Boeing - US Government & Wouter
Northrop - Bill Robert

The time: WWII

Things were shaky in the world and the US was looking for a new longrange bomber....
Boeing can to the table with the B17
Northrop with (model # evades me at the moment) the Northrop Flying Wing.

** No disrespect to any ones fathers or friends that servered in B17s in WWII (friend of my fathers was a tail gunner and he made it home) **

Both Aircraft were tested by the Army and by Army pilots that had never flown a flying wing. The flying wing out performed the B17 in all areas except two:
1) It was going to be dificult to mount machine guns on the flying wing with the large flat wing surface.
2) The US government was in bed with the Boeing Corp.

The result is history "the flying fortress".... So what's the point... the better plane was not the popular choice. How many of the men we lost, could have come home if they were on the flying wing.

My last point: When Boeing received the bid, the Army was ordered by the Government to distroy all Northrop Flying Wings used in Testing. So they flew them to the dessert and gathered them alltogether (landing gear up) and drove large bulldozers over them to crust them. HA HA! they didn't crush, the Flying Wings supported the weight of the bulldozers and eventually had to be cut up (try to drive a bulldozer over a B17 and see what would happen. - FYI: the Bulldozer incident was never released for public knowledge.

??? O'yes, look at the new "State-of-the-Art" Aircraft today... FLYING WINGS!!

Show me an I20 or A-Cat in 20 years that looks as good as my SC20TR today, and I will eat my hat.

THE REAL ARGUMENT BILL... The numbers on the boats - it is killing them that they spent $12K+ on a "Go Fast" only to find that a 20 year old boat timed out over them.