Northrop of my grandfather’s generation:
Northrop of my generation:
If you want to know why we went from winning a war on two simultaneous fronts and then the Cold War to losing to a bunch of goat herders in sandals, look at what the Military Industrial Complex uses for recruiting.
I’m two generations out of date.
Yea.. my dad worked for them in the 50s.. my uncle did too. What a stupid world we live in now. democrats used to scream majority rules!, now its an infiltesamal percent of population thats “special” and we all gotta put up with it. Bah!
Agree.
Born and raised on Long Island, about seven miles from the Grumman Plant in Bethpage. Used to drive past it to see the fighters and other planes they were building for the military. They built the LEM there as well, if I remember correctly.
Now, they are doing… what? Software and project management? I worked with a bunch of people who built the F-14 Tomcats.
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The problem is not really born too late, it is no companies are coming up to do this type of work anymore. Used to be dozens of aircraft builders, and even more companies providing design and supplies/parts. Now, it is Boeing and Lockheed. The ability for the US to fight a war with any kind of attrition is minimal at this point. It would take months to years in order to get a production line up, if we even have the place to do it.
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Sad really.
my FIL (now passed) worked on the B-2 after a well earned career through Boeing and before that flying helicopters for the USAF in southeast Asia. He’s a legend among his colleagues. Every day I think about him, I’m glad he didn’t live to see today’s politics. It would have no-shit killed him.