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Mr. Daniel S. Goldin REGISTERED
LETTER
Administrator[P
397 818 135]
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND
SPACE ADMINISTRATION
300 E Street, S.W.
WASHINGTON, DC 20546March
29, 1995.
Dear Mr. Goldin,
The cover story, "MEGAPLANES"
in the April 1995 issue of POPULAR SCIENCE, states that NASA provided
the funding for McDonnell Douglas to develop the lifting body configuration,
as illustrated.
It can be seen from the enclosed photographic comparison that the configuration,
shown on the POPULAR SCIENCE cover,
is a simple clone of the 1951 model of a Burnelli Lifting Body airplane
which was designed by this company's revered founder, Mr. Vincent Justus
Burnelli. Therefore, NASA has paid millions of dollars to McDonnell Douglas
to come up with a design, laid down by Mr. Burnelli in 1951.
The article itself is further confirmation that Mr. Burnelli's genius,
from 1921 forward, embraced the correct ingredients to produce superior,
safer and less costly air vehicles. However, NACA/NASA and the
military-industrial complex chose to persecute this great visionary
and aircraft builder into a pauper's grave. Simple acknowledgement of his
brilliance would have saved many thousands of military/civil lives and
many hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.
The Burnelli Company, Inc. is the owner of all Burnelli Lifting Body
patent, proprietary and intellectual property rights. May we please have
an explanation as to why NASA has discriminated against the Burnelli Company
and funded a Burnelli competitor to pirate these Burnelli rights? Thank
you. We look forward to your response.
Yours sincerely,
[signed]
CHALMERS H. GOODLIN
Chairman & President
cc: Mr. John McDonnell
CHG/av
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