American and German rocket men of Apollo 11 united

The two countries had fought each other during the Second World War, and US military leaders now wanted them to collaborate on the country's rocket program. Given everything that had happened during the war, it was a lot to ask.

What could connect German and American rocket scientists and engineers? Apart from the rockets, the love of their families and their gratitude for survival in the war, what did they share that could make it a team?

Cars. One of the answers turned out to be cars, and this response was celebrated in Huntsville, Alabama on Saturday at the Apollo 11 Celebration Car Show, which launched a week-long celebration of the Moon mission. The Saturn V rocket that took astronauts out of the Earth was developed and critical pieces built in Huntsville by a US-German team led by Wernher von Braun.

"Normally, they were not socialized," Apollo program engineer Jack Stokes said Saturday at the show near the US Space & Rocket Center. "But there was a culture of the automobile, Germans, English, Italians and Americans. The cars were the liaison agent. "

Stokes sat under an awning, as he recalled, but even the fierce July sun did not stop hundreds of people from attacking the more than 90 old cars on display. The qualifications of entry were simple. "They had to be the cars that guys drove in the day," Stokes said.

The window of acceptance was that of cars built from 1945 to 1975 and which let in some of the most iconic cars of all time. Volkswagen Beetles German, 1957 Chevrolet, a Dodge Charger Daytona designed by Chrysler in Huntsville with the optional and seriously fierce 436 cu. Hemi V-8 engine. And perhaps the rarest of all, the show boasts a 1948 Keller made by the Huntsville-based company of the same name.

Judging by the crowd, cars are still a liaison. Men and women of all ages and races stood next to cars as part of their personal story, exchanging stories and legends.

All smiles, Stokes joined the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville as a "human factors" engineer in 1967. "Von Braun wanted the human factor to be taken into account" in the construction of the Saturn V, Stokes said.

Stokes said he had almost not landed the job. The interview was going badly. Then something triggered a car comment, and both men ran. "The automotive conversation has earned my work," laughs Stokes. He retained this job until his retirement in 2005.