John Knudsen Northrop (November 10, 1895 – February 18, 1981) was an
American aircraft industrialist and designer who founded the
Northrop Corporation in 1939.
His career began in 1916 as a
draftsman for
Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company (founded 1912). He joined the
Douglas Aircraft Company in 1923 and worked on the
Douglas World Cruiser, where in time he became a project engineer. In 1927 he joined the
Lockheed Corporation
The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer. Lockheed was founded in 1926 and merged in 1995 with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin. Its founder, Allan Lockheed, had earlier founded the similarly named but otherwise-u ...
, where he was a chief engineer on the
Lockheed 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.
Early life and entering aviation
Born in
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...
, in 1895, Northrop grew up in
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara (, meaning ) is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States excepting A ...
. In 1916, Northrop's first job in aviation was in working as a draftsman for the Santa Barbara-based
Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company. After the outbreak of the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Northrop was drafted into the
U.S. Army, where he served in the
Army Signal Corps. Northrop served in the military for six months before Loughead successfully petitioned for his return to work in the private sector. In 1923, Northrop joined
Douglas Aircraft Company, where he participated in the design of the
Douglas Round-the-World-Cruiser and worked up to project engineer.

In 1927 he rejoined the Loughead brothers and their newly founded (in 1926)
Lockheed Aircraft Company, working as chief engineer on the
Lockheed 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 as
Wiley Post,
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart ( ; July 24, 1897 – January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. During her li ...
, and
Hubert 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.
Company founding
In 1929, Northrop struck out on his own, founding the Avion Corporation, which he was forced to sell to
United Aircraft and Transport Corporation in 1930. In 1932, Northrop, backed by
Donald Douglas of Douglas Aircraft, founded another company, the
Northrop Corporation in
El Segundo, California. This company built two highly successful monoplanes, the
Northrop Gamma and
Northrop Delta.
By 1939 the Northrop Corporation had become a subsidiary of Douglas Aircraft, so Northrop founded another completely independent company of the same name in
Hawthorne, California
Hawthorne is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is part of a seventeen-city subregion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area commonly known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay. As of the 2020 United States cens ...
, a site located by
Moye Stephens, one of the co-founders.
Flying wing and other aircraft
While working at this company, Northrop focused on the
flying 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 giant
Northrop XB-35. The
Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet, a welded magnesium fighter was one of the more significant of his World War II designs, along with the
Northrop P-61 Black Widow, the first American night interceptor, of which more than 700 were constructed.
His inventions continued into the postwar era of jet aircraft, to produce the
Northrop F-89 Scorpion all-weather interceptor, the
Northrop YB-49 long-range bomber, the
Northrop Snark intercontinental missile, and automatic celestial navigation systems.
He produced a number of flying wings, including the
Northrop N-1M,
Northrop N-9M
The Northrop N-9M was an approximately one-third scale, span flying wing aircraft used for the development of the full size, wingspan Northrop YB-35, Northrop XB-35 and YB-35 flying wing long-range, heavy bomber. First flown in 1942, the N-9M ...
, and
Northrop 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 the
B-2 Spirit
The Northrop B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American Heavy bomber, heavy strategic bomber, featuring low-observable stealth aircraft, stealth technology designed to penetrator (aircraft), penetrate dense anti-aircraft war ...
flying wing to be flown like a conventional aircraft.
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.
Later years
He broke a decades-long silence on the Flying Wing's demise in a 1979 television interview, accusing the
Air Force
An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...
of killing the project to punish him for refusing to merge his company with
Consolidated Vultee. He alleged that Air Force Secretary
Stuart 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.
Symington called the charge "preposterous and absurd" and told a researcher
"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."
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."
Northrop dabbled in real estate and lost much of his personal fortune. In 1976, with his health failing, he felt compelled to communicate to
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
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 the
Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, which shared design features of his XB-35 and YB-49.
The B-2, for example, has the same 172-foot wingspan as the jet-powered flying wing, YB-49.
Northrop reportedly wrote on a sheet of paper "Now I know why God has kept me alive for 25 years".
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." He died ten months later.
Awards and honors
In 1947 he received the Spirit of St. Louis Medal from the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing edu ...
for "meritorious service in the advancement of aeronautics."
Investiture in the
International Aerospace Hall of Fame came in 1972, and in the
National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974.
["John Northrop"]
. National Aviation Hall of Fame. Retrieved: April 2, 2011. He was posthumously inducted into the
National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2003.
Northrop's passion for tailless flight was honored by the naming of a giant tailless pterosaur ''
Quetzalcoatlus northropi''.
Hawthorne Municipal Airport is also known as Jack Northrop Field in his honor.
See also
*
Northrop University
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Coleman, Ted. ''Jack Northrop and the Flying Wing: The Real Story Behind the Stealth Bomber''. New York: Paragon House, 1988; .
* Donald, David, editor. "Northrop Flying Wings". ''Encyclopedia of World Aircraft''. Etobicoke, Ontario: Prospero Books, 1997; .
* Maloney, Edward T. ''Northrop Flying Wings''. Corona del Mar, California: World War II Publications, 1988. .
* Pape, Garry and John Campbell. ''Northrop Flying Wings: A History of Jack Northrop's Visionary Aircraft''. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 1995; .
* Pattillo, Donald M
"Pushing the Envelope: The American Aircraft Industry".Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2001; .
* Winchester, Jim. "Northrop XB-35/YB-49" ''Concept Aircraft: Prototypes, X-Planes and Experimental Aircraft''. Kent, UK: Grange Books plc., 2005; .
* Wooldridge, E. T. ''Winged Wonders: The Story of the Flying Wings''. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983; .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Northrop, Jack
1895 births
1981 deaths
Aircraft designers
American aviation pioneers
Businesspeople in aviation
American aerospace engineers
Businesspeople from Newark, New Jersey
National Aviation Hall of Fame inductees
People from Hawthorne, California
Lockheed people
Engineers from California
Engineers from New Jersey
20th-century American engineers
20th-century American inventors
20th-century American businesspeople