Dorothy Vaughan

Dorothy Vaughan: A Biography

By Kate Wilkinson-Brindle
Illustrated by Amy Robinson

A Talented Student

Dorothy Johnson was born in Kansas City, Missouri, USA on the 20th September
1910. Her parents were called Annie and Leonard
Johnson. Dorothy was a talented student who always
strived to achieve good grades. Because of her
academic achievements at high school, Dorothy
received a scholarship to attend Wilberforce
University in Ohio. She was only 18 years old in
1929 when she graduated with a degree in maths.
In 1932, Dorothy married a man called Howard
Vaughan. They moved to the state of Virginia and
had 6 children together. Dorothy worked as a maths
teacher in a local high school for the next 14 years.

West Area Computers

In 1943, Dorothy started working for the National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics (NACA). Her job was to calculate the flight paths of aeroplanes.
Dorothy began her role during the Second World War, and she thought that it
was just a temporary war job. Laws about segregation in the USA at that time

meant that African Americans like
Dorothy had to work separately
from the white workers. Dorothy
worked with a group of
mathematicians who were all
African American women. They
were known as the West Area
Computers because they were
brilliant at complicated maths –
they were human computers!

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Supervisor

Dorothy continued to work for NACA for nearly three decades! Her temporary
war job became a remarkable career. The human computers provided all of the
important calculations for research at NACA.
After the war ended, the West Area Computers were involved
with the research and design of the first spacecraft. This was
an exciting time to work at NACA.
In 1949, Dorothy was asked to act as the supervisor of
the West Area Computers. She was the first African
American supervisor at NACA, but it was years
before she was officially promoted and paid
properly for her role.

Aerospace Engineering

Mary spent the next 20 years as an aerospace engineer. She studied thrust and

drag. Thrust is the force from an engine or propeller that pushes or pulls an

aircraft through space. Drag is the opposite force; resistance from the air that

slows down a moving aircraft.

Most of Mary’s work was about the air

flow around aircraft travelling at very

high speeds. These very high speeds

are measured in Mach numbers.

Mary looked closely at how the angle

of the nose cone on an aircraft affects

its speed. One of the papers that she

co-authored was called ‘Effects of Nose IInntthheeeeaarrllyy11996600ss,,ccoommppuutteerrss
Angle and Mach Number on Transition wweerreehhuuggeeaannddeexxppeennssiivvee..
on Nose Cones at Supersonic Speeds’.

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Space Programme

Dorothy’s computer programming skills were put to good use throughout the
1960s because this was the time of the Space Race. The Space
Race was the race to be the first country to achieve flights
into space. Dorothy and her team contributed to the
space programme by working out the calculations
needed to launch rockets into orbit around Earth.
When Dorothy was interviewed in 1994 she said,

“Working at NASA during the Space Race felt
like being on the cutting edge of something
very exciting.”

Moon Legacy

After an incredible 28 year career at NASA, Dorothy retired in 1971. When she
was asked about being an African American woman at NASA during the
years of segregation she said, “I changed what I could. What I couldn’t
change, I endured.” This intelligent and remarkable
woman is celebrated in a book by Margot Lee
Shetterly called Hidden Figures. There is also a film
of the same name. Dorothy died in November 2008,
aged 98. She left behind 10 grandchildren and 14
great grandchildren.

Did you know? On the far side of the moon there
is a crater named after Dorothy. It is called the
Vaughan crater!

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