I found out tonight that my friend Matt lost his battle with cancer. He's gone.
Many of you know him as "my friend at Boeing," or "my friend at Northrop Grumman." He was both.
We met in junior college, in college algebra. I looked over at the guy in the desk next to me, and he was sketching airplanes, just like I was doing. That was 1987. We were best of friends ever since.
He wanted to design and build his own airplane. Think Polen Special, only bigger and powered by, at minimum, an O-360 or O-540. The man wanted speed. We talked a lot about his design, narrowing, improving, and he helped with mine. We solved the world's problems in between discussions of airfoil choices and engine installations.
In his professional life, he has a little part on the wheel well structure of early-model C-17's, and he did some of the design work on the horizontal tail of the T-7 trainer up and coming through Boeing and Saab. If the C-17 had ever become a civilian aircraft, he designed the safety barrier aft of the cockpit. After he left Boeing, he went to Northrop Grumman. He never gave a shred of information away, but from his hire date and career focus, I was sure he was working on the X/F-XX 6th generation Navy fighter. If that's a security breech, blame Aviation Week. Matt never revealed anything at all. Not a scrap. Which was infinitely frustrating to a guy like me. But I didn't press, and he held his tongue.
My friend is gone.
I don't know what to do.
I miss him. He was a good man, and he loved airplanes as much as any of us. Someday, when I finally fly my airplane, I know he'll be right beside me. Just like we always said we would when our designs were built.
Godspeed, my friend. Be at peace. Rest now. I'll take it from here.
Many of you know him as "my friend at Boeing," or "my friend at Northrop Grumman." He was both.
We met in junior college, in college algebra. I looked over at the guy in the desk next to me, and he was sketching airplanes, just like I was doing. That was 1987. We were best of friends ever since.
He wanted to design and build his own airplane. Think Polen Special, only bigger and powered by, at minimum, an O-360 or O-540. The man wanted speed. We talked a lot about his design, narrowing, improving, and he helped with mine. We solved the world's problems in between discussions of airfoil choices and engine installations.
In his professional life, he has a little part on the wheel well structure of early-model C-17's, and he did some of the design work on the horizontal tail of the T-7 trainer up and coming through Boeing and Saab. If the C-17 had ever become a civilian aircraft, he designed the safety barrier aft of the cockpit. After he left Boeing, he went to Northrop Grumman. He never gave a shred of information away, but from his hire date and career focus, I was sure he was working on the X/F-XX 6th generation Navy fighter. If that's a security breech, blame Aviation Week. Matt never revealed anything at all. Not a scrap. Which was infinitely frustrating to a guy like me. But I didn't press, and he held his tongue.
My friend is gone.
I don't know what to do.
I miss him. He was a good man, and he loved airplanes as much as any of us. Someday, when I finally fly my airplane, I know he'll be right beside me. Just like we always said we would when our designs were built.
Godspeed, my friend. Be at peace. Rest now. I'll take it from here.
