Maxime Faget | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Maxime Allen Faget (1921-08-26)August 26, 1921 |
| Died | October 9, 2004(2004-10-09) (aged 83) |
| Other names | Max Faget |
| Alma mater | City College of San Francisco Louisiana State University, B.S. 1943 |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Known for | Designer of theMercurycapsule |
| Awards | ASME Medal (1975) |
Maxime Allen "Max" Faget[1][2] (pronouncedfah-ZHAY; August 26, 1921 – October 9, 2004) was an Americanmechanical engineer. Faget was the designer of theMercuryspacecraft, and contributed to the laterGemini andApollo spacecraft as well as theSpace Shuttle.
Faget was the son of American doctorGuy Henry Faget, and great-grandson of another prominent physician,Jean Charles Faget. Born in Stann Creek Town,British Honduras (todayDangriga,Belize), he attendedCity College of San Francisco inSan Francisco, California, and he received aBachelor of Science degree inmechanical engineering fromLouisiana State University in 1943.[3]
After three years as asubmariner aboardUSS Guavina in theU.S. Navy, Faget joined theLangley Research Center inHampton, Virginia as a research scientist. While working forNACA at Langley, he worked on the design of theX-15 hypersonic spacecraft.[4]
In 1958, Faget became one of the 35 engineers who formed theSpace Task Group, creating the Mercury spacecraft. He based his designs on the aerodynamic work ofHarvey Allen from the mid-1950s, and was instrumental in selecting the blunt-body shape that won theMercury competition over numerous contenders.[5] He led the development of the escape tower system used on Mercury, which was used in various forms on almost all following crewed spacecraft. He also worked on theGemini andApollo vehicles, which shared many design points with the Mercury.[6]
Faget filed a patent for a space shuttle vehicle design in 1972. His design, which he named "DC-3" in homage to the famedDouglas DC-3 airliner, was a small two-stage fully reusable shuttle with a payload capacity around 15,000 pounds (6,800 kg). DC-3 was officially studied byNorth American Aviation and shown in the press as a baseline contender for theSpace Transportation System (STS). North American also studied a version of the same basic system with a much larger 50,000 pounds (23,000 kg) payload. However, the DC-3's nose-high re-entry profile was controversial, and eventually doomed it when theU.S. Air Force joined the Shuttle program and demanded cross-range performance that the DC-3 could not meet. In the end, its most lasting contribution was to clearly identify the trade-offs inherent in any reusable design.[7]
In 1962 Faget became the Director of Engineering and Development at theManned Spacecraft Center[3] and continued to work for NASA until his retirement in 1981, shortly after the second Space Shuttle flight (STS-2). After his retirement, he was among the founders ofSpace Industries Inc., established in 1982. One of the projects of the company was theWake Shield Facility, a device to create near-perfectvacuum in thethermosphere. The WSF flew three times with a Space Shuttle in 1994–1996 (STS-60,STS-69,STS-80).
In 1962, Faget received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[8] Faget was inducted into the 1969 National Inventors Hall of Fame, and received theNASA Outstanding Leadership Medal andJohn J. Montgomery Award. He was inducted into the HoustonNational Space Hall of Fame in 1969,[9] theInternational Space Hall of Fame in 1990,[10] and theNational Aviation Hall of Fame in 2020.[11]
Faget died ofbladder cancer on October 9, 2004, aged 83.
Faget was co-inventor on five United States patents issued to Space Industries, Inc. between 1988 and 1992:
| Patent No. | Title |
|---|---|
| U.S. patent 4,728,061 | Spacecraft operable in two alternative flight modes |
| U.S. patent 4,747,567 | Spacecraft with articulated solar array |
| U.S. patent 4,834,325 | Modular spacecraft system |
| U.S. patent 4,903,919 | Apparatus and method for docking spacecraft |
| U.S. patent 5,104,070 | Structural latch for vehicle coupling mechanisms |
Theprivate spaceflight organizationCopenhagen Suborbitals was developing a piloted spacecraft named after Faget, theMAX-1, but the project was halted due to issues around the effects of rapid acceleration of humans in a standing position.[12]
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