Re: Northrop YB-49

par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 21:46

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par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 21:46

The aircraft was completely destroyed in the ensuing fire.

The taxi trials took place with the YB-49's fuel tanks full, an unusual testing procedure, fanning further speculation of industrial sabotage of the aircraft.

par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 21:47

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par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 21:47

The Air Force ordered the remaining uncompleted YB-35 piston-engined airframes be completed as production B-35B aircraft.

par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 21:48

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par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 21:49

Bombing target tests 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.

par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 21:50

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par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 21:50

Operational history

One YRB-49A had been completed when, in September 1948, the Air Force ordered the type into full production as the RB-49A reconnaissance aircraft.

It was powered by six jet engines, two of them externally mounted in under wing pods, ruining the Flying Wing's sleek,
aerodynamic lines, but extending its recon range with the additional fuel carried.

par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 21:51

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par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 21:52

During early 1950, the remaining YB-35Bs airframes being converted to YRB-49As were scrapped.

Flight testing of the sole remaining YB-49 prototype ended 14 March 1950.

On 15 March 1950, that program was cancelled, and coincidentally, that last YB-49 prototype suffered a high-speed taxiing accident and, as previously noted, was totally destroyed in the ensuing fire.

par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 21:53

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par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 21:58

But only two months later, all Flying Wing contracts were cancelled abruptly without explanation by order of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Shortly thereafter, Symington also turned down a request from the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] for the Air Force to donate one of these big wings to its collection of pioneering Northrop aircraft designs.

par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 21:59

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par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 22:00

Northrop's entire Flying Wing program may have been terminated due to its technical difficulties and the program being behind schedule and over budget.

Another possible contributing factor to the program's cancellation may have been the tendency of Northrop to become engaged in many experimental programs, which spread its small engineering staff far too wide.

par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 22:01

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par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 22:01

While the competing propeller-driven Convair B-36 "Peacemaker" was an obsolete WWII design by this time, and had been having just as many or even more development problems, the Air Force seemed to have greater confidence that its more conventional design and "teething" problems could be overcome, when compared to those of the radical Flying Wing.

This conclusion effectively doomed the jet powered Flying Wing program.

par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 22:02

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par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 22:04

But in a 1979 videotaped news interview, Jack Northrop broke his long silence and said publicly that all Flying Wing contracts had been cancelled because Northrop Aircraft Corporation had refused to merge with competitor [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] at Stuart Symington's strong suggestion, because according to Jack Northrop, Convair's merger demands were
"grossly unfair to Northrop."

A short while later, Symington became president of Convair upon leaving his post as Secretary of the Air Force.

par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 22:05

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par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 22:06

All remaining Flying Wing bomber airframes, except for the sole YRB-49A reconnaissance version, were then ordered chopped up by the Air Force and the materials smelted down with portable smelters brought to Northrop's facility.

Jack Northrop and his employees could only stand by and watch.

par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 22:07

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par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 22:08

Northrop retired from both the company he founded and aviation shortly after he saw his dream of a pure, all-wing aircraft destroyed.

In an interview for The Discovery Channel's documentary "The Wing Will Fly", his son, John Northrop Jr., recounted his father's devastation and life-long suspicion that his Flying Wing project had been sabotaged by political influence and back room wheeling-and-dealing between Convair and the Air Force.

par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 22:08

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par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 22:09

The prototype reconnaissance platform, the YRB-49A, first flew on 4 May 1950.

After only 13 flights, testing ended on 26 April 1951.

It was then flown back to Northrop's headquarters from Edwards Air Force Base (formally Muroc) on what would be its last flight.

par LOUPO Dim 30 Mai 2010, 22:10

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