This is an edited transcript of an oral history interview of James Kinnu conducted by Volker Janssen. This is the first of two interviews with Kinnu. The first interview covers up through 1979 and his work at Northrop on Tacit Blue. The second interview covers from 1979 and his work on the B-2 bomber to his retirement. James Kinnu was an engineer and manager at Lockheed, North American Rockwell, and Northrop, and was program manager at Northrop on the B-2 stealth bomber. James Kinnu was born in Oak Park, Illinois on October 12, 1930. In 1951 he received an undergraduate degree in physics from Notre Dame and then joined the Army, serving as a Ranger in the Korean War. He had already started undergraduate courses in business at UCLA and received his second bachelor’s degree in business in 1953, while still in the Army. Upon discharge from the Army in 1955 worked for 17 years at Lockheed in Burbank: first on the Electra; then in the 1960s as program manager for advanced fighters, including Lockheed’s unsuccessful bid for what became the F-15; and finally on the L-1011. In 1971 he took a job at North American Rockwell overseeing advanced fighter design, including HiMAT. In 1978 he became executive vice president for Falcon Jet in New Jersey. In January 1979 he took a job at Northrop and soon started working on stealth aircraft, first on Tacit Blue and then as program manager for what became the B-2. He left the B-2 program in early 1989 and worked in Northrop’s corporate offices and then as deputy general manager, overseeing missile programs. He retired in 1992. [Object file name], Aerospace Oral History Project, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
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