RIP Irving Theodore Waaland July 02, 1927 - May 16, 2022

I know of Waaland mostly in relationship with the B-2 history. What other programs do we know he worked on? Have Blue, TSAAM, I'm guessing?
Also, i 've read somewhere he was butting heads with Cashen. What was that about?
 
Waaland wanted to build an airplane that flew. Cashen wanted to build an airplane that was invisible to radar.

Waaland spent 1953—1974 at Grumman before joining Northrop.
 
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In Memoriam
 

Attachments

  • AIAA-1991-3069 Technology in the lives of an aircraft designer.pdf
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His background was aerodynamics.

Grumman
XF10F
F-11 Tiger
Gulfstream I
E-2
Eagle missile
F-111B
Gulfstream II
F-14A

Rockwell (on loan)
Space Shuttle

Northrop
F-17 NACF (F/A-18)
XST
Tacit Blue
B-2
ATA

A pretty impressive legacy.
 
He and John butted heads frequently on the B-2 program. They got into screaming sessions on more than one occasion at review meetings. Irv expressed no love for John from the start of the B-2 program. But Irv was a consummate professional and the two needed to work together. Not sure if Irv ever worked on TSSAM, but he did work on Tacit Blue, Sam Craig's stop rotor, and the ATA program. I think he used to give a presentation on the XST program at AIAA meetings? I have the brochure somewhere.
 
overscan (PaulMM) said:
His background was aerodynamics.

Grumman
XF10F
F-11 Tiger
Gulfstream I
E-2
Eagle missile
F-111B
Gulfstream II
F-14A

Rockwell (on loan)
Space Shuttle

Northrop
F-17 NACF (F/A-18)
XST
Tacit Blue
B-2
ATA

A pretty impressive legacy.
Click to expand...
Obviously those were different times, but yeah, that's quite the Curriculum Vitae! I read that at the end of the B-2 development prgram, Cashen got married at age 55 in a ceremony in the South Pacific and shortly thereafter left Northrop for Australia. As awesome as the B-2 is, i can only assume working for twenty years on a black program must be exhausting.
The oral interview is very interesting, I found (but haven't read yet) a similar interview of Cashen:
 
Cashen married the NOC Advanced Systems business director Retta Lewis. He has since returned from Australia and teaching the Kangaroos to talk to each other.
 
Ockers actually but, RIP to another of the greats. All further work will now be extremely black in nture. Quite something to know though.
 
flateric said:
One of the fathers of B-2 and many other classified stuff, died this Monday...
Click to expand...
Irv was my brother in law. My first introduction to his genius and drive was in his kitchen. There, on the table, he laid out the early plans for what he hoped was to become the F14. He explained the inadequacies of the McNamara F111 and how he proposed to correct and improve upon that ill conceived aircraft. I was fascinated. I was a recent B52 bomb/nav and now was flying C97's with the NY Air Guard. He introduced me to a world I had only thought about superficially, as in light the fires and pull the chocks.
His design work on the B2 was a family contribution in that there were long periods of time when they didn't see Irv. And when they did, he couldn't tell them what he was doing or where he had been. His dedication and that of his family is in the long tradition of what has made this country great. I hope there are many who take up that banner. We need them.
 
flateric said:
One of the fathers of B-2 and many other classified stuff, died this Monday...
Click to expand...
I had the honor of calling Irv my great uncle as I grew up. Both him and my grandpa were the center stones of our family. They are both deeply missed. Thank you for keeping his memory alive through this post.
 

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