Finding Aid for the Robert F. Pannett Papers, 1955-1992 (#2009-0001)

This collection represents the material Robert F. Pannett gathered while employed with McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri, from the 1950s through around the late 1960s. Pannett served as Spacecraft Manager for Gemini Spacecraft No. 4. He also worked from 1965-1969 on the Gemini B project, a U.S. Air Force project to use the Gemini design for high-altitude ground observation. While the basic design remained the same, the purpose and equipment used for monitoring was unique to the Gemini B, though in the end it was never launched. This collection includes a paper he co-authored for the AIAA Third Manned Space Flight Meeting. Various reports document additional projects he appears to have worked on for the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. The Project Gemini series focuses on Spacecraft No. 4, used in the Gemini IV June 1965 launch crewed by Edward H. White and James McDivitt. Pannett saved numerous photographs of various projects including the Alpha Draco 122B missile, Gemini, and the Mercury Trainer. The Alpha Draco photos are a mixture of U.S. Air Force photographs and McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, but the others are largely identified as taken by McDonnell Aircraft Corporation.