The Story of the Northrop YB- 49 Flying Wing - Restored Color - 1949 +uk wing

[johnbr]

 

[johnbr]

 

[johnbr]

 

[johnbr]

 

[Wurger]

 

[vikingBerserker]

Awesome!

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff!

 

[Ralph Haus]

OK. I have only just watched the Nortrop video, apparently a promo to sell, but in their dialog they touted that this concept would revolutionize the aircraft industry and soon all aircraft would be the single wing design. What happened? I can understand the commercial aircraft keeping the body, but other than the B-2, the wing design seems to have been abandoned. What was the negative that killed it for the military?

 

[Capt. Vick]

Does anyone know what color the cockpit was? Silver, white, grey, green?

 

[mikewint]

What was the negative that killed it for the military?

YB-49 was too far ahead of its time. The aircraft did not exhibit good handling qualities and thus was not a good bombing platform. It needed the type of computer-based, multiply-redundant autopilot that is standard equipment on today's aircraft.

By June of 1948, the YB-49 had racked up 24 flights totaling 57 hours in the air with no major problems. On June 5, the 25th flight left Muroc for a performance test. Pilot Major D.N. Forbes and co-pilot Captain Glen W. Edwards (Edwards Air Force Base), flight engineer Lieutenant E. Swindell and two observers, Mr. C. Leser and Mr. C. LaFountain.
The crew followed its flight plan, tracked from the ground via position reports made at routine intervals over the Antelope Valley test range confirming the aircraft's progress. Then, 20 minutes after one check-in, the YB-49's remains were found scattered across the desert floor. The wing's main portion was inverted and looked as though it had fallen almost straight down; the impact showed no indication of horizontal velocity at the moment of impact. It was also clear that the aircraft's remains had caught fire, destroying a significant amount of evidence at the site. Eventually more debris — outer wing panels and elevator parts — were found in a narrow swath extending three miles from the crash site, but none of it was able to conclusively point to what had brought down the flying wing. It was obvious the YB-49 had suffered a major structural failure, and an eyewitness reported seeing the wing tumbling around its lateral axis just before hitting the ground. The most conclusive evidence suggested the fuselage had been stressed beyond its limits during a high-G maneuver, possibly recovering from a stall. Overstressed, the aircraft broke apart. All five crew members died. On December 5, 1949, Muroc was renamed Edwards Air Force Base.
The fatal crash didn't kill the YB-49 program, though it didn't last much longer. In early 1950, the remaining YB-35s midway through transitioning to YB-49s were scrapped, leaving just one active flying wing. On March 15 of that year, this last plane was destroyed in a fire following a high-speed taxi accident. The program was canceled.

The YB-49 wasn't easy to handle: Flight test personnel stated that the B-49 was 'extremely unstable and very difficult to fly, the pilot had to be constantly on the controls, and that even then it was impossible to hold a steady course or a constant air speed and altitude. The crew didn't wear parachutes because the canopy could not be jettisoned and there was no seat ejection. To bail out, you had to rotate the seat, jack it down four feet, walk back to the hatch, put on the parachute there, and drop out.
It was generally agreed that without major modifications the plane was unsuitable for either bomber or reconnaissance work.

Behind the scenes: The secretary of the new Air Force was one Stuart Symington (later a senator). The Air Force had already signed a contract with Northrop Aviation to build 200 B-49s which was a follow on to the YB-49. The YB-49's biggest change was embedding 8 J-35 turbojets to replace the older radials and props of the YB-35s.
The Air Force had conducted a flyoff between Northrop's B-49 flying wing vs. Consolidated's B-36 (the Peacemaker with 6 R-4360 pushers and 4 J-47 jets, i.e.: 6 turning and 4 burning).
The B-49 won the flyoff ….but Secretary Symington was pleased with the outcome. His college roommate was now the CEO of Consolidated. Now 'rumor' has it that some backroom good old boy back slapping occurred and Jack Northrop was asked if he'd allow Consolidate to co-produce the wings. His answer was something resembling a strong NO. Well, the good old boys didn't like that so the contract to produce the wings was torn up and the Air Force ended up with hundreds of B-36 Peacemakers. If that wasn't enough EVERY flying wing, fuselage, and component was ordered by Symington to be destroyed. Not one airframe was spared.