26 Jun
2015
26 Jun
'15
11:08 a.m.
On 2015-Jun-26, at 10:44 AM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
On 2015-06-26
12:47 AM, Robert Ollerton wrote:
..
Much later, Jack was given a vip tour of the
secret B2 factory and
presented with a model of the design in Lancaster CA before his death.
Yes, a famous story in the aviation world. Somebody had a lot of class.
The book has a picture of Jack with the B-2 design team.
.. The book isn't clear on why the wings were
dropped; it seems to have been a
combination of DoD budget limitations, cost over-runs in the wing program,
the loss of the two YB-49 prototypes in accidents, etc.
I have a recollection from a documentary I saw sometime ago that it was flight control
issues, .. so why it had to wait for computers and the B2.
I was looking for that doc a couple days ago for this discussion but didn't find it,
and instead found something saying it was because the competition had more effective
insiders in Washington. So who knows without original refs/research.
Did hear the story of JN being shown the B2 before release, too.