The “fact” that the Northrop XP-79B was intended to ram enemy bombers is an urban legend as reported by serious aviation researchers. Click here.

Northrop always intended to outfit it with .50 caliber machine guns after the prototype stage.

Why Don’t We Build – FLYING RAM FIGHTERS!

If atomic attack comes, our best defense may be rammer planes that give the pilot a chance to survive.

By Martin Caidin

LET’S face it—the complete air defense of the United States is an impossibility.

Even with all-weather jet fighters armed with machine guns, rockets, and guided missiles; with rocket fighters; with unpiloted robot fighters; with supersonic rocket guided missiles; with radar picket ships and picket planes; with ground observers and a far-flung communications system, we can’t prevent a certain number of enemy atomic and hydrogen bombs from hitting our cities.