<hi style=afpcap>In January 1981, the first month of the Reagan administration, the future B-2 bomber existed only as an 18-inch boomerang-shaped model and as the best-kept secret since the Manhattan Project which developed the atomic bomb during World War II. That month, Jack Northrop, age 85, dying of cancer, was given a secrecy oath and permitted to view the model. It looked like the XB-35 and XB-49 flying wings Northrop had developed in the 1940s. Northrop passed away without ever seeing this actual aircraft, with its razor-like flying wing configuration, but today's B-2 justifies the aviation pioneer's faith in this type of aircraft.</hi>
