+61 2 9846 0800
+44 1293 864 300
How Thermeon Corporation got its name
by Rollo Sears Pickford, Founder
My early engineering career focused on rocket and jet engine thrust systems, high energy shock waves and their effects on various materials, and electrical generators. Here are some photos I think are interesting and show the path I followed up to the founding of Thermeon. The photos are large high-resolution images and may take some time to download.
The first two photos are of the Aeropak, a rocket backpack device that I helped to develop and received some patents on when working for Aerojet in Pasadena, CA in 1958-59. I think we were the first to try this with small rocket engines. We built the test pack out of an old WWII surplus backpack "board". We rigged up a "floating tether” testbed (not pictured) to reduce the chances of injuring ourselves during testing. The first jets used compressed air. After a little experience, we switched to hydrogen peroxide as a monopropellent (with a silver screen catalyst, that decomposes to hydrogen/oxygen gases that then burn to form water vapor). After we finished successful testing in my research department using a real person in the floating tether testbed, Aerojet “promoted” the project to the Systems Division, choosing a lead engineer in that department who was not currently occupied - for good reason as it turned out. The new lead engineer did calculations on paper and proved it would not work, so Aerojet dropped the project. But paper calculations on the flight of a bumblebee prove that bumblebees cannot fly. So a competitor named RMI took up where we left off using engineers who understood that bumblebees fly in spite of engineering calculations and developed the unit you still see demonstrated at major events today!
Rocket Launchers
I also worked for Douglas Aircraft who was responsible for the portable reusable launch pad for the Thor intermediate missile. When I saw drawings for Douglas's untested flame deflector I warned them it would be cut to pieces by the missile launch because the shock waves would attach to vulnerable points rather than being distributed across a large area. That scared them enough to pay me to prove I knew what I was talking about. The first picture is from a test of a scale model of the original design for the flame deflector. It melted. The second photo shows the exhaust flames and associated shock waves as the gasses are properly deflected. This design was good enough to get the missile launched without the use of cooling water on the deflector and without much damage per launch to the deflector. QED.
I submitted a research proposal on underground missile launchers a few years before Sputnik but it was rejected. After Sputnik the government realized the Russians could lob a nuclear warhead over here with the same rocket used to launch Sputnik, and such an attack might destroy our own above-ground missile launchers. Immediately after Sputnik the Air Force contacted me and asked for a another proposal based on the Titan II missile then being developed. I had already done flame defector research and design for the Titan I missile that was stored in a silo but raised to the surface by an elevator for launch. The next photo shows a Titan I flame deflector rig. I'm on the left with suit coat on.
Missile Launchers
The next picture is of the 1/6 scale Titan II missile silo we built above ground so we could easily test and service all parts. The 30 ft disk 2/3 up is a simulated ground plane. You can see the 1/6 scale missile (with 1/6 scale working rocket engines!) about 1/2 way out of the silo. All this was designed and constructed in 60 days, in time for the first test. The post-Sputnik schedule was 24 hrs/day, 7 days/wk! The test silo had more than 250 data measurement channels - temperature, sound pressure levels, gas/air velocities, rocket engine performance and controls, etc. Quite a challenge in those days of analog devices.
Missile Killers
.jpg)
The next photo is of particles fired from a shaped charge going through metal plates. The photo was taken with a very powerful high speed xray camera. The particles are going about 24,000 mph – sufficient velocity to escape earth's gravity. The leading particles that created the hole were used up, so the ones you see beyond the plate simply went through the “liquified” hole already created by the shock wave of the leading particles, and could punch through more plates. Notice the very faint metal vapor shock wave ahead of the first remaining particle. My goal was to create a much faster jet than this one, so fast that no solid particles would exist - only a metallic plasma. The highest velocity I achieved was about 43,000 mph. These devices were tested in the middle 1960's, the purpose being to develop a better means of disabling a satellite or incoming nuclear missile. You might say this was a "star wars" effort before the term came into being. Think “smart bullets”.
Mysterious Booms and Flashes
The following two “argon flash” photos were from a brief development to prove that a much better aerial reconnaissance light could be created than the magnesium flare/parachute devices used in Vietnam. Those magnesium devices had to be dropped from airplanes flying no higher than about 15,000 feet. Many men and planes were lost to Russian SAM (surface to air) missiles at that altitude – I had an idea that might save men and planes. My “argon flash” device used the same launching system but the airplane could fly 60,000 feet up both for dropping the flash and taking the pictures. Shutter speed is not particularly important because the argon flash was so bright and lasted about 1/10 sec. I used this technique in many of my experiments because of the ability to create a brilliant millisecond flash. The light is created by sending a shock wave through argon gas. I don't know whether this device was used by the military – if you know please contact me. Over the years I have met many Orange County residents who recalled the nighttime “booms” and “flashes” coming from the Gypsum Canyon/Riverside Freeway area where my test site was located. The first image is an infrared telephoto from 1 mile away of the test site during a flash. The second photo has a newpaper clipping you should read. After seeing the newpaper story I realized I should have warned the local authorities before doing the tests! The “resident” quoted was a sharp observer – my “flash booms” were indeed different than sonic booms!
Adapting the technology for industry
By the late 1960's I thought I had learned enough about energy and machines to build a more efficient utility company sized electrical generator. My design was significantly more energy efficient than existing generators primarily because of conservation of heat energy. In other words it was THERMally efficient – and I formed a company called THERMeon to market my design. Unfortunately I found the utility companies disinterested in replacing their inefficient generators. Many of those inefficient generators are still in use today.
Since I was unable to sell my generator plans, I started writing custom software for businesses like Hover Marine and Hertz and many others. After a while I discovered the car rental market needed efficiently-engineered software so I created CARS+. Today CARS+ is the most efficient software in the car rental market. By efficient I mean CARS+ requires the least amount of hardware to operate, the least amount of time to learn and train new staff, and is the lowest cost product to use and to customize for demanding clients. I also think it is smarter about helping car rental operators to earn more money. After all, car rental isn't rocket science!
LATEST NEWS
Introducing cars+iR app for iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch
Thermeon's app for iPhone is now running at selected test sites!
More NewsWHAT OUR CUSTOMERS SAY
WHO WE WORK WITH
COUNTRIES WE WORK IN
51
Countries
using our car rental software