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Author
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Topic: Apollo rescue net inventor Billy Pugh dies
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 12-27-2007 11:00 AM
   
Corpus Christi, TX Caller-Times: Inventor Billy Pugh dies of cancer at 83 quote:
Billy Pugh was almost as well known for his generosity as for the safety nets he invented for the oil and gas industry.Pugh, 83, died Wednesday of prostate cancer. Pugh became internationally known when his personal transfer net was used by NASA to pluck Apollo 11, 15 and 17 astronauts out of the water on their return to Earth. But those who knew him well will remember him as one of the most generous men they would ever know.
 Above, left: Billy Pugh rescue net in the National Air and Space Museum; Above, right: Apollo 13 CMP Jack Swigert lifted after splashdown. A moment of silence can be signified by a reply with no words and only a period. |
MCroft04
Member Posts: 1634
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 12-27-2007 11:40 AM
Thanks Robert; I'd always wondered where the term Billy Pugh came from. The picture you posted of the net reminds me of a similar device that we used on offshore oil and gas platforms to transfer from a boat up to the main deck of the platform which was ~100' high. But the difference is that we had to ride on the outside of the net standing on a ~8" wide donut, grasping the ropes of the net. I guarantee you that if I ever had the "right stuff" it was then, because only one being in the universe could have pried my hands from those ropes.Condolences to Billy's family. |
cddfspace
Member Posts: 609
From: Morris County, NJ, USA
Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 12-27-2007 01:42 PM
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randy
Member Posts: 2176
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 12-27-2007 04:49 PM
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WSTFphoto
Member Posts: 70
From: Las Cruces, NM, USA
Registered: May 2005
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posted 12-27-2007 07:29 PM
I paid my way through college in the early 1980s by working summers in the oilfields of the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.Every time I stepped onto one of those nets and hooked my arm in, I thought back to those photos of astronauts riding in similar tools. Crane-riding those nets down to the boats was a great part of the job. |
John Charles
Member Posts: 339
From: Houston, Texas, USA
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted 12-27-2007 11:16 PM
quote:
Pugh became internationally known when his personal transfer net was used by NASA to pluck Apollo 11, 15 and 17 astronauts out of the water on their return to Earth.
But I wonder why the reporter/obituary writer thought Billy Pugh nets were only used for 11, 15 and 17? Every Apollo crewman from Apollo 7 throuh 17 and ASTP was retrieved using that technique. Only the Skylab crews were retrieved aboard their command modules.------------------
John Charles
Houston, Texas |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 12-27-2007 11:23 PM
quote:
Originally posted by John Charles:
But I wonder why the reporter/obituary writer thought Billy Pugh nets were only used for 11, 15 and 17?
I questioned that too, and couldn't really come up with a good answer, other than perhaps it was based on certificates of merit that Pugh received from NASA (experience with other estates suggest that Apollos 11, 15 and 17 are the most common represented by such certificates). |
GACspaceguy
Member Posts: 2476
From: Guyton, GA
Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 12-28-2007 06:59 AM
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