Bob Harrington wrote:
CWO4 Dave Mann wrote in
:

Jake wrote:
Is jack Northrup finally vindicated?

Jake

Mr Northrop was vindicated many years ago.

During the final build days of the very first HAVE BLUE platform, The
Secretary of Defense made a decision. The SecDef authorized full access
to HAVE BLUE and the many sub-compartments to one Jack Northrop,
aviator, entrepreneur, designer, engineer and legend.

Mr Northrop at the time was quite feeble, but as usual gentlemanly,
alert, friendly and still with a sharp wit.

He was escorted to the HAVE BLUE site and given the one and only "All
Access - All Levels" badge to be issued. See, even the Secretary of
Defense's clearance message transmitted by the SSO system, had a long
string of initials, digraphs and code names after his name, indicating
the Sec Def might have access to 90 percent, but not to all.

The message ... from SSO DOD, spelled out that Mr Northrop was to be
given "the grand tour".

Later in the day, after briefings in SCIF and Special Access Required
(SAR) rooms, he was escorted to the HAVE BLUE simulator. The simulator
operator, a senior USAF command pilot who was one of the principal
ground test and simulation engineers, took Mr Northrop for a ride,
including refueling, and delivery of a weapon onto a target inside an
enemy's capital city.

Finally, the honored gentleman was escorted to the hanger floor where he
was shown the B2 Spirit Bomber receiving it's final touches for air
worthiness.

As Mr. Northrop sat in the cockpit, he exclaimed "Now I know why I've
lived this long .. to see this, and oh my, this is a wonder!"

He passed on to the Great Beyond a few weeks later, secure in the
knowledge that his Flying Wing was still alive.

While I have heard this story, I believe 'Have Blue' was the lead-in project
that resulted in the F-117 Nighthawk, not the B-2 Spirit.

Pedantically yours,

Bob ^,,^


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Hi Bob,

Yes you are correct; HAVE BLUE was the original overall compartment
which housed the feasibility and R&D effort into "Stealthy Aircraft".
The B2 was still in it's initial hanger floor construction and
development phase when Mr Northrop viewed it. He saw the F117 and was
given a complete briefing with videos of various F117 flights.

I expect that DoD will declassify the rest of the story one of these
days so that historians can view the entire fantastically successful
project from start to finish.

Cheers,

Dave