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February 10, 1997
Mr. Daniel S. Goldin
Administrator
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS & SPACE ADMINISTRATION
300 'E' Street, S.W.
WASHINGTON, DC 20546
Dear Mr. Goldin,
It is regrettable that you have not responded to our letters of
October 7 and October 11, 1996,
and our reminders in the interim, the last being January
13, 1997.
Enclosed herewith is an article by Mr. George C. Larson, presently
editor of the Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine,
which appeared in Business and Commercial Aviation in March, 1985. From
Page 2 of this article I quote: "Americans, too, were active in tailless
design. The first to touch on the concept was Vincent Burnelli, who really
aimed at the span-loader idea with a 'lifting body' fuselage shaped like
an airfoil intended to contribute to lift... And then there was Northrop".
No mention in this article was made of Dr. Alfred Eggers.
The continued presence of the NASA fact sheet on Internet is an
outright falsification of America's aeronautical history and we again respectfully
request that NASA issue an official retraction of the misinformation contained
therein and a correction acknowledging that Mr. Burnelli was "the
first to conceive the original idea of lifting bodies".
CHG/mf
Enclosure
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