October 11, 1996
Mr. Daniel S. Goldin
Administrator
NASA
300 'E' Street, S.W.
WASHINGTON, DC 20546
Dear Mr. Goldin,
Considering the amount of information we provided you during our
correspondence over the last 18 months (since March 29, 1995), we are absolutely
amazed to have received over the Internet the attached copy of a NASA
FACTS publication. The statement that "The original idea of lifting
bodies was conceived in 1957 by Dr. Alfred J. Eggers, Jr. ...", is
an absolute lie.
It is a matter of record and fact that our company founder, Vincent
Justus Burnelli, had the original idea of lifting bodies, and he reduced
this idea to practice in 1921 with his RB-1.
He further developed the lifting body principle in the RB-2 of
1924, the
CB-16 of 1928, the GX-3
of 1929, the UB-20 of 1930, the UB-14 of
1934, the UB-14B of 1935, the Cunliffe-Owen
OA-1 of 1940 and the CBY-3 of 1946. In addition, many other
advanced
lifting body designs were submitted to industry and the Pentagon four to
six decades ago, but they were rejected. These advanced technologies now
appear in aircraft such as the F-22, the
Aurora, the Douglas
megajet and the X-33.
We respectfully request that you immediately withdraw the above
mentioned "FACT" sheet from circulation and replace it with a
correction, showing that Mr. Burnelli conceived the lifting body design
principle in 1920 and reduced it to practice in 1921 with his RB-1. Kindly
send us a copy of the corrected FACT sheet.
Thank you.
cc:Vice President Al Gore
Committee of Science, Space & Technology
List
NASA
on-line
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