Johnny’s Comment: Subtitle: The Legacy of the “Culture of
Airmen”
Link to
And His Website (http://www.ventureramp.com/ )
Extracted From:
http://www.satai-network.com/images/newsletters/newsletter_7_14_03.asp
World Class Assets
in
In Part I of this series, we discussed the definition and concept of “world
class assets”. In Part II, we explored the environment and culture that enable
the creation, growth and development of world-class assets. In Part III, we
ponder the consequences of shifting from an agrarian town to a military city.
Second, we review some of the big ideas that San Antonians have pursued.
Finally, we wrap this series up and ask you to share your ideas and stories
that demonstrate
When we mention that we are working on the story of
Let us set up the answer to these questions by agreeing with the local
historian whose analysis indicates that
* In 1929, First Lt. Harold Clark laid out
the design for Randolph Field as an “Air City” which became known as the “West
Point of the Air”;
* In 1947, Tom Slick and colleagues envisioned a “Science City” on the south
side--today, Southwest Research Institute and Southwest Foundation for
Biomedical Research are scientific and technological world leaders in
everything from biomedical to automotive technology;
* In November of 1948, Brooks hosted the first panel meeting to discuss medical
problems of space flight (NASA was founded in 1958)—today, every US astronaut
spends time at Brooks in training;
* San Antonio is a leader in Aerospace Medicine and Human Effects Research;
* In 1991, several Air Force labs were combined to form the Armstrong
Laboratory—one of four Air Force super laboratories;
* During the summer of 2000, the UT Health Science Center San Antonio
(UTHSC-SA) launched its Bio Informatics Center;
* In 2003, UTSA launched its trans-disciplinary initiative in Biotechnology,
Science and Engineering.
Examples of innovations that flow from this historical continuity include:
* Discovery of photo refractive kertectomy
(PRK), vision-enhancing technique used in LASIK surgery (Taboada, U.S. Air
Force School of Aerospace Medicine's Radiation Sciences Division);
* UT Health Science Center San Antonio contributions to the human genome
project, "A physical map of the human genome", a landmark study in
the journal Nature (Naylor and Garcia);
* first oral small pox vaccine (Moyer, Incell);
* invention of the Palmaz Stent revolutionizing the care of heart disease and
one of the top ten patents of all time in the world (Palmaz);
* largest Phase I cancer clinical trials program in the world (CTRC’s Institute
for Drug Development);
* first VLSI implementation of the IEEE 802.11b wireless LAN protocol known as
WiFi (Fischer);
* first network intrusion detection system (Wheel Group); first
telecommunications phone system firewall (SecureLogix);
* first edge computing security architecture enabling secure communication and
control of distributed physical, environmental and industrial control assets
(Kuykendall, Novus Technologies);
* invention of the first commercial Local Area Network, first microcomputer and
first client-server computer system (Datapoint);
* Dark Screen, Pale Horse, Alamo Alert--pioneering work in the medical,
infrastructure protection and remediation aspects of homeland security and
preparedness (City of San Antonio, Industry, Academia and Military);
* Central repository of human effects data for non-lethal weapons (Joint
Non-Lethal Weapons Human Effects Center of Excellence);
* discovery of "floating air" principle enabling open air frozen food
display in your local grocery store (Friedrich Air Conditioning);
* first multi directional panoramic photography (Goldbeck) first academy award
for film, 1910—wings (Star Film Ranch)
* and, from tiles for the space shuttle to improving the silicone rubber skin
covering on the robotic dinosaurs in the Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World,
to improvements making liquid paper scientifically viable and figuring out how
to remove the peanut butter from the molds at M&M candy factories (Mallow,
SwRI).
In June of 2003, the Milken Institute released its BEST PERFORMING CITIES:
WHERE AMERICA’S JOBS ARE CREATED and
As we move forward into the new economy and the new world that is at our
doorstep, we do so with the knowledge that change is the only constant—that we
are responsible to nurture the environment of innovation—that high-performance
execution makes us stronger, more prosperous, and more skilled. And by
continuing to exhibit the unique characteristics that define us as San
Antonians, we will reach our most important objective in economic and
industrial policy: to increase the social welfare, the education and the
quality of life for
If you have enjoyed this series, drop us a line and encourage us or share
your story of
By Laurel Donoho and