Jack Northrop | |
|---|---|
 Northrop with theXB-35, circa 1948 | |
| Born | John Knudsen Northrop (1895-11-10)November 10, 1895 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | February 18, 1981(1981-02-18) (aged 85) |
| Occupations | Aeronautics Engineer Industrial Designer Businessman |
| Spouse | Inez Harmer (1894-1981)[citation needed] |
John Knudsen Northrop (November 10, 1895 – February 18, 1981) was anAmerican aircraft industrialist and designer who founded theNorthrop Corporation in 1939.
His career began in 1916 as adraftsman forLoughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company (founded 1912). He joined theDouglas Aircraft Company in 1923 and worked on theDouglas World Cruiser, where in time he became a project engineer. In 1927 he joined theLockheed Corporation, where he was a chief engineer on theLockheed Vega transport. He left in 1929 to found Avion Corporation, which he sold in 1930. Two years later, he founded the Northrop Corporation. This firm became a subsidiary of Douglas Aircraft in 1939, so he co-founded a second company named Northrop.[1]
Born inNewark, New Jersey, in 1895, Northrop grew up inSanta Barbara, California. In 1916, Northrop's first job in aviation was in working as a draftsman for the Santa Barbara-basedLoughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company. After the outbreak of theFirst World War, Northrop was drafted into theU.S. Army, where he served in theArmy Signal Corps. Northrop served in the military for six months before Loughead successfully petitioned for his return to work in the private sector.[2] In 1923, Northrop joinedDouglas Aircraft Company, where he participated in the design of theDouglas Round-the-World-Cruiser and worked up to project engineer.[3]
In 1927 he rejoined the Loughead brothers and their newly founded (in 1926)Lockheed Aircraft Company, working as chief engineer on theLockheed Vega, the civilian transport monoplane with a cantilever wing that produced unusually high performance for that period, and was widely used by such top pilots asWiley Post,Amelia Earhart, andHubert Wilkins. In 1929 he produced an all-metal monoplane with an engine within the wing structure. Although this aircraft had booms to attach the tail group, it was in fact the first step toward the flying wing.[4]
In 1929, Northrop struck out on his own, founding the Avion Corporation, which he was forced to sell toUnited Aircraft and Transport Corporation in 1930. In 1932, Northrop, backed byDonald Douglas of Douglas Aircraft, founded another company, theNorthrop Corporation inEl Segundo, California. This company built two highly successful monoplanes, theNorthrop Gamma andNorthrop Delta.[5]
By 1939 the Northrop Corporation had become a subsidiary of Douglas Aircraft, so Northrop founded another completely independent company of the same name inHawthorne, California, a site located byMoye Stephens, one of the co-founders.[6]
While working at this company, Northrop focused on theflying wing design, which he was convinced was the next major step in aircraft design. His first project, a reduced-scale version tested in 1940, ultimately became the giantNorthrop XB-35. TheNorthrop XP-56 Black Bullet, a welded magnesium fighter[7] was one of the more significant of his World War II designs, along with theNorthrop P-61 Black Widow, the first American night interceptor, of which more than 700 were constructed.[8]
His inventions continued into the postwar era of jet aircraft, to produce theNorthrop F-89 Scorpion all-weather interceptor, theNorthrop YB-49 long-range bomber, theNorthrop Snark intercontinental missile, and automatic celestial navigation systems.He produced a number of flying wings, including theNorthrop N-1M,Northrop N-9M, andNorthrop XB-35. His ideas regarding flying wing technology were years ahead of the computer and electronic advances of "fly-by-wire" stability systems which allow inherently unstable aircraft like theB-2 Spirit flying wing to be flown like a conventional aircraft.[9]
The flying wing and the pursuit of low drag high lift designs were Northrop's passion and its failure to be selected as the next generation bomber platform after World War II, and the subsequent dismantling of all prototypes and incomplete YB-49s, were a severe blow to him. He retired at age 57 in 1952 and virtually ended his association with the company for the next 30 years.[10][11]
He broke a decades-long silence on the Flying Wing's demise in a 1979 television interview,[12] accusing theAir Force of killing the project to punish him for refusing to merge his company withConsolidated Vultee. He alleged that Air Force SecretaryStuart Symington threatened him by saying, "You’ll be goddamned sorry if you don’t". Symington later left the government to head the very same Consolidated Vultee company Northrop had refused to merge with.[9] Symington called the charge "preposterous and absurd" and told a researcher[13] "There was a tremendous overcapacity in the industry following World War II". He said Northrop came to him, seeking more business to help his struggling company. Symington said, "I may very well have suggested that he merge his company with Convair, who we knew was going to get business."[9] Aviation expert Bud Baker, who studied declassified documents and public records and conducted personal interviews with Symington, Air Force generals and Northrop's chairman, concluded the cancellation "was a sound decision, based on budgetary, technical, and strategic realities."[13]
Northrop dabbled in real estate and lost much of his personal fortune. In 1976, with his health failing, he felt compelled to communicate toNASA his belief in the low drag high lift concept inherent in the flying wing. NASA replied that the idea had technological merit, encouraging Northrop that his flying wing concepts had not been completely abandoned. By the late 1970s a variety of illnesses left him unable to walk or speak. Shortly before his death, he was given clearance to see designs and hold a scale model of theNorthrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, which shared design features of his XB-35 and YB-49.[14][15] The B-2, for example, has the same 172-foot wingspan as the jet-powered flying wing, YB-49.[15] Northrop reportedly wrote on a sheet of paper "Now I know why God has kept me alive for 25 years".[15] B-2 project designer John Cashen said, "As he held this model in his shaking hands, it was as if you could see his entire history with the flying wing passing through his mind."[16] He died ten months later.
In 1947 he received the Spirit of St. Louis Medal from theAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers for "meritorious service in the advancement of aeronautics."[17]Investiture in theInternational Aerospace Hall of Fame came in 1972,[18] and in theNational Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974.[19] He was posthumously inducted into theNational Inventors Hall of Fame in 2003.[20]
Northrop's passion for tailless flight was honored by the naming of a giant tailless pterosaurQuetzalcoatlus northropi.[21][22]
Hawthorne Municipal Airport is also known as Jack Northrop Field in his honor.
