Monday, April 27, 2026

The YB-35, YB-49 and the B-2 Bombers

 




15 comments:

  1. You can tell it swell if it’s Mattel. Or Revell?

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    1. 1/72nd scale by AMT. I have the B35 - it was not an easy build to get a good finish on.

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  2. So the first two wings can fly, but the most modern can only be stabilized by a computer? I think we've been lied to. Shocker I know.

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    1. Clearly cutting away the wing shape for radar spoofing removes any chance of glide for a plane that is nothing more than a wing.

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    2. B-35 was late and got cancelled. Prop engines were replaced with jets and it became B-49. There was a crash in flight testing for B-49. killing five. Later, B-49 was canceled. Computers would have been nice to have in the B-35 and B-49 programs, maybe preventing the B-49 crash, but they didn't exist yet.

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  3. Think the early jet version is one of the most graceful elegant planes ever built. Gives the word soaring its definition.

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    1. Northrup's prop-powered version looks nicer, to me.

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    2. Both deserve high recognition, like the jet more simply as its cleaner looking. Too bad the materials and tech wasn't up to the task with those big counter rotating props, they would have a serious long range plane similar to the Russia Bear's capabilities. Be even better with turbo shafts, save some serious weight plus gain decent longevity/O&R, over those huge piston Pratts, which require a monster of a ducting system. There's a great series of vintage shots shows the ducting they built under the engine cowl area, those bad boys consumed tremendous air for intake snd cooling. Packed in like sardines.

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  4. One thing leads to another.

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  5. Imagine some adversary's satellite photo of this, and they thought it was a singular aircraft. Not likely, but a fun thought.

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  6. Both the Northrop and Horton flying wings (WWII era) had stability issues that could only be addressed with modern fly-by-wire / computer controlled control surfaces.

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