine performance.  Cummins was trying to improve physical and electrical assess to performance information for their future engines.  In other words, how could the production design of the physical engine be altered to make it easier to obtain maintenance and performance data?    

These companies were very interested in working with us, as most of the engine manufacturer engineers were mechanically oriented and our group of engineers were more electrically oriented.  We also had a lot more experience in working with the sensors that could translate mechanical information into meaningful electrical signals.

It was not long before three or four of us Northrop engineers were attending a Cummins technical course about how their engines worked and how to maintain them.  I found it to be very interesting and I am sure that all of us learned a lot.  By the time their engine course was completed, we had jointly developed a number of possible schemes for conducting performance and diagnostic tests on a Cummins engine.  We had even identified existing sensors and mounts that might potentially be used for obtaining the information about various pressure points, vibration, rotation data and a number of additional parameters. 

In parallel, we set up an engine lab in our Anaheim plant and were starting to conduct some tests to learn more about the characteristics of various types of sensors when used in that mechanical environment.   

During the timeframe when we were performing these efforts to get ourselves smart about the testing of various mechanical systems, corporate headquarters of Northrop contacted the division General Manager with a request.  Some engineer had designed and built a new type of engine, which was supposedly very simple, could be built for half the cost as equivalent current engines, and had all kinds of other benefits.  Now he was approaching Northrop Corporate with a suggestion that they invest.   Corporate wanted our “machinery experts” to test the engine and provide corporate with an evaluation.  The device was referred to as a rotary engine.   

The next morning in comes this guy with a big cardboard box and plops it on my desk.  He opens the box up to show us his engine and it was all in parts - hundreds of little parts.  So, we contacted our production-engineering group and determined that they had some people that could probably assemble the engine in a day or two.  It took them about three weeks.  Many of the necessary parts were missing and manufacturing had to fabricate some replacements.    

This gave our engineering staff time to evaluate what we needed in order to conduct the test.  We had been orally told that the new engine was designed to work with a specific type of carburetor.  But how do you mount it, how do you control it, and many other “how to” questions had been raised.  It was easy for us to fabricate some engine mounts and adapters through which we could control and apply a load to the engine, but almost everything else required a lot of special work.   

To make a longer story short, it took us four weeks in the test lab before we finally got the engine to run, but it would immediately stall when you just started to apply the smallest load.  Even without any load, the engine consumed gasoline like crazy, and the rotor compression was very low and erratic.  By that time, we had overrun the corporate budget by about 500%, so when the rotor compression problem reoccurred for the tenth time, we called it quits and politely made a recommendation to send the engine back for a lot more design work.   

After we had gotten a lot of smarts under our belts, the marketing department of our Northrop division decided to bid on a major future Army contract which called for the development of a rugged computer-controlled engine analyzer.   

We actually had done a lot of homework in the right areas, including some work on the specific engines involved.  We had built a prototype of an engine analyzer for the 4-cylinder Jeep engine and had the test data from two-dozen so-called “operational” jeeps located at the El Toro Marine base.  These were Jeeps that were supposedly ready to use.  In our opinion, almost half of those Jeeps had been misadjusted or had actual failures that could easily lead to on-the-road full engine failures. 

If the vehicle is supposed to be ready to use and then it fails, there were a lot of concerns about the cost of being operationally ready.  Even when it has been reported to be defective, it was quite clear that without some help, the young, (even well trained mechanics), were making a lot of erroneous decisions about what needed to be replaced in order to return that vehicle into the status of being in good operating order.  The need was fiscally and operationally there, but what was the fiscally and practical answer.     

Regular U.S. Marine maintenance personnel, using our breadboard engine tester, had done most of the testing on the jeeps at El Toro.  They then did the repairs and retested the vehicles.  Everyone was impressed with the results.  The officers involved were extremely pleased and they provided us, in writing, with support, but, of course, these are not the people that make procurement decisions back in Detroit and Washington. 

The low bidder for the engine analyzer Request for Proposal won the contract to build 6 prototype testers.  They had bid about 2.5 million, and our bid was 5.0 million.  We had felt that our bid was extremely low.  Our parts list for the hardware alone would have cost us almost 2 million.  So we did not get the contract, but soon it was clear that the Army Tank Automotive Command (TACOM) was planning to cover their bets.  We were requested to submit a couple of proposals for less than $100,000 each, to build a jeep engine analyzer, and a jeep vehicle vibration analyzer.       

In about six months we had that jeep engine analyzer up and running very well.  So off to TACOM, north of Detroit, we head out for a demonstration of our demo unit.  We did have our share of problems with this adventure.  First, we had decided to check the package containing the engine analyzer as excess baggage.  We had packed it real well and added a number of labels on the outside to make sure it could not get lost.  But when we arrived in Detroit, the box containing the engine analyzer did not appear at the United Airlines baggage area.  I am sure you can picture the scene.  We were running around trying to find someone who was in charge or could start a search for the missing analyzer.  We soon found someone that gave it a lot of attention but the answer came back, “we can’t find it.”  “We have searched LA, we have thoroughly searched here, and have not been able to find it.”   

We were assured that they had contacted all possible designations for flights to other cities in case the box was put on another airplane, but thus far they had not received any reports back.  So we decided that we couldn’t do anything at the airport and went to the hotel to call and alert the people at TACOM and back at the plant.  About 2 o’clock in the morning, we got a rap at our hotel room and there was a United Airlines guy with our box.  They had figured out that TACOM often came in and picked up mail packages from the planes and they might have seen the package with all these TACOM labels on it and loaded it on their truck as well.   So we spent the rest of the night checking out the hardware. 

The next morning we proceeded up to Troy, Michigan where TACOM is located.  The jeep TACOM had agreed to furnish was there and we installed our simulated fault that had been selected to result in a clear indication of a spark plug failure.  We walked through our portion of the presentation at least five times and everything worked great. 

Two hours later, the program review team arrives and got seated in the bleachers to watch the big show.  Now we will fast forward to our part of the session.  At the appropriate time we were on.  First, we planned to drive the jeep with the simulated fault into the area in front of the bleachers.  But the driver could not get the jeep started.  I took center stage and “fast talked” to the audience about what great things they were about to see.  Meanwhile, a couple of Army technician’s pushed the jeep out onto the stage area.  They still had not gotten the engine to start. 

As I continued to prepare the audience for the demo which might now not come about, someone came running up with a battery charger and they got the jeep engine running and then shut it down.  So now I started through a step-by-step process of connecting the engine analyzer onto the engine.  I actually made a point of highlighting that the existing vehicles that the army currently had in their inventory did not have good access to make these sensor and control connections.   

It came time, and I pushed the START button on the analyzer and stepped back.  From there on the analyzer would tell the jeep operator/technician what to do.  “Start Engine.”  “Idle at 600 RPM.”  The instructions sequenced through nicely and I would explain what the analyzer was doing during each step.  “Increase Speed to 1200 RPM.”  Everything seems to be going well and at the end of the 3-minute test the results were displayed.  The lights came on.  “Valve Number 3 Defective.”  Oops!  It should have said “Replace Spark Plug Number 3.” 

I was told later that I handled the problem quite well, by reminding everyone about the difficulty we had obtaining electrical synchronizations of the mechanical parts of the engine.  I looked at the TOP DEAD CENTER sensor and sure enough it was located on the wrong side of the white ink mark which was to tell the analyzer when the engine number cylinder was at top dead center of its mechanical rotation.  I quickly relocated the sensor to the other side of the ink mark and requested the operator to rerun the test.  Of course, it worked as designed the next time, and the next time, and the next time.  But I had missed my day of fame - again. 

Now that we are talking about Detroit, there was another “exciting” adventure that occurred in that city that I should tell you about.  The city of Detroit had quite a large Chinatown section and they actually had a reputation for cooking up some very good chop suey.  At least my cohort Chuck Blaney told me that this was the case.   

During one of our trips to Detroit, Blaney decided to buy some Detroit chop suey and take it home with him.  No problem, so on the way back to the airport we stopped off at a chop suey shop.  Blaney went in and bought a dozen cartons of this local delicacy.  These containers were still warm to the touch, and had been placed in two paper shopping bags. 

On the way to the airport, I was already having second thoughts about the wisdom of doing this.  We turned in our rental car and headed for the United Airlines ticket counter.  I was heading for Los Angeles, and Chuck was to take a different flight to Dallas, where he would make a business call on a potential customer.  As we entered the airport lobby, I was carrying our two suitcases, Blaney’s and mine.  He was toting the two shopping bags that held the cartons containing the chop suey.  We had walked quite a ways when someone stopped Blaney and told him that something was leaking from one of his packages.   We looked back and there was a liquid trail of chop suey juice all the way to the building entrance - probably all the way back to the trunk of the rental car.   

So we moved off to the side of the room and Blaney ran off to locate something to put the leaky package into.  I was left there with the goods and charged with keeping people from walking through the slimy fluid that trailed down the corridor. 

It seemed like an hour had passed before Blaney finally returned, but it was more likely only 5 minutes or so.  By that time, a janitor had arrived and was beginning the process of mopping up the slimy mess.  Chuck and I turned our attention to repackaging the contents of the two paper bags into some plastic garbage bags that he had located.  We learned that two of the cartons on the bottom of each bag had collapsed and was leaking their fluid.  We threw those four crushed cartons into a trashcan and repackaged the rest of the containers into the black plastic bags.   

I was quite relieved when this was completed and I grabbed the two suitcases in order to quickly fade into the hordes of surrounding passengers.  But as I started out, I looked back and Blaney had disappeared.  The two black bags were still there.  Evidently guilt had gotten to him and he was heading down the hall searching for the janitor in order to give him a gratuity for cleaning up the mess - and it was a real mess by then - everyone was walking right through it. 

We eventually checked in for our respective flights and I went with Blaney to his assigned gate carrying one of the chop suey bags.  I could feel the warmth coming from the cartons inside.  As we walked I was imagining that each of the cartons was ready to split open and would soon disgorge all of the remaining fluids onto me.  But we made it to his gate without any further incident.  But that is not the last of the story, but the rest is hearsay. 

About a half hour later, Blaney’s flight loaded and he carried the two bags onto the plane and placed them under the seat.  By then even he could smell the chop suey he was carrying.  After takeoff, a stewardess came up to him and made a polite inquiry about what he had in the bags.   

Actually she already knew what was there and offered to store his chop suey in the aircrafts refrigerator that was on the lower deck.  That solved the odor problem for the rest of that flight.  Of course, when Blaney arrived in Texas, it was again his problem.  I will not tell you about his attempts to contain the problem, but I will tell you about his flight home.   

On his way back to Los Angeles, he is not flying in a big well-equipped 747 aircraft (partially Northrop built - the main fuselage).  So even though he had repackaged the chop suey into more secure containers, there was clearly a major problem for the other passengers.  

At the end of this escapade, Blaney was able to deliver 3 containers of chop suey to his spouse.