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(Via Certified RRR mail # Z 428 484 464)
Mr. Daniel S. Goldin
Administrator
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
300 E. Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20546
February 11, 1998
Dear Mr.
Goldin,
Reference is made to our letter to you
of October 11, 1996, which you have again deferred to your subordinates
for reply. Their responses were contentious, both
stating that "NASA will continue to disagree with the
many claims you have alleged over the last 30 years regarding
the lifting body aircraft design concept advocated by Mr.
Vincent Burnelli" and "NASA, therefore,
considers this matter closed". We at the Burnelli
Company do not consider this matter closed, nor does a growing
number of Burnelli supporters in this country and abroad.
Our claims that Mr.
Burnelli invented and reduced to practice the Lifting Body concept
are based on documented facts, many of which have already been
supplied to NASA. We herewith add the following:
- A copy of a
letter dated 8 May 1937, to Mr. Burnelli from the
Smithsonian Institution, thanking him for "the
original wind-tunnel model of the first design to employ an
airfoil section fuselage..."
- A copy of a
memorandum dated 17 April 1941, from General O.P. Echols,
Chief of the Materiel Division of the U.S. Army Air Corps,
to Mr. Robert A. Lovett states: "If a new design,
embodying the Burnelli principle, is to be laid down, it is
believed that, regardless of legal controversies, Burnelli
should be identified with the project, since he is the
originator of the idea."
- A copy of a letter to me, dated June 10, 1965, from Mr. Jean Roche, for 43 years Chief of
Airplane design for the U.S.Army Air Corps / USAF states:
"The superiority and the necessity for lifting
bodies is now generally recognized by the American Air
Force, its contractors and NASA" and
"Burnelli was first to recognize and apply the above
principles, and everybody is now sorry they did not think of
them first."
- A copy of the
AIAA Report 98-0760 of January 1998 states in the
introduction: "The lifting-body airplane concept,
pioneered by Vincent Burnelli in the early 1920s, seems to
fascinate every generation of airplane designers. The
basic concept postulates that the traditional cylindrical
fuselage can be replaced by an airfoil shaped body that
contributes to the airplane lift..."
Our claims are
supported by the testimony of numerous deans of aeronautics,
outstanding test pilots and engineers from the 1920s
forward. The NASA "disagreement" with our claims is
vacuous and in total conflict with the documented facts, to say
nothing about the
nine Burnelli Lifting Body airplanes
built from 1920 to 1946
without any government funding. NASA has totally ignored these
facts. This shows a serious lack of integrity which reflects
detrimentally upon the character of NASA's leadership.
It is nothing less than diabolical for NASA to spread
dishonest propaganda by crediting NASA's own employee,
McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed-Martin with Mr. Burnelli's innovative
genius while, simultaneously, funding such Burnelli competitors to
steal Burnelli's patent, proprietary and intellectual property
rights. This amounts to roughshod expropriation.
Under fascism,
individuals retain the semblance or pretence of private property,
but the government holds total power over its use and
disposal. NASA's practice, outline in this and previous
letters, is a perfect example of fascism and shows no accountability
to the American People or conformity to the Constitution.
We hope you will finally recognize the seriousness of NASA's
refusal to acknowledge Mr. Burnelli's important role in
America's aeronautical heritage. Therefore, we, once
again, respectfully request NASA to correct the historical
falsifications in the NASA Facts on the Internet, as requested
in our letters to you of October 11, 1996 and January 8,
1998.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
THE BURNELLI COMPANY
Chalmers H. Goodlin
Chairman & President
Enclosures
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