Nick T. Spark | |
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| Occupation(s) | Film director, writer |
Nick T. Spark is an American documentary filmmaker and writer. Films he has written, directed or produced include Regulus: The First Nuclear Missile Submarines (2001) the Emmy award-winning The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club (2009) and Right Footed (2015). In addition to being a contributing editor to Wings and Airpower magazines, his articles have appeared in the Annals of Improbable Research, Naval History, the Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society, and Proceedings. People he has interviewed include President Gerald Ford, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Secretary of State Colin Powell, disability activist Jessica Cox and numerous test pilots including Charles "Chuck" Yeager. In 2007 Spark was interviewed on National Public Radio, concerning an article he wrote about the USS Panay incident,[1] and he appeared on PBS' History Detectives in 2011 as an expert on the Navy's World War II drone, the TDR-1.[2]
Spark's four-part article Why Everything You Know About Murphy's Law Is Wrong[3] details the history of Murphy's Law. This article was later adapted into a short book A History of Murphy's Law, exploring the genesis of the popular adage which apparently originated at Edwards Air Force Base[citation needed] during the United States Air Force's Project MX981 to research high g-force issues in 1947–1949 under the direction of "The Bravest Man in the Air Force", physicist and medical doctor John Paul Stapp. Spark appeared on Japanese broadcaster NHK concerning the Law in 2000.