Goodbye Beautiful Wing

By Terrence O'Neill

Goodbye Beautiful Wing is the underlying true story of history's first intercontinental bomber... straining the technology of the times, costing billions and many lives.
Taken from actual government microfilmed correspondence and records of Northrop B-35 "Wing", Convair B-36 "Big Stick" and Army Air Corps research and development, the author translates how these two radically different designs, which were awarded contracts in December 1941, were to meet the same goal: to carry five tons of bombs from the USA, for 5000-miles across the Atlantic Ocean to bomb Germany and return, in case England fell.
Though the new bombers were not ready when the first atomic bombs in 1945 abruptly ended World War Two, but because the USSR openly threatened world conquest, the B-35 vs.B-36 competition continued. They both were modified to carry the five-ton atomic bomb, to a 4000-mile-target in the Ural Mountains in the USSR, and return.
The Air Force Secretary Symington's technical ignorance, politics, and corporate greed caused choosing the mission-incapable B-36, cancellation of many current aircraft contracts, including a Navy aircraft carrier then already under construction, and a Congressional Investigation of charges of bribery by the Convair head Floyd Odlum.
Symington cancelled a Northrop contract and scrapped a dozen B-35 airframes in front of the Norcrafters who built them, and the last flyable "Wing", refusing to save one for a museum.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9798350947311

Terrence O'Neill

Terrence O'Neill soloed in a Porterfield, at age 16, four months after two atomic bombs ended WW II. At age 23, he transferred from Engineering to get a BA in Journalism, Notre Dame, January 1953, Korean War time, then enlisted in the Navy Air Corps. He flew P2Vs in Patrol Squadron FOUR in the Pacific until 1957, rated Instrument and Patrol Plane Commander. After service he worked many day-job years as a reporter, tech writer, free-lance writer, and PR manager for Falstaff Brewing Corp. In 1960, after work hours, he bought and restored the last Waco aircraft, the tail-prop AristoCraft. In 1967 he incorporated O’Neill Airplane Company to design, build, and test fly, to manufacture his Model W, a six-place lightplane, earning FAA Provisional Type Certificate A19CE in 1969, just as the General Aviation market crashed, and capital ran out. Next, while Admin Director for a civil engineering company, he designed, built and flight tested 'Jake', a dedicated bush plane, later modified with swing-tail into ‘Magnum Pickup’ to carry one-ton loads and snowmobiles. He also improved and flew a Mitchell flying wing. In between times he and his wife Cynthia, a retired teacher with two Masters degrees, used their tandem-wing Dragonfly to visit their six scattered college grad children.O'Neill's primary interest is sport aircraft design. He has more than 20 years as a Tech Counselor and Flight Advisor for Experimental Aircraft Association.He started developing a blended-wing-body design in 1985, which led him to study the Northrop B-35 and B-49 Flying Wings and be puzzled by the Wing’s publicized 'problems' which did not make aerodynamic sense. His research spun-off inventing, with math assist of son Timothy, a device for providing roll-yaw stability for swept wing aircraft, awarded US Patent 5,078,338. The research also motivated him to investigate why the Air Force bought inferior B-36 Peacemaker ‘Stick’ instead of stealthy (1948!) B-35 Flying Wings, which is the story of Goodbye Beautiful Wing.O'Neill has about 2000 hours as a Commercial Pilot license with single- and multi-engine, instrument, instructor ratings.Yesterday 121611, I published my eBook Goodbye Beautiful Wing (Amazon) and ordered print books.Questions or comments are welcome.

Book preview

1 - 1938, June - SPY; RAINBOW; JACK

SPY

Author’s Note: Factual event and time. World famous American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh actually did these things on the request of our Berlin Consulate AAF Liaison Major Smith. He and Smith sent detailed reports through the State Department back to the US, giving the government and our lagging aviation industry invaluable information on Germany’s warplanes and intense war preparations. US Congressmen were embarrassed at their lack of preparations being exposed, and petulantly cut AAF appropriations to ‘show who was boss’.

Fiction: The dialogue and scenes.

U.S. Consulate, Office of Major Truman Smith, AAF Liaison

Berlin, Germany

Come in, Charles.

Hi, Truman. Well, the Luftwaffe people are picking me up here in a few minutes, and we're flying down to Augsberg to see something Messerschmitt makes. Should be about a two or three hour flight. They didn't want to say what. So, is there anything in particular that you want me to try to find out? I feel like a spy, but the Germans know I’m AAF Reserve, and are showing me everything.

The Army Air Force major was wearing his brown uniform, with silver wings and campaign ribbons over the left chest pocket. He smiled as he nodded to the slim 36-year-old American aviation icon, who was wearing a gray suit.

Just find out everything you can. If they just show you one plane, you might ask about what else they're developing now. They're probably doing a lot of different research projects, judging from the few we've seen or heard about. Or it might be a new version of the Bf-109. That Me-109R is a completely new airplane they're trying to pass off as their standard fighter. We've heard that Messerschmitt is starting some engineering on a big bomber, though bomber work has been given to Dornier, Heinkel and Junkers so far.

Okay. I guess I'll try to get back here as soon as they're done with me. They said we'd be back tonight. Anne and the kids are settling in at the house we're renting, and tomorrow we're hoping to do some driving around and exploring, if they'll let us. I'd like to try out the Autobahn that comes into Berlin, and see how it compares to our Route 66.

"Have you asked how to do that? I mean, are you able to rent a car?'

My hosts today have offered me the use of one of their Mercedes sedans for a week. Pretty nice machine.

Major Smith hummed and replied Really? That's very nice. Could you ask them if they have another I might use this weekend? He paused, and then added Just kidding. I have an old Opel that gets me around okay. General Motors owns part of the company ... did you know that?

No, I didn't ... but I know a lot of American companies also own companies here. Like DuPont, which makes explosives and ammunition. I suspect Alcoa might own something here too, since I think Alcoa has the world patents on making aluminum. Do you know?

I'll check on that for you. Might be a talking point you can use when you visit their factories.

Good. Okay, I'm off. See you when I get back.

Augsburg, Germany

Airfield Hangar of Messerschmitt AG

Three shining black Mercedes Benz sedans crunched gravel as they approached and parked alongside the large hangar. The occupants were mostly Luftwaffe officers in blue-gray tuchrock or service tunics. The American aviator noticed the Luftwaffe's special silver eagle with wavy wings which artfully depicted flight to the right, clutching a swastika with one talon, and pinned over the right breast pocket and on the caps.

We pin ours on over the left pocket, he nodded at the wings and quietly commented to one officer.

They got out, smiling and talking to one another mostly in English with a German accent, for the benefit of their tall, thin and hatless guest who was wearing a gray business suit. He was joined by a second, older man also in business suit, with thinning hair and who walked toward the hangar with an air of familiarity and authority.

What am I going to see in here, Willy? asked Charles Lindbergh of Professor Messerschmitt.

Wait and see, Charles, he chuckled, with his hand on Lindbergh's arm.

The driver of the first car went ahead to the hangar door, spoke to the guard inside who opened the door, and then turned and gestured to invite the guest and company to enter.

The American stepped through the doorway into the dimly lighted interior and saw a fighter aircraft parked facing the hangar door to his left. He turned and walked toward it, saying over his shoulder to his host, It's small! This is very interesting, Willy. I've heard and read a lot about this fighter, but my own closest experience is with the Curtiss P-36, which we are building for France and China now. I don't think it has the performance of your one-oh-nine.

This is our 109D model, Charles, and the General here says you can take a look at it, so you can climb up and get in if you wish.

(See Fig. 005 at end of this chapter.)

I certainly would, thank you … but after I do a walk-around. The others watched quietly as he slowly circled the plane, pausing to look at the knock-kneed retractable main landing gear legs with close-together wheels, and at the wing leading edges, noting that they appeared to be moveable. He touched, and then pulled a little on them. They easily glided outward and down, stopping to form a streamlined slot all along the leading edge. He nodded yes, to himself. An automatic device for extra lift and stall prevention.

Finally stopping at the trailing edge of the wing Lindbergh looked for handholds and steps.

Don't step on this, Charles, said Willy, pointing at the radiator flap.

Lindbergh then climbed onto the wing. The canopy was interesting, being glazed with flat glass panels instead of the curved kind generally used on Army Air Corps pursuits. The front windshield pane looked to be about an inch thick, for bullet-proofing. He lifted the left side of the canopy which was hinged on the right side, and swung it up and over until it stopped, restrained by an eighth-inch diameter cable attached at the rear, clear of the cockpit area.

Glancing back at the upturned face of his host he said, Very compact and functional. Then he turned back and looked inside at the instruments and various controls, but turned again and asked, May I get in?

Of course. We'd like your opinion on whatever you wish to comment on.

The airman swung his right leg over the fuselage side and put his foot on the seat, and then pulled himself up onto it and placed his hands on the sides for support, lowering himself, then transferring his hands to the top of the windshield and lowering his legs and feet forward into rectangular slots on each side of the console at the bottom of the instrument panel. He sat there for a moment, resting against the semi-reclined seat back, which together with the nose-up angle at which the plane rested on the ground, made him feel as if he were almost lying down. He familiarized himself with the layout in front of him.

Messerschmitt had climbed up on the wing. Please not to move any of the switches or controls. We wouldn't want you to retract the gear or start the engine inside.

Lindbergh nodded in the affirmative. I won't. Then with his right hand going naturally to the control stick, his left moved to a pair of dish-sized wheels mounted edge-up, their disk plane fore and aft. Looking at his friend he asked, Pitch trim and ...?

Flap control. Both together, the designer replied.

And this? he asked, moving his hand forward.

Tailwheel lock.

And this ... is the power quadrant... the prop pitch?

Ja.

And this large knob -- the throttle?

Ja -- Yes.

Moving his hand forward and down he lightly touched a large T-handle, and looked at Messerschmitt.

The engine primer.

Raising his hand then to a yellow and black lever, he waited for an answer.

For the canopy ejection.

The aviator nodded. Looking forward he said Pretty standard flight instruments. Magnetos on the left. Starter and boost coil on the right?

Yes.

The landing gear?

Just to the left of the center console, near your left knee, is the selector. Then you use the hydraulic control button on the front of the control column to activate it.

That's good. Combining two required actions helps to not make one big mistake, Lindbergh smiled.

Yes. Just below the gear selector is the control for the radiator flaps. It needs to be in neutral before you can move the gear. The electrical things are grouped on the right.

Very good. Efficient, the American said.

Thank you.

How does it handle at low speed? May I talk to a pilot who has flown it using the wing's leading edge slats. I'm just curious, as I haven't flown with slats.

Surely, when we're done in the cockpit, Charles. And as we said before, we'd like you to fly it, but not at this time because we're not allowed to let the French pilot Detroyat fly it, and we don't want to ask you without also asking him. If you like, you can fly one from Rechlin, our Luftwaffe Test Center, day after tomorrow.

Yes, that would be fine. And Professor, may I ask about your company and any large aircraft? I'm an officer in PanAm Airlines. We're flying Sikorsky 42s and Martins now, and we've just ordered some Boeing 314 flying boats. I think Dornier's building some small flying boats, but I wondered if you are building any transports for long flights like we fly. We've been flying from New Zealand, China, Hawaii across the Pacific. Also South America and Europe to the United States. We're starting more transatlantic routes now.

Messerschmitt answered, Of course you know of the light and medium bombers Germany is building now, and also the transports. Focke Wulf has a four-engine Model 200 transport which could have military use. We ourselves had last year just started work on what we call Projekt 1061 which was a little larger. Its main backer was General Walther Wever, but he died, so for that reason and others our higher priorities are for the -109 and the -110, so progress on the -1061 has been slow.

I see. Was Projekt 1061 a large design? Four engines?

(See Fig. 004 at the end of this chapter.)

Yes, the same ones used in the Junkers Ju-88s, Jumo 211-Js... 1043 kilowatts. That's about 1400 horsepower each.

Well, that's about the same size engines our new Boeing 314s Clippers will have, 1600 horsepower each, and a gross weight of 82,500 pounds. That's for 74 passengers and enough fuel for 3500 miles. For a land plane your payload and speed would be greater than the Boeing's because you wouldn't need the slower, heavier hull for water landings.

I hope not, chuckled Messerschmitt. Our German Naval Warfare Department wants us to design for a no-reserve range of 20,000 kilometers, or about 12,000 miles. That borders on being unrealistic, but our preliminary estimates came up with an airframe using six of those 1400 horsepower engines. It would weigh about 50,000 pounds empty, and would have to carry almost 7000 gallons of fuel, crew and payload. A gross weight of 45,000 kilograms – about 99,000 pounds – to go almost half way around the world, non-stop. I don't know where the generals and admirals are thinking of going. Even Japan isn't that far. Anyway we've got our best designers working on it: Degel, Konrad and Voigt … pretty clever fellows. We'll see what they come up with. You can see this would be an airplane with more weight and power than your Boeings. But we're taking pains to keep the design pretty clean, with flush riveting and so on, retracting the landing gear, no boat-hull high drag bottom. Less drag counts the same as more horsepower, for performance.

The American aviator was thinking some numbers as he stared ahead at the instrument panel, listening to Professor Messerschmitt, and wondered where German bombers would need to go, and return from, that was 5000 or 6000 miles away. All Lindbergh's route planning for PanAm left him with maps of the world in his mind, and he imagined them now. Six thousand miles one-way from Germany would take a bomber everywhere in the northern hemisphere. Heading eastward it could reach all of Russia and China, or heading west, all of the United States! A bomber, if that kind of range could be achieved, would indeed be a very useful weapon for German war planners. While Lindbergh enjoyed the technical conversation with a master designer, he also reminded himself that these were the bad guys. Germany was building a war machine, and it was not because anyone was threatening to kill Germans. It was because Germans were threatening to kill other people. Some good Germans should be doing something about that before it was too late. But right now Lindbergh's job was air intelligence, and he needed to find out as much as he could, courtesy of this strange opportunity that just seemed to come out of the sky, to learn the enemy.

That's very impressive, sir. Have your designers any drawings yet that I could look at? Perhaps my friend Juan Trippe who founded PanAm would be interested in a long range transport that didn't have to be able to land on water.

I don't think the generals are ready to publicize anything yet, Charles, since we're still working at a fairly low priority on the project. It's their airplane.

I understand.

You might ask the General about Heinkel's -177 ... but it's only two-thirds as big as our Projekt 1061. Or the Junkers-390.

Well ... and smaller than the Boeings we've ordered? Probably not.

I'll keep in mind your interest in the -1061, Charles. Maybe something might develop sooner than we expect, and the airline business is certainly growing, especially transatlantic and transpacific travel.

The American took a final look around the cockpit, and then commented to his friend, This looks like an excellent, formidable fighting machine … a real accomplishment.

Thank you again, Charles. Are you about ready for some lunch now? I think the officers are getting a little restless.

Yes I am. Did you say we're going to Munich next?

Yes, it's only about thirty miles to the southwest, and we'd like you to see that beautiful old city. It dates back to Augustus Caesar. The Bavarian cuisine of the restaurant we've chosen is wonderful.

As Lindbergh carefully eased out of the Bf-109 he reviewed his mental notes about this fighter, and also Messerschmitt's comments about their 12,000 mile range bomber Projekt 1061. It would be included in the report which he and Major Truman Smith would type up as soon as he returned to Smith's office in the US Consulate in Berlin. That report would be forwarded by courier to the State Department, and copied to the Army Air Corp as part of the continuing flow of technical information Lindbergh was sending home on the state of German military aviation ... information which up to this time our military was completely lacking.

Germany was building a bomber with which it could bomb the USA from across the Atlantic Ocean .

***

Following in his Congressman-father's isolationist footsteps Lindbergh was outspoken as being against American involvement in European wars, in spite of what he had read in Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf wherein he stated his goal of creating a Third Reich which would last a thousand years. The majority of the American public was also 'isolationist' now, too.

But popular Charles Lindbergh was not a pacifist isolationist. He was a Reserve Commissioned Army Air Force officer and pilot. He just was less concerned about the Nazis than he was about the greater threat he anticipated from the aggressive dictatorship of the USSR. Russia had in its own vast land mass unlimited resources of every kind, and its leadership was ruthlessly organizing, homogenizing and training its assortment of peoples and cultures into being dedicated Communists, smart enough and motivated enough by fear to produce great wealth and power; a threat to the free world. Germany would eventually attack the USSR to get those resources, and Lindbergh wanted Germany to conquer them before the United States went to war with Germany. So he spoke out at anti-war rallies in the United States and was viewed as being 'isolationist'. Perhaps he should have tried to make it clear that he was really anti-USSR, but he didn't.

His speeches angered President Roosevelt even though Roosevelt knew that Lindbergh was collecting for America invaluable intelligence on German aircraft. To President Roosevelt and the Press this made Lindbergh seem to be a pacifist. In fact, young Lindbergh had honestly enjoyed the military life when he was trained, and retained his commission as an Army Air Force officer and pilot since the Twenties.

Ironically, his ability to obtain information that no one else was able to get was greatly enhanced by his being labeled an isolationist. Some wondered whether his getting that label was deliberate, so that he might access German air secrets, knowing that Germany did NOT want the United States to get into the war that Germany was planning to start within the coming year in Poland. The Nazis believed that showing the United States how technically advanced and how powerful the German war machine was would convince the USA to stay neutral. The Germans recognized Charles Lindbergh's reputation and stature as a thought leader in aviation.

By being in Europe at the time, Charles Augustus Lindbergh, alone, was able to alert America to Germany's amassing, very advanced, aviation weapons. During 1937 and on into 1939, on request of the Army Air Force Military Attach′e to Berlin, Major Truman Smith, with approval of the U.S. State Department, Lindbergh gathered detailed specific data on German aircraft production and secret German warplanes.

How was it that America's 'Lone Eagle' was living in Europe then? Lindbergh's first son had been kidnapped and murdered in February 1931. When the Lindberghs a few years later received death threats on their second child, they moved the family to England.

Lindbergh had earlier developed an interest in biology when he became concerned about the failing health of his sister-in-law, and had bought books on biology and a microscope and related equipment. Because he had heard about an authority on such things, he contacted Dr. Alexis Carrell in France. Together he and Carrell later developed the first artificial heart pump, which was Lindbergh's idea. His interest in this project is what prompted him to next move his family from England to France.

Lindbergh's move to Europe came to the attention of Major Smith, who asked the German government if Lindbergh could see their aircraft and factories. He could. The Major got approval of the State Department, and then asked for Lindbergh's help.

The world's most famous airman's reputation got him easy entry into the highest technical and political circles, and he was invited to sit in and even fly the newest German fighters and bombers, and to tour the most modern German aircraft and engine plants that no other American had seen. He and Smith sent shocking reports that Germany was building 500 warplanes a month to England's 50. He wrote reports co-signed by Major Smith, who sent them back to the States. Unfortunately, though the reports were copied and widely-distributed, the nation's posturing Congressmen were chagrined to see information that made them look 'unprepared'. Instead of increasing aircraft production, they petulantly cut it back!

The U.S. manufacturers, however, took note of Germany's aviation work, and stepped up their R&D efforts as much as the Army Air Force's budget allowed.

Almost two years later, in November 1938, the Lindberghs had moved to Germany briefly, where Lindbergh was invited again to inspect the very latest German fighters, bombers, engine factories. The social tension in Germany disquieted the Lindberghs. After two months they left for Paris, and then returned to the States.

Why did the Army Air Force (AAF) consider Lindbergh qualified to evaluate air power? Because of his experience in the rapidly developing field of aircraft, which was only 35 years old.

After dropping out of college his second year, this son of a U.S. Congressman from Minnesota became enamored of flying, bought himself a surplus World War I trainer in the 1920s and then learned to fly it. He toured the country as a barnstorming pilot. Next he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps and became an Army Air Corps officer pilot. After his service contract ended he returned to civilian life to fly private air mail contracts. When the government took over flying the mail, he returned to the Reserves to fly the St. Louis to Chicago mail route in open-cockpit biplanes. On occasion he was required to bail-out because of being caught above an overcast at his destination, at night, and out of fuel. On long mail flights in the mid-Twenties he often thought about the $25,000 Orteig Prize, and decided to try for it. He found financial backers in St. Louis, and commissioned Ryan Airlines Co., a tiny new company in San Diego, to custom-build for him in just 60 days a plane with long-enough legs to make a 33-hour solo flight from the New York to Paris. Ryan's high-wing design by Donald Hall was checked over and modified by Jack Northrop, who was moonlighting from his job as head engineer and a founder at the new Lockheed Company, which just started up the year before and was busy building its first Vega, Jack's design. Northrop worked closely with Lindbergh who spent many hours at the Ryan plant while his plane was being built. Northrop had Hall add about ten feet to the wing spar's span, and redesigned its structure to enable Lindy to make the 3600-mile flight to Paris on May 21, 1927, to win the Orteig Prize.

Landing in Paris, young Lindbergh instantly became America's and most of the world's aviation guru, the American 'Lone Eagle'. He took to it gracefully, and handled himself with maturity, some of which he had gained when he had driven his electioneering father around his Congressional district.

(See Fig. 006 at the end of this chapter.)

After his historic flight the 'Lone Eagle' made it his career to develop aviation. He refused millions of dollars worth of commercial endorsements and movie offers to 'cash-in' on his flight to Paris. Instead he made a tour of every state in his Spirit of St. Louis, and then also made good will visits to Mexico, Canada, and other countries. He was invited to meet with kings and presidents. During a 'flying ambassador' trip to Mexico he stayed with our Ambassador Morrow there, and met and became interested in one of his daughters, Anne, whom he soon married.

He also joined and invested in Juan Trippe's new airline, PanAm, and personally scouted South America, Africa, Europe and other places to set up airfield bases for trans-oceanic airlines, and was a consultant to Trans and World Airlines (later TWA), and other national airlines, gaining knowledge and skill to evaluate long range aircraft like transports and bombers, expertise on a world-class level.

He was involved in many other aviation-growth and military research projects, toured the world with his wife, in their own private airplane, an orange and black single-engine two-seat Sirius floatplane, which happened to be the last airplane Jack Northrop designed for Lockheed. He and his wife flew their tiny Sirius westward from the US east coast some 2500 miles across northern Canada's desolate, frozen wilds, across Alaska, and even onward to Japan and then to China, a spectacular, daring flight by America's aviation ambassadors, at the dawn of the age of aviation.

(See Fig. 007 at the end of this chapter.)

So when he was asked in 1938 to spy on Germany, he agreed to use his name and time to gather vital intelligence information for the US Army Air Force on German and other aviation before WW II. The U.S. State Dept. at that time knew practically nothing about German air power; U.S. Ambassador to Germany Dodd was more concerned with diplomacy. On Major Smith's suggestion Lindbergh accepted invitations from German leaders to fly Germany's aircraft, and inspect airfields and factories for manufacturing aircraft and engines.... Messerschmitt, Focke-Wulf, Diamler Benz, Junkers, Dornier, Templehoff, Heinkel, etc., and sent reports to the State Department and the Army Air Corps General Henry 'Hap" Arnold about the state of Germany's air power.

Lindbergh knew enemy air power better than anyone else in the West. He was, after all, an Army Air Corps pilot and a Colonel in the Reserve; he understood bombers, bomb loads, and the distances that similar aircraft like PanAm's transports could fly. He had personally tested new military and commercial planes for USA manufacturers and the Army Air Corps.

He knew how to find out that Germany in 1938 was building a bomber which could bomb America from Europe.

He did not know that Hitler's oft-bragged secret weapons being developed included an atomic bomb.

1938, December

RAINBOW

Fact: At Christmastime in 1938 wealthy American financier Floyd Odlum indeed was also a director of Curtiss-Wright Corporation, and seeking to divide his own Atlas Corporation, the largest venture capital company in the nation, to merge half with C-W, so he was very interested in relations with the US Army Air Corps and the War Department’s heads. The events of the time, including Mary Martin’s appearance at the Rainbow Room after her smash hit on Broadway, happened. These top people did know each other personally, and aviation was a small, rapidly growing field, with Curtiss-Wright a major player. Jackie Cochran, Odlum’s wife, had just won the Bendix Trophy at the 1938 Cleveland National Air Races. They were all friends.

Fiction: The dialogue and the scene.

30 Rockefeller Center

Rainbow Room, 65th Floor

As he entered the glittering, resplendent Rainbow Room the ever-smiling gray-haired top Army Air Force General Harold Henry 'Hap' Arnold introduced his wife Eleanor to George M. Armsby, Chairman of the Curtiss-Wright Aircraft Corporation's Board of Directors, who was welcoming important guests to the corporation's annual Christmas Party. The head of the Army Air Force was indeed a very important guest and customer.

The supper club's view through floor-to-ceiling windows of the 60 by 70-foot room on the 65th floor atop the NBC Building, surveyed the south of Manhattan, including the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the big bridges, and the roofs of most of the skyscrapers of New York's premier island. The Curtiss-Wright Aircraft Corporation's head offices were below in the same building.

(See Fig. 008 at the end of this chapter.)

The men wore tuxedos with white ties or, military officers like Hap Arnold, dress uniform with flag rank. The women flashed rainbows of colors in their long gowns and swirled happily around the Rainbow Room amid the chattering conversation and excellent big-band music from the bandstand ... just finishing a Cole Porter song, 'I've Got You Under My Skin.'

The Arnolds continued down the receiving line of Curtiss-Wright Directors. They paused at a familiar couple, a beautiful blonde in a scintillating silver lame’ gown, and Floyd B. Odlum, her pleasantly wealthy financier husband, a director, and also founder of Atlas Corporation, the largest venture capital company in America.

(See Fig. 009 at the end of this chapter.)

Hello, Jackie. Floyd. You remember Eleanor?

Greeting formalities were graciously exchanged..

Of course, said Jackie Cochran, also known as Mrs. Floyd Odlum. How are you, Bee? she added, using Mrs. Arnold's nickname. They shook hands.

Nice to see you again Jackie, said the almost smiling General. And congratulations again on winning the Bendix Trophy this year at Cleveland National Air Races. I understand you had a little problem with the Seversky's fuel flow.

The blonde aviatrix laughed and said, "I didn't get to fly the thing until the day of the race, Hap. It's a prototype and the rules got it impounded as soon as it arrived at Van Nuys just two days before the race.

(See Fig. 010 at the end of this chapter.)

After I'd won, they found that a wad of wrapping paper in the right wing's gas tank was partly blocking the fuel outlet. I had to fly with that wing cocked up so I could use the fuel there.

Well, you did a wonderful job, Jackie, and my hats off to you, said the General with silver wings over the row of colorful medal ribbons on his dress uniform.

Thank you, Hap, and congratulations on your new position. Sorry to hear about General Westover’s crash in September, but now you’re head of Army Air.

The General smiled and nodded his thanks.

Hap, why don't you let her fly one of our Curtiss P-36s or P-40s after your boys wring 'em out? said Jackie's sandy-haired, tuxedoed husband, who looked up a little from his five-foot-eight height. It would be good publicity for the Air Force.

Well, then the P-40's top speed wouldn't be secret information any more, Floyd, and we're trying to keep every advantage we can. Your company knows how things are warming up in Europe and also in the Far East.

Jackie said, Hap, I'd suggest you look at Sasha Seversky's newest project. It's going to be a lot faster than the one I flew. It has a bigger engine with a turbocharger.

Arnold glanced over his shoulder and saw they were holding up the receiving line.

I've heard. We are already looking at it, Jackie. Let's talk about it later and you can tell me what you think about it. Looking at her businessman husband, he said, Perhaps Floyd can comment on the talks Seversky is having with the Republic group.

They agreed and the Arnolds moved on, as Floyd stayed near the Rainbow Room's entrance with Jackie, to greet arriving guests.

This is a beautiful place, Floyd. I haven't been here before.

Yes it is, Floyd admitted, looking at arriving guests. "Curtiss-Wright moved our Headquarters offices in as soon as the building was finished four years ago. That was about the time you were trying to fly the GeeBee in the London to Melbourne Race.

Lots of art-deco and art nouveau murals. Do you like the golden statue of Prometheus at the entrance?

It's spectacular! I know you appreciate sculpting because it's one of your hobbies, besides me and flying. He smiled at her, always enjoying her flying courage and sense of adventure.

I like the dance floor, she said, as they finally walked toward the circular surface of glass blocks that pulsed with colored lights underneath. Red, green, blue and amber flashes were synchronized with a custom pipe organ, keeping time with the big band.

Floyd said, The company sent a flyer as part of the invitation, and it described the room. There are only two other glass dance floors in the world. This one has 360 glass sections, with 2600 colored lights underneath, hooked up somehow to the pipe organ. It’s a little much, but I like all the room’s art deco art and furnishings.

I like the art, but I don't understand that saying over the gold statue of Prometheus. What was it? Umm, 'Wisdom and Knowledge shall be the stability of thy times.' What does that mean?

It means if you know what's really going on, you can't get screwed, her husband said with a straight face. She looked at him for a second to see if he smiled, and then poked him lightly in the ribs. He loved to tease her.

The round dance floor was surrounded by more than two dozen tables, linen and silverware covered. Many crystal chandeliers lit the room, with a very large one centered over the dance floor. Many of the ladies' long gowns had vertical colored stripes With every color and pattern. Chin-length bob hairstyles seemed most prevalent to Jackie, who had been a professional hairstylist from Antoine's before she started her own cosmetics company. Cochran thought that her own longer blonde hair and a few other ladies' longer hairdos were high style. The band was playing one of Gershwin's show tunes.

Listen, Floyd. It's a Gershwin song. What is it?

Love Walked In, he replied.

That's it, she said. It's so sad that Gershwin died last year. He was only 39.

She pulled the escorting arm of her husband of two and a half years closer to her. But my favorite is still 'The Man I Love'.

She turned her face to him, smiling, and he turned and looked into her great brown eyes and smiled back, pausing for a few seconds of implied meaning, and then they resumed walking.

There's Louis Johnson, the boss of the best customer Curtiss-Wright has, Floyd said. Let's go say hello.

Is Louis still Assistant Secretary of War for the Army, dear?

Yes, and he's been pushing them to try to get them to buy more planes than even the Hap Arnold's Air Corps wants. Our Directors like that.

Hello, Louis. Ruth. How are your daughters Lillian and Ruth?

We're all fine, said the big bureaucrat with thinning, combed back hair. He looked more like a wrestler or a boxer, even in his trim-fitting tuxedo. The big man was also a partner in a Washington law firm, as well as a powerful figure in his high position in the Roosevelt Administration. The girls are out of the nest, and I still have some hair left, he laughed. How are your sons doing, Floyd?

They're out of the nest too, Louis. I was just talking to the Arnolds, and in case you see them later, their three sons and their daughter are also out of the nest. We're all relaxing in empty nests. Hap and Eleanor are having a little time for themselves, finally, as we are. But things are pretty busy at Curtiss-Wright getting new airplanes and engines designed and tested. It takes a lot of work ... as you know. My own company has an interest in that.

That's the truth, Floyd. Yes, sir. But the fellows in the War Department are still thinking mainly about big guns. They can't seem to understand that an airplane can deliver explosives ten times farther, and with a lot more accuracy and effect than the artillery, on land or sea. Seems like I'm always arguing with the boss about that.

I bet you are, Louis, Floyd said, and they all laughed, knowing that the big lawyer had a reputation at the War Department for not being reluctant to argue his case forcefully.

Hap's doing a great job running the AAF, Floyd, but he could use some help. He's good at talking to the Congress people too; but, you know, I think you and Jackie are helping him more than you realize. The people on the Hill have a lot of respect for business finance, and also for Jackie's accomplishments in American aviation, which are... he glanced down at Jackie and added ...well, world-class. Congratulations on the Bendix, Jackie. Would you folks like to join us?

Thank you, Louis, said the world-famous aviatrix, with the slightest shake of her golden tresses.

Almost as a fanfare, the band big band started a new number, 'S' Wonderful', another by Gershwin. Floyd asked, Did you all know that we're being given a special treat tonight? Mary Martin, the gal who's wowing the audiences at the new Cole Porter play 'Anything Goes!', has been booked here, and she'd going to do her smash hit song, 'My Heart Belongs To Daddy' for us.

That will be very enjoyable, appreciated Louis Johnson with some noticeable restraint, and the ladies laughed. Louis was extra manly.

The music played on.

The sky had darkened, and the view through the skyscraper's sweep of windows was a breathtaking glitter stretching away across the expanse of Manhattan and New York. The city sparkled this Christmas of 1938, lights like stars stretched in all directions for miles. The Rainbow Room guests of Curtiss-Wright Corporation, a major leader of the world's new aviation industry, and its friends in the nation's military and in government were, literally, nearly on top of the world.

Looking eastward out toward the sky over the Atlantic a winter storm was gathering.

1939 – January

JACK

Author’s Note: Fictional scene and dialogue, but the events did take place, taken from the biographies of these real people depicted here, preceding the incorporation of Northrop at this time, according to Ted Coleman, Northrop V-P.

A Restaurant in El Segundo, California

Eddie Bellande sat across a restaurant table from his friend. They met often for coffee and a donut when Eddie was in town.

Jack Northrop resigned from his own company, Moye! ... from your company, Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Looking down at his coffee and shaking his head he said, I heard he did it because old man Douglas decided to change Northrop into a division of Douglas. He can do that. Douglas owns 51% of the stock. So now they're putting up new signs that say 'El Segundo Division of Douglas Aircraft'!

Bellande stared intently at Moye Stevens. Bellande was a senior pilot for TWA. Stephens was a test pilot for Northrop -- now Douglas El Segundo.

I heard, Moye replied. Everybody at the plant heard, but they don't know why. Why? Why did Jack resign?

The same reason he quit Lockheed, which he also started. Same reason he quit United Aircraft. Jack is a dedicated airplane designer. I mean, he wants to design the best possible airplane. The perfect airplane.... Moye was just staring at him. Eddie stopped and thought a minute.

"What I mean, Moye, is that Jack is convinced that the best layout for any airplane is just the wing. Everything should be inside the wing. No fuselage. No tail. He explained it to me once, when I was gonna fly the first Wing-thing he built ... the one with the tacked-on-tail. You remember the first all-wing airplane he designed, that I flew for him back in 1928 when he had his Avion Company, just before the stock market crash?

Well, Jack still wants to build an all-wing kind of airplane. I didn't understand what the big idea was at first, but the more I thought about it, I realized what he was trying to do! Airplanes fly by the wings making lift, and all the rest of the stuff just causes drag that slows 'em down, makes 'em climb slower, and so on. So Jack wants to put everything inside the wing, and that way he has the least drag... which means more speed, more range, more climb. Get it?

Moye was concentrating, stirred his coffee, put down his spoon, looked out the window, and finally the light bulb went on. Oh, yeah! Now I see.

Bellande continued explaining.

Jack keeps starting companies for other guys, to get them to build improved but ordinary looking airplane designs, just so they'll let him work on his own all-wing idea later. But what happens is when the ordinary planes start selling, like the Vega, or the Gamma, the partners renege and won't let Jack spend money designing his all-wing ideas. They get greedy. They just want more production and profit ... and Jack gets frustrated and quits. That's what happened with the Loughead Brothers, when Jack got them to start -renamed-  Lockheed to build the Vega. Same with United, and now Douglas. It's deja vu stuff.

So what's he gonna do now? He's out of work, Stephens said.

I don't think he's got a plan yet, but he's got enough money to think about it. Then Eddie added, I'll bet Inez is a little upset. Jack keeps doing this, and you know, it's gotta be a worry for a mother with their three kids. She was probably waiting for him at the door when he drove home in his Studebaker.

Moye smiled at that picture and suggested, Maybe we can get him to start another new company. Another Northrop Aircraft Company, this time without somebody else having 51 percent of the stock. He turned to look for the waitress, then held up his cup to signal for more coffee.

You want anything else, Eddie?

Bellande just shook his head no. He was thinking about the mention of another company.

Eddie said, Yeah. I think he'd be for that. We could go see him and give him the idea. Hmmm. But who could bankroll Jack this time? The airplane business is pretty expensive to start.

Moye said, I don't think Jack needs to rush this time. He had some stock, and Douglas bought him out. He didn't have any definite plans. He just quit, and wanted to think of what he wanted to do next.

Well, he's gonna need a lot of money to start something as expensive as an airplane company. He doesn't have that much himself. I've been thinking. A couple of prospects. You know the Gamma that Jack sold to Jackie Cochran? You remember her, the beauty race pilot with the millionaire husband? She won the Bendix at the Cleveland National Air Races last year. A couple of years ago she leased her Gamma to that rich playboy, Howard Hughes ... and he set some records in it. So, how about Hughes?

The waitress appeared and carefully poured. She looked like a fresh new California immigrant, Moye thought. He added a lump of sugar and poured a little cream from the small ceramic pitcher.

Stephens agreed, Well, that's possible. He's flown Northrop planes and set records in 'em. Put him on the list. I was thinking about Richard Halliburton too. You know him. That's the guy I flew around the world, and then he wrote a book about it.

Okay, that's another, said Bellande, "And I think I'll ask Ted Coleman too. That's the investment securities man I always fly out to his branch office in Albuquerque. He might be interested in putting together an underwriting group from his company ... Banks, Huntley and Company.

"Did you know Jack asked LaMotte Cohu about it ... what a weird name ... and Cohu took him out to see his brother, Wallace. He's a stock broker on Wall Street. But nobody in New York was interested in starting another airplane company.

Too bad; but just because LaMotte's guys in New York weren't interested doesn't mean people here in California wouldn't see profit potential in it.

Moye Stephens added, Well, the Easterners must not read the papers about what Germany's doing in Europe. They don't understand how big this next war's gonna be. I've been reading 'Aviation Week' and the magazines about Germany and Italy, and things that are going on in Japan. Those people are on a roll, and they're gonna keep going. The Nazis are bragging they're gonna last a thousand years, and they're building fighters and bombers like crazy, just like Lindbergh found out. I remember the last war in Europe, when I was a kid. That was the first time planes were used in combat. The Krauts, the Brits, the French, and the Dutch built thousands. We spent a billion dollars over here and never built anything but some trainers. The Krauts are building them fast now, like automobiles: mass production. I think the money-people in New York don't realize we'll need thousands of planes pretty fast. What's the Army Air Force got right now? Probably not a hundred combat planes and they're old and pitiful. Wheels stickin' out in the air. Open cockpits. Dinky .30 caliber machine guns. Puny engines.

Yeah, I know that, Moye. The Navy's building a few new aircraft carriers. It's still flying some biplanes with open cockpits. But some companies are trying to sell the military some new stuff. Curtiss is selling Hawk 75 pursuits to the French. That Seversky guy got the Army to buy some P-35s, but the Army pilots are afraid of it. I think Jackie Cochran flew one in the Bendix over Labor Day. He laughs. That put to shame those Air Force roosters a little. She's a gutsy little blonde. A real looker. Doesn't weigh 120-pounds, but she makes those big planes dance. I saw her at the races last year.

Yeah, and there're some neat new designs coming off the drawing boards at Lockheed and at Bell, near Curtiss, out in Buffalo. Curtiss is building the P-36s -- with the new 1200-hp round engines -- and just started flying the new P-40 pursuits with liquid-cooled Allisons in 'em and got a big order, Eddie offered. Heard some of 'em are being shipped to China.

Did somebody in the War Department wake up? I thought those old WW I guys were still buying biplanes.

'Aviation Week' says a guy named Louis Johnson over in the War Department now is shaking things up. He's an Assistant Secretary of War for Air, and pushing to buy more planes.

Really? said Stevens, snubbing out his cigarette. I bet that makes companies like Curtiss-Wright happy, and me too. People think we're isolated in this country because of the oceans and the Navy protecting us. But I can remember the newspapers and movies and the photos in the magazines of Billy Mitchell's old rag and tube Army bombers when they sank that tough captured German battleship like it was a rowboat.

Yeah, I remember that. I was just a kid then.

Me, too. Out here in California where we build lots of airplanes, I think we have a better understanding of what planes can do. The Navy's pretty resistant to change. Somebody's gonna teach them a lesson one of these days.

"Yeah, well, at least now they're buying some more modern dive bombers. Jack showed them how to do that, didn't he? The BT-1, at El Segundo. I think the Navy's ordered some from Douglas.

Jack has a hell of a good record starting companies that become successful. I think investors will be interested.

Okay. I'll check out Coleman.

Eddie looked at his wristwatch. I gotta go. He gulped the rest of his coffee, left some change for a tip, and followed Moye out of the restaurant.

004 Me-264 Amerika Bomber, Projekt 1061 – (Wikipedia)

Germany also created a second Amerika Bomber, the Ju 390.

005 Messerschmitt Bf 109C Squadron, in Poland, September 1939. (Bundesarfchiv Bild 1011-379-0015-18, Flugzeuge)

006 Spirit of St. Louis Lands in Paris, 1927. (www.charleslindbergh.com)

007 Charles and Ann Lindbergh's Lockheed (Jack Northrop-designed) Sirius in China. (www.charleslindbergh.com)

008 Rainbow Room, Rockefeller Center (NYCtourist.com).

009 Floyd Bostwick Odlum, circa 1941.

010 Jackie (Odlum) Cochran after winning Bendix Trophy at 1938 Cleveland National Air Races. (Wikipedia)

2 - 1939, September - NEW NORTHROP

Author’s Note: Fact: These business details are accurate, taken from the book by Northrop’s Marketing vice-president Ted Coleman. Here’s how the Odlums actually put Northrop in business.

Fiction: The dialogue.

Hawthorne, California

They worked it out. Ted Coleman, the financial contact, was interested and took it to his employers, who also were interested. Jack Northrop and LaMotte Cohu met Coleman, who introduced Northrop to Huntley and his partners, and Jack sold them on the idea of a new Northrop company.

Coleman told others about Jack at the meeting. Smiling, talking about aviation being a fun job, getting up each morning to see what can be done better ... he was a great salesman.

Banks Huntley and Company agreed to sell one and a half million in stock, the majority of which, Jack insisted, was not to be placed in the hands of only a few investors. All investors were to be limited. That way Jack could be free to design his new kind of airplane, which, after all, was his goal and the reason he left Lockheed, United, and Douglas. He believed the new company would be profitable, would build conventional planes also, but mainly he wanted an all-wing configuration to be one of those airplanes. With LaMotte Cohu as the business head –- he'd been president of an airline -- they agreed to go ahead, but first Coleman went to Jack's former bosses, Donald Douglas, and then to Robert Gross, who had taken over an almost bankrupt Lockheed and turned it around, to make sure they would not put obstacles in Northrop's path. Both men admired Jack Northrop, and Coleman told Bellande later that they appeared pleased to welcome him as competition.

Banks Huntley issued 250,000 shares of Northrop stock at $6 a share for Class A. Class B stock was offered in blocks of 5000 shares to management in return for accepting low salaries of $12,000 to $15,000 and couldn't be exchanged for Class A until the company made its first million dollars.

Bellande was offered the sales position but turned it down because of the low salary, even though it included a block of Class B stock. Moye Stephens became the company's secretary, and later a director.

The first offering was released in August 1939, just two months before Germany invaded Poland. That unsettled the market and the rest of the stock didn't sell right away. The last 50,000 shares remained unsold for several months, holding up the launching of the corporation.

Author’s Note: This scene and dialogue is fiction.

Fact: It depicts correctly the details of how Odlum put Northrop Corporation in business, partly on the request of his wife. Also a fact is their relationship with Howard Hughes, with strong shared interests in finance, aircraft, and each owned a movie studio. Cohu was as depicted.

1939-September

Odlum-Cochran Ranch

Indio, California

Floyd honey, said the perfectly-groomed blonde in the dark flowered dress, to her businessman husband as he sat at the white patio table, having his breakfast coffee and cigarette.

Hmmm? he replied without looking up from the Wall Street Journal. Then after a few seconds, he realized this tone and question usually meant a coming request for a favor.... usually indicating adventure and fun ... just like it had a year ago, when he flew to Cleveland to await her arrival in the Cleveland National Air Races 2000-mile dash cross-country run from California to Cleveland. Jackie landed in record time, primped her appearance for a few minutes before exiting her Seversky cockpit, and then graciously accepted the Bendix Trophy for winning the National Air Races at Cleveland! The Odlums were jubilant!

Floyd Odlum's wife had proved over and over that she was a very remarkable woman. They had been happily married now for four years. They enjoyed their ranch home which they'd designed and built in the desert near Indio. They lived there when Odlum the CEO wasn't attending to his Atlas Corporation business interests in New York where they also had a Park Avenue apartment. He was the founder and head of a multi-million-dollar venture capital corporation, and traveled world-wide, although most investments were in the United States. But he wasn't obsessed with money to the extent of not using some of it for fun investments, such as buying his wife an airplane, or investing in her cosmetics company. She traveled too, managing her operation in Chicago and New York, selling her cosmetics line. Both from very humble beginnings, they were living the American Dream. In all her spare time she was involved in air racing and record-setting. She had won the biggest air race in the world, a rare woman pilot with eight years of flying experience, some of it hair-raising.

Floyd looked at her big smile as he folded and laid his newspaper on the table. I know that voice, sweetheart. What am I in for this time?

She laughed a little, and confessed, A little favor for a friend of ours, Floyd. You know about Jack Northrop starting another company.

Yes, I heard their stock has been going pretty well. They're going to build a factory in Hawthorne, in Los Angeles. What's the matter?

Jack called me, Honey. He explained what you just said, and he added that they still need to sell 50,000 shares in order to get started. They're going to build a completely new kind of airplane. But the war talk has stalled the market.

Yes, I know that too.

And Jack wondered if you might help them over this hump by buying the remaining shares. LaMotte Cohu is going to be the chairman and general manager, and his brother Wallace Cohu you may know... has a brokerage business on Wall Street. Since you're going east this week, would you talk to Wallace about Northrop's proposal?

Cohu. Yes, I remember LaMotte. He's a Director of TWA, and he's president of Aviation Corporation, a holding company for aircraft securities. Yes. I'll call his brother when I get to New York, and see if it's something I can do.

Jackie got up and came around the table, stood beside his chair, and as he looked up and smiled at her, she bent over and kissed him lightly on the lips, then she lifted his glasses off and kissed him more definitely.

As they parted he whispered, Investments can be a lot of fun, and gave her a light pat on the bottom.

I just love that Northrop Gamma we bought a few years ago, Honey. Jack's a genius. I couldn't bear to sell it, even when Howard begged me.

She was referring to their friend Howard Hughes. He wanted it so badly to try for some records. But I wanted it for records too, so I just leased it to him.

I remember, Honey. Hughes set quite a few in it. Where is it now?

Oh, I don't know. Floating around somewhere. Howard can't remember where he leaves things. He's a nice man, but he's so intense about secrecy he even keeps things secret from himself.

They both smiled at the eccentric young millionaire's foibles.

Howard seems to be getting into the airplane business too, in addition to his motion picture corporation. He and I seem to be flying in the same airplane and movies circles, business-wise, said the sandy-haired husband mostly to himself, as he resumed his reading.

In September 1939, just before Hitler invaded Poland, Floyd Odlum had his Atlas Corporation buy 40,000 shares of 'A' stock and 33,000 Warrants to put Northrop Corporation into business in Hawthorne, California. Seven years later his putting Northrop into business would be remembered as -- ironic.

3 - 1940, July 10 - HAP & FDR

Author’s Note: Fact: The events and persons are as depicted. Louis Johnson actually ran the US War Department after the President fired Harry Woodring. But when Johnson was passed over for the top job, he stayed close to the Administration, as referenced in verbal histories recorded in the Truman Library. General Arnold often bypassed his Army boss and talked directly to FDR, and very likely had a conversation like the fictional one here, getting backing for the trans-ocean bombers, and learning about the effort to make an atomic bomb. Johnson was soon brought into Consolidated-Vultee/Convair as a Director, serving for years, and would facilitate Odlum’s take over Convair after WW II.

Fiction: The dialogue.

TEMPORARY SECRETARY OF WAR

Office of Secretary of War Harry F. Woodring

War Department

War Building

Washington, D.C.

Named to head the Army's Air Corps on September 29th, 1938, General Henry Harley Hap Arnold replaced General Westover, killed in a plane crash. Arnold remained very busy reviewing the entire world war situation from the Fall of 1938 until the present, mid-1940. In about a year Hitler's war machine had conquered most of Europe, and was currently assaulting England with bombers, while the Wehrmacht was building up for an assault by invasion barges across the English Channel.

Arnold also worked with President Roosevelt in efforts to ramp up the United States' military preparedness in spite of the reluctance of the Congress and the American people, who did not have General Arnold's access to classified information that revealed the terrifying, rapid speed of German war preparations.

Germany's bombing of Poland last year and its swift, bewildering conquest of Europe had finally provoked panic in the myopic American Congress who, like ostriches running after finally pulling their heads out of the sand, suddenly threw sixteen times as much money into war preparations, increasing spending from a half-billion dollars in 1939 to $8 billion in 1940, and they planned to triple that amount again in the coming year.

Arnold who had been trying to get the Army Air Force built up for the coming war, found a friend in the Assistant Secretary of War Louis A. Johnson who, even more than his boss War Secretary Harry F. Woodring, pushed for more US warplanes. Actually, Johnson was acting more in line with President Roosevelt's policies than was Woodring. For example, FDR had adopted a proposal by Johnson for a War Resources Board, which authorized increasing the Army to 225,000 and the Reserves to 235,000. Johnson's Board members included top men from the Navy Department, General Motors, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Brookings Institute, U.S. Steel, and Johnson himself for the War Department. However the plan provoked a backlash because it had omitted labor and farming, and so had to be politically abandoned.

General Arnold, Louis Johnson and Roosevelt saw eye-to-eye on being prepared. In the past month the President asked Johnson's boss to resign. Woodring, who called himself a 'Kansas country boy', had sent FDR a letter informing him that Germany was building about 2000 aircraft a year, had production capacity for about 17,000; and then – unreasonably -- the Secretary of War strongly recommended U.S. neutrality! Roosevelt didn't want to hear that from his Secretary of War. The last straw was when Woodring had argued with FDR that the U.S. as a neutral country should not keep B-17 bombers in England; so, FDR had Woodring resign on June 20th, 1940.

The blunt and forceful Louis A. Johnson, Assistant Secretary of War since 1937, was now running the War Department of the United States of America. This was a giant leap up for him. He had been a young infantry major at age 28 at the end of WWI in France. Before that, as a young lawyer, he was a State Representative from West Virginia. After WW I he practiced law, kept his Reserve commission, and was active in the powerful American Legion, becoming its National Commander for 1932-1933, thereby achieving great national recognition, as the American Legion was a huge political force.

Johnson, running the War Department as de facto Secretary of War, expected to be promoted to the top level cabinet position job. But on July 10th, 1940, the President disappointed Johnson and brought in a Republican, old Henry L. Stimson, who had been Secretary of War under President Hoover.

Johnson's friend and assistant Paul Griffith asked, Louis, this is a hell of a thing ... have you checked that there's no mistake?

"Hell