West Area Computing Unit

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The West Area Computing Unit was a group of " human computers " from 1943 to 1958 at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The group consisted entirely of African American mathematicians . The group was one of the many mathematicians who began their careers in aeronautical research during World War II . Due to racial laws in Virginia , they were initially forced to use separate cafeterias and toilets. The racial segregation was so thorough that many white employees were unaware of the existence of the West Area Computing Unit.

The group was originally subordinate to white superiors. From 1949 the African-American mathematician Dorothy Vaughan led the group.

The group supported the research engineers by relieving them of tedious arithmetic and drawing tasks. In the wind tunnel tests in particular , measured values ​​were recorded by filmed or photographed measuring devices during the test. The task now was to evaluate the films and to transfer the data into tables. This data or the values ​​derived from it were then drawn in diagrams, on the basis of which the engineers carried out further tests.

Mathematician Katherine Johnson , who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 , started her career in the group, but moved to the Langley Flight Research Division after just two weeks.

The feature film Hidden Figures - Unrecognized Heroines is a monument to the West Area Computing Unit. It is based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly .

literature

  • Margot Lee Shetterly : Hidden Figures - Unrecognized heroines . HarperCollins, Cologne 2017, ISBN 978-3-95967-084-5 (English: Hidden Figures. The Untold Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race . New York City 2016. Translated by Michael Windgassen).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Human Computers. NASA , accessed November 25, 2015 .
  2. ^ Trailblazers in American Space History: Math Whizzes in Skirts. American Institute of Physics, accessed November 25, 2015 .
  3. ↑ MAKERS Video: Katherine G. Johnson, Mathematician, NASA. MAKERS, accessed November 26, 2015 .