Inside the Flying Wing (Jan, 1947)
Filed under: Aviation — @ 1:20 am
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1947
Buy on Ebay
Source: Popular Science ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1947
Buy on Ebay
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Inside the Flying Wing
COMPLETELY enclosed within the outer skin of the XB-35 there is a many-sided room that houses the 15-man crew. Pressurized for high altitudes and large enough to provide sleeping accommodations for six, it is the heart of the Flying Wing.
Around this center of operations is a mass of trusswork resembling a bridge-a simpler structure than that of a conventional airplane because the craft’s weight is distributed throughout the wing and needs no “beefing up” around a fuselage.
The pictures on this and the following page, taken at the Northrop Aircraft plant in California, show details of the crew nacelle and the massive 172-foot framework in which it nestles.
These are great pictures. I don’t think i’ve ever seen them before, which is a pity, as well as why they scrapped this plane.
Comment by Tim Giachetti — May 30, 2008 @ 3:02 am
In the 1953 ‘War of the Worlds’ we see the jet powered flying wing take off and fly.
Here’s an early prop version:
http://www.archive.org/details.....lying_Wing
Comment by jayessell — May 30, 2008 @ 4:14 am
The XB-35 (as well as the later jet-powered YB-49) had many technical problems, and were incapable of carrying the large and heavy atomic bombs of the day (which makes the nuking of the Martians by a YB-49 in the 1953 film technically impossible). The B-36 was much more practical.
Comment by Doug — May 30, 2008 @ 8:26 pm
Our abandonment of the XB-35 and YB-49 in favor of the conventional B-36, which was done as much for political reasons as for technical ones, probably set our aviation development back by fifty years. We gave up far too easily.
Comment by Eliyahu — May 31, 2008 @ 9:01 am
It is a charming bit of symmetry that the Northrop-Grumman B-2 Spirit has the exact same 172′ wingspan.
Comment by Jim — June 1, 2008 @ 7:07 am
The YB-49 was designed around the Mk-III bomb and could carry one for 4000 miles. By 1953 the Mk-5 and Mk-6 bombs had become standard in the US arsenal, the B-49 would have been capable of carrying 3 Mk-5 bombs or 1 Mk-5 and 1 Mk-6 for its standard combat radious. The yield on a Mk-III bomb was 20-23kt , the Mk-5 Mod 4 was 60kt, and the Mk-6 Mod 7 was 160kt.
Comment by JMyint — June 1, 2008 @ 10:40 am
According to the Squadron/Signal Publications book on Northrup’s flying wings, most of the technical problems were insurmountable without fly-by-wire computerized control systems found in the B-2 Stealth. Jack Northrup’s work was critical to the design of the Stealth, and he was granted knowledge of the still-secret bomber he pioneered before he died.
Comment by Lee Hauser — June 1, 2008 @ 10:56 pm
That’s interesting though the crash of the YB-49 #2 in June 1948 occured when Capt. Glen Edwards forced the plane into a low speed high angle stall, flight testing of YB-49 #1 continued until March of 1950 when the tire on the nose wheel failed during high speed taxi test. Testing continued for a short time more on the YRB-49A.
It was clear that the airforce did not want Jack Northrup’s flying wing and never gave a fair assesment of it. The biggest problem was the both the B-35 and the B-49 were in direct compition with Boeing projects, the B-50 and the B-47 respectively,and Boeing was determined not to miss out like they had with the B-36.
Comment by JMyint — June 2, 2008 @ 8:02 am
They scrapped the plane for one reason: in the era before computers, the plane was too difficult to fly.
Comment by Daniel Davis — June 3, 2008 @ 6:50 pm
Eliyahu
The “Wing” was a medium bomber, the B36 was a heavy bomber. So even if the Flying Wing was adopted, the B36 would have entered service.
One of the great things about the Wing was that they used it to test a new radar station, but found that it was almost invisable! That’s why the design was revived in the seventies.
I’d like to see an artical on the proposed comercial design of the Flying Wing. They did have a mock-up for a newsreel.
Comment by KHarn — June 8, 2008 @ 7:19 am
they scrapped the goddamn thing because it CRASHED and the entire 11 man crew DIED
Comment by bob — June 26, 2008 @ 5:43 am