Random Data: Analysis and Measurement Procedures, Fourth Edition

Preface

This book is dedicated to my coauthor, Allan G. Piersol, who died on March 1, 2009. I met Allan in 1959 when we were both working at Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation in Los Angeles. I had just won a contract from Wright-Patterson Air force Base in Dayton, Ohio, to study the application of statistics to flight vehicle vibration problems. I was familiar with statistical techniques but knew little about aircraft vibration matters. I looked around the company and found Allan who had previous experience from Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica on testing and vibration problems. This started our close association together that continued for 50 years.

In 1963, I left Ramo-Wooldridge to become an independent mathematical consultant and to form a California company called Measurement Analysis Corporation. I asked Allan to join me where I was the President and he was the Vice President. Over the next 5 years until we sold our company, we grew to 25 people and worked for various private companies and government agencies on aerospace, automotive, oceanographic, and biomedical projects. One of our NASA projects was to establish requirements for vibration testing of the Saturn launch vehicle for the Apollo spacecraft to send men to the moon and return them safely to earth. Allan was a member of the final certification team to tell Werner Von Braun it was safe to launch when the Apollo mission took place in 1969.

In 1965, Allan and I were invited by the Advanced Group on Aeronautical ...