Northrop YB-49, YF-17, F-20, YF-23: good airframes, commercial failures......

FLYBOYJ said:

For example, boeing built the wings for the B-2

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And since the B-2 is a flying wing, that is a big part of the plane. Northrop only built the front nose including the crew station. Every thing aft of the crew station including the bomb bays was also Boeing. Vought built the wing sections that only included the engines.

Northrop built the 747 fuselage for years

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What I was told was that Northrop made more money on each Boeing 747 than Boeing did. I was also told that Northrop had provided some up-front money to Boeing to build the 747.

swampyankee said:

Northrop built part of the DC-10 fuselage (and reported the badly designed baggage door, the failure of which killed a plane load of people)

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I don't remember Northrop building any part of the DC-10. Convair was the fuselage subcontractor and was responsible for the design.

davparlr said:

And since the B-2 is a flying wing, that is a big part of the plane. Northrop only built the front nose including the crew station. Every thing aft of the crew station including the bomb bays was also Boeing. Vought built the wing sections that only included the engines.

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Yep! The nose section was built in Pico Rivera if I remember correctly.

davparlr said:

What I was told was that Northrop made more money on each Boeing 747 than Boeing did. I was also told that Northrop had provided some up-front money to Boeing to build the 747.

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Heard that as well

davparlr said:

I don't remember Northrop building any part of the DC-10. Convair was the fuselage subcontractor and was responsible for the design.

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Also correct...

"Dan Applegate, Director of Product Engineering at Convair, wrote a memo to Convair management pointing out several problems with the door design. McDonnell Douglas had subcontracted design and construction of the DC-10 fuselage to Convair, and Applegate had overseen its development in ways that he felt were reducing the safety of the system. In particular, he noted that the actuator system had been switched from a hydraulic system to an electrical one, which he felt was less safe. He also noted that the floor would be prone to failure if the door was lost, and this would likely sever the control cables, leading to a loss of the aircraft. Finally, he pointed out that this precise failure had already occurred in ground testing in 1970, and he concluded that such an accident was almost certain to occur again in the future"

American Airlines Flight 96 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

davparlr said:

I don't remember Northrop building any part of the DC-10. Convair was the fuselage subcontractor and was responsible for the design.

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Damn my memory. Always fails when it's going to embarrass me.

swampyankee said:

Damn my memory. Always fails when it's going to embarrass me.

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Some place we often visit. The older we get the more often it occurs.