Bill Sweetman ending journalism career

It seems to be confirmed. Bill Sweetman, the intellectual sugar daddy of Aurora fans everywhere, hater of the F-35 and long time contributor to AvWeek, has his last day as a journalist today.

Monday, he starts a new job at...Northrop Grumman.

A bit of an end of an era, even if I am not much of a fan.

Good luck, Mr Sweetman.



alert5.com...

a reply to: anzha

I'm not much of a fan on his editorial stuff, but have read some of his reference work and enjoyed it very much. Good luck. Wonder what he will be doing at NG?

a reply to: anzha

I'm still torn. Aurora is still one of my biggest pet peeves, largely thanks to him. And his hit pieces were annoying. So in that sense I'm glad. But when he would stick to facts his articles were really good reads.

a reply to: Zaphod58

When he stuck to the facts, he was pretty good. I rather liked his writing and research.

The problem was he kept putting in conjectures and opinions that had little to do with what he knew and he didn't differentiate the two. I offer my opinions, but I also make sure the facts and opinions are separate.

a reply to: anzha

I loved his factual stuff. He really hit a few out of the park. But I think he got to where he believed his own legend somewhat.

a reply to: Zaphod58

This. So this.

a reply to: Zaphod58

At the end of the day we can't hate him for trying to drum up hype, you can't sell newspapers to avgeeks without something juicy that we don't already know but he's still gotta sell it to the masses. I wish him good luck, you have to look at why people sell out and if they're just providing for there family thrn power to them, we would all love to do it.

a reply to: B2StealthBomber

Oh, I don't hate him, or blame him for it at all. There were just times I wanted to slam my head in the nearest door after reading the latest hit piece. I like to think I would avoid going that route, but I'm honest enough that if the money was right I would end up doing the same I think. I'd be torn as hell about it, but after scraping by the way we did for so many years, I'd probably do it.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: B2StealthBomber
I like to think I would avoid going that route, but I'm honest enough that if the money was right I would end up doing the same I think. I'd be torn as hell about it, but after scraping by the way we did for so many years, I'd probably do it.

Well it looks like AvWeek has an opening now. Hint, hint.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yup, my sentiment exactly.

Though I like to rationalize the two extremes by choosing to believe that the creation and perpetuation of the "Aurora" myth in the late-1980s was some sort of organized disinformation campaign to fill the public's imagination with visions of exotic Mach 8 pulse-detonating, hydrogen-fueled fastmovers and keep them searching for donut contrails and skyquakes to throw them off the scent of what was REALLY being developed, which was loitering VLO drones that puttered around, invisible, at 600kts, with their plain-jane, Jet A-sipping turbofans allowing them to stay on station for hours at a whack.

In that headcanon, folks like Sweetman were at least somewhat in on the joke because it kept their industry contacts talking to them and allowed them access to better resources for their stories that weren't actually a load of hooey.

Heck, even the Blackstar story fits my theory, as it came out right around the time that Bush II was following in his father's footsteps and bringing back stealthy loiterers with a vengeance. That story kept another generation of avnerds chasing zombie XB-70's and boron gel-fueled Sänger knockoffs right as the RQ-170 and the RQ-180 were ramping up. If it weren't for that slip-up at Kandahar (or Iran), we'd probably still be chasing the latest hypothetical sexy fastmover instead of getting all excited (well, at least some of us) about loitering sensorcraft and P-AEA drones...

originally posted by: Barnalby
a reply to: Zaphod58

Yup, my sentiment exactly.

Though I like to rationalize the two extremes by choosing to believe that the creation and perpetuation of the "Aurora" myth in the late-1980s was some sort of organized disinformation campaign to fill the public's imagination with visions of exotic Mach 8 pulse-detonating, hydrogen-fueled fastmovers and keep them searching for donut contrails and skyquakes

Those early-mid 90's skyquakes (fastmover booms) in SoCal were real. I personally felt them.

So? What could he possibly be qualified for at NG except some kind of Public Information,(disinformation,) job. An airplane builder, he ain't.

a reply to: mbkennel

Look at the trajectories, as well as what the booms were most similar to.

I've got a hunch as to what caused them, and what I'll say is that it was likely a very different craft from what everyone was expecting Aurora to be (AKA a scramjet-powered SR-71 on steroids like the X-30).

Wishing him the best of luck at Northrop. Probably landed a job doing press releases or in his writing skills for proposals to get the brass excited and give Northrop funding for new projects, or old ones.

Zaph,

Seriously you should really think about hitting them up for the position at AvWeek. You gotta admit that would be like your life's calling. And you'd get the readership, respect and the platform to really spread your wings. I even promise to not even write in the comments section over there if you did. Hell that alone might even be good enough reason to ask for the gig over there.

Barnalby,

Although those super stealthy platforms are pretty damned sweet. There's still plenty of super sexy fast movers to get all excited about out there.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

I know, I know...

They're just not anything like Aurora as most people imagined it.