scalemodel

A newspaper article says he was an "executive" in the Ground Transportation Division. It doesn't say if he has an Ed.D., a Ph.d., or some other doctoral degree. Another clue about which John Beck is shown: he lived in Bonita when he worked at Rohr. He's quoted in a newspaper as claiming that his Rohr work ended about May, 1975.

Mr. Openchowski is on the left.

This would've been a fun time to be at Rohr. How much do you think Rohr paid to have this model built?

There was an episode of naval horniness for speedy vessels at about this time. There was a Soviet surface effect ship illustration on the cover of Popular Mechanics. There were also a couple of Soviet hydrofoil designs which were dual use but were marketed as civilian.

Many of these were operational well into the 1980s including some purchased by Turkey and scandinavian countries.

The U.S. operated a ship designated Patrol Hydrofoil Missile (PHM) which included two Boeing 707 jet engines as part of the propulsion. So far as I know, these deigns went out of fashion when the Cold War ended.

U.S. Patrol Hydrofoil Missile historic photos:

The flash reflections from the shiny metal table parts are annoying.