John Knudsen Northrop was an American aircraft industrialist and designer who founded the Northrop Corporation in 1939.
18 Facts About Jack Northrop
2.
Jack Northrop's career began in 1916 as a draftsman for Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company.
3.
Jack Northrop joined the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1923, where in time he became a project engineer.
4.
Jack Northrop left in 1929 to found Avion Corporation, which he sold in 1930.
5.
Jack Northrop served in the military for 6 months before Loughead successfully petitioned for his return to work in the private sector.
6.
In 1923 Jack Northrop joined Douglas Aircraft Company, where he participated in the design of the Douglas Round-the-World-Cruiser and worked up to project engineer.
7.
In 1929, Jack Northrop struck out on his own, founding the Avion Corporation, which he was forced to sell to United Aircraft and Transport Corporation in 1930.
8.
In 1932, Jack Northrop, backed by Donald Douglas of Douglas Aircraft, founded another company, the Jack Northrop Corporation in El Segundo, California.
9.
Jack Northrop's 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.
10.
Jack Northrop produced a number of flying wings, including the Northrop N-1M, Northrop N-9M, and Northrop YB-35.
11.
Jack Northrop's 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 flying wing to be flown like a conventional aircraft.
12.
Jack Northrop retired at age 57 in 1952 and virtually ended his association with the company for the next 30 years.
13.
Jack Northrop alleged that Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington threatened him by saying, "You'll be goddamned sorry if you don't".
14.
Symington later left the government to head the very same Consolidated Vultee company Jack Northrop had refused to merge with.
15.
Jack Northrop said Northrop came to him, seeking more business to help his struggling company.
16.
Jack Northrop dabbled in real estate and lost much of his personal fortune.
17.
Jack Northrop reportedly wrote on a sheet of paper "Now I know why God has kept me alive for 25 years".
18.
Jack Northrop was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2003.