Northrop / McDonnell Douglas ATF - YF-23 and EMD F-23

Scott Kenny said:
If you do, please bring a voice recorder to record the memories, and maybe someone from the forum to help prompt your reminiscences.
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I should have. I had a great chat with Kevin who worked for Hughes on AWG-9, AIM-47 and AIM-54. Lucky guy even went on a trip on USS Enterprise with VF-1 Wolfpack working out the bugs. I laughed that it was a three view of the F-14 in Wolfpack colours (in the Hamlyn Modern Combat Aircraft series) that was part of falling in love with that aircraft (not that it needs a fancy paint job, but I was 7-8 years old at the time).

He had some great stories and I was lucky enough to hear them while sitting in the cockpit of an F-5 Tigershark.

Also had a great discussion with his colleague (sorry I can't remember, I'm blaming the Jetlag) who as a structures guy at Northrop. Maybe Hydroman knows him. Very nice guy and was kind enough to put up with my fan questions on the B-2 and X-47B both of which he worked on. I especially liked his comment that because the USN had practically no experience of running X-planes on carriers although the team wanted to be quick and dirty with the calcs, the board forced them to run all the undercarriage and structures calcs as if it was a full program (which they did). Intriguing that the g-loading limit for the aircraft was not what I expected (expected higher).

A very good museum, tiny but there are lots of other museums within an hour's drive so well worth a visit and 10 dollar donation.
 
jmspeedfreak said:
I should have. I had a great chat with Kevin who worked for Hughes on AWG-9, AIM-47 and AIM-54. Lucky guy even went on a trip on USS Enterprise with VF-1 Wolfpack working out the bugs. I laughed that it was a three view of the F-14 in Wolfpack colours (in the Hamlyn Modern Combat Aircraft series) that was part of falling in love with that aircraft (not that it needs a fancy paint job, but I was 7-8 years old at the time).

He had some great stories and I was lucky enough to hear them while sitting in the cockpit of an F-5 Tigershark.

Also had a great discussion with his colleague (sorry I can't remember, I'm blaming the Jetlag) who as a structures guy at Northrop. Maybe Hydroman knows him. Very nice guy and was kind enough to put up with my fan questions on the B-2 and X-47B both of which he worked on. I especially liked his comment that because the USN had practically no experience of running X-planes on carriers although the team wanted to be quick and dirty with the calcs, the board forced them to run all the undercarriage and structures calcs as if it was a full program (which they did). Intriguing that the g-loading limit for the aircraft was not what I expected (expected higher).

A very good museum, tiny but there are lots of other museums within an hour's drive so well worth a visit and 10 dollar donation.
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I think the structures folks I knew are all retired or ready to retire. I left NG in 1996. Getting close to retirement for me. Didn't have a chance to go to the museum this weekend but I will shoot for next weekend. Maybe I will run into a former colleague(s).
 

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