Early Events

Posted by dt on Wednesday, 27 August 1997, at 3:15 p.m.

Readers:

This portion is stimulated by gecco. If I were French, I'd kiss him on each
cheek.....but thank god, I'm not.....so gecco get's my distant "well done"
instead. Please refer to gecco's post regarding two individuals-William
McPherson Allen and John Stack.

Please note that neither of the above were ever directly involved with the
working group. But, all three influenced each other kind a like dominos. Prior
to the Roswell compelled creation of the working group,
certain events occurred which birthed the US development of supersonic
development.

In early 1945 just before the end of WWII, Bill Allen was voted president of
Boeing by its board of directors. He was a very fortunate choice for Boeing.
One of his forte's was requiring continuous up to the minute input on what
was happening in the aviation industry. As a result, he influenced the
insertion of three Boeing engineers on the U.S. scientific team that
reviewed German technological development upon the Germans surrender
(remember, everyone in the immediate mad rush for German scientific
personnel). Although headed by an Hungarian-American physicist and
aeronautical engineer, Ted von Karman, the real driver of the team was an
astute Boeing guy named George Schairer. George was always going off on his
own - and to the apparently right places.

Still in 1945 with rifle and cannon fire still echoing between the buildings
(figuritively speaking), George started rummaging through the Riechsmarshal
Hermann Goring Aeronautical Research Institute near, I believe,
Braunschweig. No, didn't find anything in the filing cabinets, but he came
across several suitcases (someone forgot their escape ticket or the nazi's
found out about the individual's lessening allegiance to the fatherland)
which he made out to be dealing with research into "swept wing" aircraft
design. He found himself looking at wind tunnel test reports on wing
sweepback and its effects on airplane speed. It didn't take long before he
said something to the effect, "Holy mackerel" (only he spelled mackerel
differently with only four letters starting with an "s" instead). He
discovered that the Germans had investigated this line of research earlier
than anyone had believed (translated, earlier than the Americans at the lab
at Langley Field, Virginia).

Langley operated an aeronautical research center for the NASA predecessor,
the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics or the NACA. This is where
our largest wind tunnel existed and where John Stack comes into play. I'll
get back to john later.

Here we have George in Germany so, thinking of defense contractors back
home.....o.k.....thinking of Boeing, he writes a letter to a
"aerodynamicist" (as they called themselves), named Ben Cohn, in Boeing's
engineering division in Seattle, Washington. Ben looks at the German data
and ironically shouts the same thing that George exclaimed. Here is the
important concept, the German data showed that in order for the sweepback
wing to be effective it had to be apart of the jet engine as no known piston
engine could drive aircraft fast enough to take advantage of the sweepback
design. See, no EBE's or
working group involved; humans are smart critters.

So, what happened was that George went to Ben and Ben goes to Bill Allen,
who eventually has the foresight to see that a sweepback jet is the bomber
of the future. Allen authorized George to start the B-47 program. Well,
there was an anemic post-war government jet bomber program. It was
progressing like trudging through deep mud.
Again, prior to July 1947, Boeing had nothing but cold water thrown on their
sweepback wing bomber ideas by the U.S. Army Air Force at Wright Field in
Ohio. In fact, a Wright Field Army general is remembered for telling Boeing
that "a swept wing on a bomber was a lousy idea and that George Schairer had
to be some kind of eccentric." These words are on a hanger wall in the
bowels of Boeing. Coffee with your shoe general?

The problem with Boeing's approach, which was the same problem that Langley
Aeronautical Labs encountered, was that both had wind tunnels which were
o.k. *only* for sweepback wing testing. you see Boeing was measuring the
sharpness of the angle for the sweepback. The Germans got to a 29 degree
sweep and Boeing figured that 35 degrees would support the fastest speed for
the design. However, the problem was stability as related to the rest of the
aircraft body. Like where do you place the engines....in the fuselage?....or
top of the wing? whatever was done to the overall aircraft configuration
negatively affecting the sweepback design.

Here is where John Stack comes in. Working the physics of the situation. He
came to the conclusion that the wind tunnels were not conducive to testing
the full scale mock up of the sweepback winged plane. Thus, while at
Langley, he re-designed the wind tunnel by strategically placing slots in
the wall or throat of the wind tunnel.
This was a major innovation in the industry. His idea won him kudos among
his peers in 1947, but the wind tunnel change took a few years to perfect.

Also about this time, be reminded, General Twinning stiffed Boeing VP Earl
Schaefer in Wichita, Kansas. This event raised Boeing eyebrows in light of
where Twinning diverted and what was reported at Roswell. (Yeah, Twinning
changed his plans because of a balloon or dummies....well maybe real dummies)
Just like the Jane Magazine, even though they, Boeing, might not know exactly
what happened, they are sharp enough in their field to know when something
significant happened.

What follows is the god's truth as dt knows it:

Bill Allen was trying to save Boeing business downward trend by getting the
B-47 off the ground. This time, in July 1948...yes 1948, Allen took charge
of the sell off to the new USAF. He knew he had to convince USAF General K.
B. Wolfe (Gen. Twinning's WEST POINT buddy), also---> the procurement
director for the Air Material Command,
that the sweepback design concept was valid. Boeing got Wolfe to come out to
see the performance test of the B-47 at its Moses Lake test ground (note
this location, (1) Boeing owned much the lake area property and (2) this
test range is in the infamous Mount Rainier
region of the famous 1947 "flying saucers" sighting by a civilian pilot.

The Boeing test people convinced Gen. Wolfe that to really get the feel for
the new design he needed to fly aboard the craft. He did. He also flew it
briefly.

The next day, July 20, 1948 Wolfe ordered the B-47 into full production.
Wow! a quick decision maker, huh? What Boeing didn't know was that Wolfe was
fully briefed on the Roswell crash. Specifically, he knew about the
configuration of the alleged crashed air craft - that is, its unusual and
radical sweptback wing design. Thus, you can say that Wolfe's decision was
indirectly influenced by the working group.

Wolfe's decision was both good and bad news to Bill Allen. Boeing got the
production contract ahead of its competitors. The contract, however, had an
unusual condition in it. One which would still be generally unacceptable for
even today's defense contractors. Wolfe wanted the production to take
place...only...in one place.....Wichita, Kansas????

Good o'l boy network paid off again. Remember, Twinning was buddies with VP
Schaefer. Oh, I should mention that Schaefer was a WEST POINT graduate. Gen.
Wolfe-Bill Allen-Earl Schaefer confrontational meetings were classic. As
Wolfe's and Schaefer's arguments were nonsensical to Allen. Wolfe claimed
that Wichita was far safer from Russian threat than Seattle (hmmmm...he does
have a point there). Allen countered that Wichita lacked the proper
production facilities (because this was true the bomber cost, $3M, more than
any other plane that Boeing ever built.

Boeing got bite by its own program. The contract was negotiated in Seattle.
My mentor had just completed training there. He was a minor part of the
negotiations team- to schmooze with the Boeing executives to favor the USAF
position. My mentor told Wolfe that Allen won't give in. Wolfe told my
mentor to tell Allen that he'll cancel the contract if he doesn't. Boeing
soon after started building the B-47 in Wichita.

The real negotiation was between my mentor and Boeing VP Schaefer. Allen
wasn't aware or didn't see any significance in what Schaefer probably
guessed at what happened at Roswell. Schaefer needed jobs. From previous
meetings, he knew Allen vocally disliked Wichita. The working group wanted
the lid shut down on Roswell, which meant dealing with *Boeing* underlings
but in a very QUIET way. Schaefer backed off the pressure on Gen. Twinning
and his Foreign Tech people.

My mentor feeling pretty good about himself with respect to how he handled
his part of the B-47 deal. He thought be associated with the working group
would be easy. Just at about this time while at W-P, my mentor's secretary
says, "capt. mentor, you have a call." My mentor asked casually, "From who?"
She answers, "I don't know, it's some professor, I think, he said he was
from M. I. T."..........

-dt