Sunday, January 17, 2021

We tried building everything at one time or another.

 


11 comments:

  1. the plane Jack built!
    further proof that it's been done before, the XP-55 asender.

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  2. I saw the jet version, the YB-49, fly into Lake Charles AFB (later Chennault AFB) when I was a kid.

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  3. XB-35 experimental heavy bomber.

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  4. B-2's great great granddaddy.

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  5. HI C.W.!!!,
    10-4 on all of the above!!
    Flying Wing have always fascinated me!!!! As a kid buying a 10cent "Hiller Hi-Flier" kite with the picture of the YB-49 on the front to Building and flying R/C Flying Wing Sailplanes in So.Cal. on the many bluffs on the Pacific Ocean South of L.A. was Flying Wing Heaven!!!!
    skybill

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  6. The dimensions of the B2 are eerily almost exactly the same as the XB35. Jack Northrup designed the XB35 which even in its B49 configuration had stability issues. They knew back then in the 50's that the design had a low radar cross section as it would virtually disappear when it was head on to the radar stations. With the advent of fly by wire the stability issues were solved and the evolution of the flying wing was fulfilled.

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    Replies
    1. ..but Northrup didn't come up with it on his own...the real great granddaddy of the flying wing is even older! Nortrup got it from the WWII German Horten Brothers...so don't forget to give them some credit too...look up the Horten Ho 229 first flight: 1944 (Jumo 004 jet powered, same as the Me262)!

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    2. there is archival footage of a D9 bulldozer scrapping all of the built, flown, and in process of being completed wings. all the Northrup employees were there to watch. the corrective actions to resolve the bombing stability issues was done before hand by Honeywell Corp. but the machinations and shenanigans of Convair and democrat politicians and one brigadier general named costanza gave us the B-36 which couldn't fight it's way to a foreign target but could make it to it's crash site unrefueled.

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  7. Why not? We were able to ... once upon a time long ago.

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  8. Stuart Symington, first Secretary of the Air Force. Tried to force Jack Northrop to merge his company with Convair. Jack refused (it was a terrible deal) and Symington not only canceled the B-35 & B-49 programs but had all the airplanes destroyed. Shortly after resigning as Secretary he landed a job as President of Convair.

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