Who was the chief designer of the B-1 Lancer?

[hsinchong]

Was it Sam Iacobellis or his team at Rockwell that designed the B-1 airframe?

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Sam Iacobellis worked on the B-1B, not sure about the B-1A. Teams, not individuals, design planes.

 

[Sabrejet]

Aircraft; a plane is a woodworking tool.

 

[hsinchong]

Was John Leland Atwood the chief airframe designer of the B1?

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Is this some kind of weird quiz? What is the point of this?

John Leland "Lee" Atwood was President of North American Aviation from 1948. He was not the chief airframe designer. I would check out the recipients of the Collier Trophy awarded for the B-1 to answer your question.

 

[Wahubna]

I want to quadruple down on what Paul said.

I don't think you can ever say any 1 person is the "designer" of any aircraft. They are far too complicated. Usually people think the Program Manager or Chief Engineer is the "designer" of the airplane....*cough Kelly Johnson * cough

But rarely they design anything...again, I'm slanting my eye to the side at Kelly Johnson here....

One could say the loftsman. That is the person that actually laid out the lines of the OML but they usually are merely a tool of the whole team, the person that pulls together it all into a shape. Having done that job I can tell you I would say they do not really "design" the airplane. Propulsion tells them what they need, signature tells them what they need. Aero, sales, manufacturing, etc. Sort of like being the one to put a LEGO set together following everyone's instructions as they hand you pieces.

Fun tidbit, Kelly Johnson did not actually layout "A-12"! Others made the choices and others laid out the OML, so did Kelly actually design Blackbird? Nope. He oversaw the team.

I would also like to add having known the folks that actually laid out the F-22, I have yet to see their names appear anywhere despite those gentlemen being the ones that actually laid the lines out. They get prickly if anyone tries to pass them off as "THE" designer of the Raptor. Yes, I am referring to multiple loftsmen. They certainly do not advertise their role. They just did their job and keep doing their job.

So again, if you are looking for "The designer of ____" you are wasting time.

Look for positions on a project? Sure you might find that...MIGHT

All that said, it would be really good to see more light shed on the folks in the trenches that actually do the work to create an aircraft. Lots of hard work and sacrifice by many folks. Back to the F-22 team, many of those GD folks had to spend substantial amounts of time in Burbank away from their families in Fort Worth to make Raptor happen. Many many long nights, missed family events, missed children growing up moments. All to make something fly. And for the Northrop/MacD team, it was all for nothing in the end. Can be a tough thankless job!

 

[Byeman]

Same applies to the Saturn V. First of all, Von Braun was not a designer at that stage, he was in charge of the organization. It was H.H. Koelle as head of the Future Projects office at MSFC.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

This new bomber, known as the Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft Project, had only attracted two suitors, North American Rockwell and General Dynamics. On June 5, 1970, Rockwell won the competition on the basis of Howard Evans’ promising preliminary design, and Gene Salvay, as Engineering Director Airframe Design,was called back to fully implement and develop the airframe of America’s only variable geometry heavy bomber, the swept wings of which moved back 67.5 degrees and full forward 15 degrees, blending into the fuselage via large fairings.

Wings/Airpower August 2000