Warbird Information Exchange

Fueling one up to go ...

The Northrop YB-49 was a prototype jet-powered heavy bomber developed by Northrop Corporation shortly after World War II for service with the U.S. Air Force. The YB-49 featured a flying wing design and was a turbojet-powered development of the earlier, piston-engined Northrop XB-35 and YB-35. The two YB-49s actually built were both converted YB-35 test aircraft. The YB-49 never entered production, being passed over in favor of the more conventional Convair B-36 piston-driven design.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-49

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Zero Surprise!!...

Beautiful bird.

Too bad that not a single one was preserved

AF Secretary Stuart Symington was so vindictive from Northrop refusing to merge with Convair that he had all of the YB-49s scrapped in full view of Northrop employees. Blueprints were destroyed also. I think Symington later took a nice comfy job with Convair.

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"They done it, they done it, damned if they ain't flew." December 17, 1903

You know, Convair had the incredible B-36. Maybe if they had merged they would’ve designed something even better that Boeing’s B-52.

Nice photos Mark, thanks.

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Symington knew he was going to Convair before he left the AF Secretary position. He wanted Northrop to merge because Symington was convinced it was the better bomber and wanted Convair to have it. Northrop told him "no way" and then Symington did his corrupt -vindictive scrapping of all the vestiges of Northrop's work. Northrop never opened his mouth about it until 1978. Ironically, the Air Force did come around to the conclusion it was the better bomber- perhaps a more modern version was safer and fly by wire didn't really exist in 1949. Jack told me this (YB 49) "the plane was never designed for jet engines but it was now what the Air Force wanted and so we made it work". The propellers had some vibration issues and he still felt it was the more long range bomber that the Air Force needed, but the jet age called for a jet. The Air Force unveiled a painting of the new Northrop flying Wing B-2 at Northrop University to show Jack that his dream will become a reality. I was his neighbor and his grand daughter Janet was my best friend. I Elder sat many hours with Jack to make sure he didn't fall down. Planes were always part of the discussion, the politics he avoided. He hated the business side of planes. Loved the creation part.

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Better is the enemy of Good.

Neither the B-35 or B-49 did the mission as well as the competitors. The B-36 carried a lot more a lot farther than both and the B-47 had much higher performance than either. That's why the B-35 and B-49 went by the wayside, not some conspiracy.

Beyond that, if the flying wing was a great concept, someone would have used it in a normal application. The only reason flying wings are in use today is stealth. The negatives of a flying wing outweigh their advantages in non-stealth applications.

I'm curious how the projected blended wing airliners concept will pan out. Probably efficient but a lot of air sickness without outside visual clues.

Apologies for moving farther off-topic, but the big challenge for flying wings is pitch stability. One of the reasons conventional airliners have long fuselages is to put the empennage way back there so a little elevator or trim tab movement will have a big impact. With flying wings, that moment arm is much smaller and requires a lot more trim surface or control surface movement to achieve the same amount of pitch trim. This is important both from a CG perspective where you want a wide allowable CG range and from the ability to trim the aircraft to a certain speed.

So, if the BWB aircraft is relatively short nose to tail, it'll suffer the same compromises as flying wings, planks, and the like.

Now those are nice! Like the first close up's

Mark, anything on the the XB-35? I'm a prop nut...

Tks and cheers!

A couple of the pictures in this thread (particularly the last one) make it look like the B-49 was painted blue over grey. (It wasn't) Just interesting how you can be fooled by black and white film and reflections off of aluminum.

But navy blue over grey or natural aluminum would have been a beautiful scheme.

Found a few XB-35 pics. To the left & the right....

Is it just me or it looks like H Hughes???? in the first pic!

Way back in Ye Oulden Days of the internet, shortly after AMT put out their YB-35 and XB-49 models, the folks at alt.history.what-if did a comprehensive alternate history timeline of the B-49 in service through Vietnam to the Gulf War.
There were some impressive models built in SEA camo with external hardpoints and all sorts of antennae and other greeblies.

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

Really interesting connection Adam.
I recall a show (I think it was 60 minutes, or something of the like) where it was described that Jack was given a one time special security clearance so that he could be shown the B2 then under development.
Now that I think about it, he probably wouldn't have been able to talk about it.
A pretty cool gesture of respect.