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From: military@amdcad
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: YF-22 vs. YF-23, Why?
Message-ID: <1991May24.030621.9544@amd.com>
Date: 23 May 91 15:04:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: amd.1991May24.030621.9544
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From: ames!pur-ee!wb9omc (Duane P Mantick)


As regards the B49, you are probably aware that nothing was ever proven.
On a flight that I understand was supposed to be a demo flight, there
was a USAF officer that was supposed to be the flight engineer, as I
understand it.  One of his jobs was to make SURE that there was enough
oil (I didn't get a full explanation on just what 'oil' they were talking
about but it had something to do with the engines) in the engines.  He
signed off the work as having been checked/done but sure enough, duringthe
flight, the engines pretty much self destructed.  When they were checked
they were found to be without oil, but not due to any kind of leakage
that anyone could find.  When Northrop wanted to find this USAF officer
to ask him what the hell had happened, USAF told them that he was
"unavailable", or something like that.  IN fact, USAF got extremely
uncooperative.

When Mr. Northrop went to Washington for a meeting with DOD, he got into the
meeting room and found not only the government people but the President
of Convair (i.e. the B36 dude) waiting for him.  The guy from Convair,
with the seemingly tacit approval of DOD, told Northrop that there was
no way in hell he was going to lose on this contract.  Well, he didn't.
Seems as though the man from Convair had one or more Congesscritters
pretty much in his pocket, which Northrop didn't.

A lot of people have made a great deal out of the fact that one Capt. Glen
Edwards died in a crash of a B49.  It must be pointed out that he
would not be the only test pilot to die test flying a military
aircraft.  Many of those aircraft even went into production after the fact,
a case in point being the F100 Super Sabre, which took the life of
test pilot George Welch and was in production anyway.  The Welch
accident was directly due to the undersized vertical stabilizer onthe
F100A early models - and the worst part was, the company knew it, the
USAF knew it and according towhat I read, *Welch* knew it.  The YF100
prototypes had a taller tailfin; it was cut down to decrease weight.
After the accident, all ofthe existing A models got a taller fin and
all future models had it too.

So the B49 is not alone in having problems.  As is typical, problems 
get ironed out - that is what test pilots are for.  What I have read
of actual pilot descriptions indicates that the B49 was a bomber that
handled more like a fighter, and the existing films seem to bear that
out.  B49's were able to make in-flight manuevers that would have
shredded a B36, manuevers that would have made the B49 MUCH harder to
shoot down during an intercept, for example.  

When you consider that it was known at the time the the B49 was difficult
to track on radar because of its flying wing configuration while
the B36 must have had an RCS the size of Mount Everest, it is not
difficult to conclude that the procurement procedure was a complete
and utter fraud.

Now if you want chapter and verse, I ain't got it....I am in the process
of acquiring aviation reference books as my budget allows.  I might
refer you to a bit of video called "The Wing Will Fly" which does 
include some of this information.

One last thing you might want to consider:  in the end run, which aircraft
of the two, the B49 or the B36, has actually contributed *anything* of
value to the current status of military aviation in the US?  Certainly not
the B36 - it was a relic of WW2 technology, a propellor driven stopgap
to hold us over until the B47 and B52 were ready to go.  B36's were
scrapped so fast it makes the head spin.  On the other hand, before
Jack Northrop died a few years ago, he was granted a security clearance
and allowed to see drawings and scale models of the B2 Stealth Bomber.
I understand he was very impressed....

Duane