And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Very interesting, I never knew anything about that. I remember the Flying Wing from "War of the Worlds," where it dropped an A-bomb on the Martians. Sad that such a fascinating aircraft was obliterated so completely, I'd love to have been able to see the real thing!
Sadly, it took a long time to get the concept back in the air. Handling issues had been solved by a device in the aircraft known as "Oscar". The Flying Wing was killed solely by greed.
From one of the online articles and from memory from rumors before the internet existed. In a 1979 videotaped news interview, Jack Northrop broke his long silence and said publicly that all Flying Wing contracts had been canceled because Northrop Aircraft Corporation refused to merge with competitor Convair at Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington's strong suggestion, because, according to Jack Northrop, Convair's merger demands were "grossly unfair to Northrop."[8] Shortly thereafter, Symington became president of Convair upon leaving his post as Secretary of the Air Force.[4] Allegations of political influences in the cancellation of the Flying Wing were investigated by the House Armed Services Committee, where Symington publicly denied exerting pressure on Northrop to merge.
It's since been denied, but there's too much of a ring of truth to it for the story to be completely false. I wonder where our aerospace program would be without that 70 year setback?
When I was very young I saw one fly into Chennault AFB in Lake Charles, LA. We had a SAC base there - B-47's.
ReplyDeleteThey were on the right track.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nurflugel.com/Nurflugel/Northrop/xb-35/xb-35_blurb/conspiracy/body_conspiracy.html
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, I never knew anything about that. I remember the Flying Wing from "War of the Worlds," where it dropped an A-bomb on the Martians. Sad that such a fascinating aircraft was obliterated so completely, I'd love to have been able to see the real thing!
Deletehttp://www.cedmagic.com/featured/war-worlds/flying-wing.html
Sadly, it took a long time to get the concept back in the air. Handling issues had been solved by a device in the aircraft known as "Oscar". The Flying Wing was killed solely by greed.
ReplyDeleteFrom one of the online articles and from memory from rumors before the internet existed.
In a 1979 videotaped news interview, Jack Northrop broke his long silence and said publicly that all Flying Wing contracts had been canceled because Northrop Aircraft Corporation refused to merge with competitor Convair at Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington's strong suggestion, because, according to Jack Northrop, Convair's merger demands were "grossly unfair to Northrop."[8] Shortly thereafter, Symington became president of Convair upon leaving his post as Secretary of the Air Force.[4] Allegations of political influences in the cancellation of the Flying Wing were investigated by the House Armed Services Committee, where Symington publicly denied exerting pressure on Northrop to merge.
It's since been denied, but there's too much of a ring of truth to it for the story to be completely false. I wonder where our aerospace program would be without that 70 year setback?