Jack Northrop’s Flying Wings
The Northrop YB-49 wing was powered with eight jet engines.
By: Norm Goyer
The Northrop Flying Wing project which started in 1944 and ended in 1950 was and is the most convoluted story of any World War II aircraft. Rumors of sabotage, political chicanery, and suspected conflict of interest dealings were rampant throughout the wing’s short history. But, in the end, Jack Northrop was proven correct when five decades later, the Northrop B-2 Flying Wing stealth bomber took off from Mojave Desert on a very successful flight. This ugly, but beautiful, B-2 flying wing bomber is a show stopper whenever it performs for the public, and just as devastating when used in warfare. Jack Northrop was correct, it is the bomber platform of the future. Northrop lived long enough to see a scale model of the B-2 in 1980. The wheelchair bound Northrop is reported as saying, ” I know now why God has kept me alive all this time.” Northrop died a few weeks later.
The prototype XB-35 of the jet powered YB-49 Northrop Wing was powered with piston-engines, it was not very successful.
The Northrop flying wing program started in 1944 when the XB-35 propeller driven prototype wing first flew. Even though the XB-35 program was cancelled in May of 1944, there was sufficient interest by the Feds to keep the program alive, but they insisted that the wing must be powered by jet engines not propellers; the era of piston-powered military aircraft was considered dead. It was during the many test flights of the new jet powered YB-49 that the troubles began. Research into these problems revealed the following:
The first YB-49 jet-powered aircraft flew on October 21, 1947 and immediately proved more promising than its piston-engine counterpart. The YB-49 set both an unofficial endurance record of staying continually above 40,000 ft for six hours, and a trans-continental speed record, flying from Muroc Air Force Base in California (Edwards AFB) to Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C. in 4 hours 20 minutes. “The return flight from Andrews was marred by a multiple failure in six of the eight engines. Inspection after a successful emergency landing revealed no oil had been replaced in these engines after the Muroc-to-Andrews leg, raising a suspicion of industrial sabotage. The Air Force engineer in charge of this detail became ill shortly before the scheduled departure and did not accompany the YB-49 back to Muroc. He later died in a motorcycle accident under mysterious circumstances.”
The program was scrapped in 1950 when all Flying Wings were melted down. These are finished and partially finished YB-49s waiting for the smelter.
Jack Northrop was always a technological trailblazer. But his independent nature often collided with the behind-the-scenes political wheeling-and-dealing in Washington. These suspected contracts tended to run huge military allocations with millions of dollars at stake for government contractors. In 2010, what else is new in Washington, DC other than, “business as usual.” But the wing’s difficulties continued.
Data from the YB-49 program was used when the new Northrop B-2 bomber was being designed. The current B-2 bomber is shown as it passes over the Arch in St. Louis.
The second YB-49 was lost on 5 June 1948, killing its pilot, Major Daniel Forbes, for whom Forbes Air Force Base was named, Captain Glen Edwards, copilot after whom Edwards Air Force Base is named, and three other crew members. Their aircraft suffered structural failure when both outer wing sections detached from the center section. Investigation revealed the YB-49 was lost due to excessive pullout loads imposed on the airframe when a planned stall recovery resulted in a high speed, nose-over dive. The high speed dive was the result of the wing’s very clean, low-drag, design. Nose it over and a rapid speed increase is immediate.
The last operational YB-49 prototype was destroyed during high-speed taxi trials at Edwards AFB. The nose wheel encountered severe vibration problems which collapsed the gear. This destroyed the aircraft when it was engulfed in flames due to full fuel tanks. “The taxi trials took place with the YB-49’s fuel tanks full, an unusual testing procedure, adding to further speculation of sabotage of the aircraft.”
But the Wing’s problem didn’t stop there, it was also determined during bombing tests it showed a tendency of Flying Wings to “hunt” in yaw after turns and when flying in “disturbed” air, degraded bombing accuracy. It was thought that one of the new Honeywell autopilots, with yaw damping, would correct this flaw. The government scrapped the entire program in 1950 and all remaining unfinished Wings were melted down for scrap. Only to rise again, decades later, as the very successful B-2 Bomber. (It is to be noted that all of the original flight test data obtained was retained and played an important role in the new B-2 Flying Wing, even the wingspan is identical. NG )
Specifications
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Crew: 7
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Length: 53 ft 1 in
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Wingspan: 172 ft 0 in
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Height: 20 ft 3 in
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Wing area: 4,000 ft²
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Airfoil: NACA 65-019 root, NACA 65-018 tip
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Empty weight: 88,442 lb
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Loaded weight: 133,559 lb
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Max takeoff weight: 193,938 lb
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Powerplant: 8, on the YRB-49A) Allison/General Electric J35-A-5 turbojets, 4,000 lbf
Performance
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Maximum speed: 495 mph
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Range: 9,978 mi (Maximum
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Combat radius: 1,615 mi
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Service ceiling: 45,700 ft
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Rate of climb: 3,758 ft/min
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Wing loading: 33 lb/ft²
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Thrust/weight: 0.23
Armament
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Guns: 4, .50 in machine guns
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Bombs: 32,000 lb
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