Wes Whitten, PE
Project Engineer – VenomX
Wes Whitten grew up just barely across the state line from Texas in the Shreveport Louisiana area. As a youth, he worked with his father as a carpenter, building foundations and framing structures. In 1953, he joined the Army Medical Corp as a surgical technician during the Korean War. Fortunately the war ended before he was transferred overseas.
He graduated from Louisiana Polytechnic Institute with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. Shortly after, he married Evelyn Culpepper in 1960 and they had two kids. During this time he earned a masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from SMU in 1964. Since 1965, Wes has had secret clearance for his involvement in numerous government projects. He joked at the time if the government knew about his younger brothers he might not have been given clearance. In 1958, he joined Chance Vought Aircraft, Inc., and worked there for two years before joining J.M. Huber Corp for two years. He returned to Vought in 1964 and worked there until 1993 and worked for them later as an independent contractor.
Wes specialized in thermodynamics. Because of his sub-specialization he was loaned out by his company as a subcontractor for many short as well as years-long projects, many of which overlapped. He worked for NASA and was loaned out to Boeing, Northrup, Lockheed and other firms to design and build the radiator for Skylab 1, the Shuttle radiator, and from 1966 to 1973, he worked on building the radiator for the Apollo. During this time he also worked on the electronics and hydraulics for the Advanced Low-Volume Ramjet, a cruise missile capable of going in excess of mach 2.5, the homing optical guidance system sensor. He worked on the Apollo telescope mount for a brief period. He also worked on Vought’s A-7E aircraft,
After wrapping up job shopping with Bell Helicopter, he worked on the Leading Edge Space Station program. He designed the tiles covering the nose cone and the leading edges of the wings, the parts of the shuttle experiencing the highest temperatures upon re-entry.
In 1974, he was loaned out to Boeing and in 1980 he moved his family to Everett and Renton Boeing plants to work on the Boeing 767. He subsequently worked on the Prototype Miniature Air Launched Segment missile, advanced development projects for Vought. He worked on the Gulfstream GIV-X on its anti-icing system certification.
He retired from Vought in 1993 to be home with his wife who was struggling with Parkinson’s disease but after retiring on a Friday, Bell Helicopter called him on the following Sunday evening and he went to work for Bell on the next day on a part-time basis. He worked for Bell for several years on their special projects including the V-22 engine bay and transmission bay.
From 1995 to 1998 he worked for RMI Loral/Lockheed Martin on the Space Station, including some time spent at the Lockheed plant in Georgia.
Wes ultimately retired in 2002 to spend time with his wife. In 2019, he focused his attention on a small hand-held electronic device with the intent of modifying it to be less like a stun gun and more like a first aid device for treating venomous bites and stings. He teamed up with his daughter, Crystal and a retired physician, Stan Abrams, to work on this project. As you can see by his experience, he is imminently qualified to modify a simple circuit board to give us the patent on the venom desensitizer. When he was given the original Snake Doctor device, he took it apart and was able to make a few modifications with parts he had on hand and give us a device that had a limited discharge. This along with the concept of an extending electrode to enlarge the treatment area was enough to get a patent on a device designed specifically to treat venomous bites. He now lives in the Chattanooga Tennessee area near his daughter, Crystal. He still finds the time to repair her vehicles, work around her home and play in the garden. His son, Keith, is a physician and lives in Northern California.
