And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Sunday, October 2, 2022
The flying wing trinity. The 3 aircraft pictured are the XB-35 the YB-49 and the B2.
Is that photoshopped? I thought some corrupt congressman ordered all of the flying wings to be destroyed so that his stock in Consolidated would be worth something.
Northrop gave Jack Northrop a look at the B-2 before he passed. As I recall, he smiled when they told him it had the same wingspan as his previous flying wings...
There was a great story in one of the magazines at that time about this. The company brought Jack Northrop in for special briefing but didn’t tell him anything about the bomber shape. An Air Force major gave him a briefing on the requirements from the Air Force, the Northrop engineers gave him the specs of the airplane, like range and so forth, and then they removed a box sitting on the conference room table covering a model B-2 so he could see what it actually looked like. IIRC witnesses said it brought him to tears.
I built the kit of the XB35 a few years ago. AMT produced mine but other brands appeared on the box lid at various times. Being quite old it was hard work to finish to a high standard so I'm not tempted to build the others despite how cool they would look.
Is that photoshopped? I thought some corrupt congressman ordered all of the flying wings to be destroyed so that his stock in Consolidated would be worth something.
ReplyDeleteLooks like three 1/72nd scale models by a skilled modeler. There have been kits for all three.
DeleteI think you are right. Looks like picture was taken on a kitchen countertop
DeleteNorthrop gave Jack Northrop a look at the B-2 before he passed. As I recall, he smiled when they told him it had the same wingspan as his previous flying wings...
ReplyDeleteThere was a great story in one of the magazines at that time about this. The company brought Jack Northrop in for special briefing but didn’t tell him anything about the bomber shape. An Air Force major gave him a briefing on the requirements from the Air Force, the Northrop engineers gave him the specs of the airplane, like range and so forth, and then they removed a box sitting on the conference room table covering a model B-2 so he could see what it actually looked like. IIRC witnesses said it brought him to tears.
DeleteIIRC, the angle of the leading edge approximates that of a water droplet... stealth?
ReplyDeleteFascinating that Jack Northrup and his design team had the sweep angle of the wings correct right from the get go back in the 40s.
ReplyDeleteI built the kit of the XB35 a few years ago. AMT produced mine but other brands appeared on the box lid at various times. Being quite old it was hard work to finish to a high standard so I'm not tempted to build the others despite how cool they would look.
ReplyDeleteMost definitely models or die-cast. The control surfaces are fixed...no actuators or wells.
ReplyDelete