Documentary - "The Flying Wing – What Happened To It?"

Thanks for posting that, I was unaware of the history behind it. I was amused by this quote that the B-49 "Was somewhat deficient in lateral stability". I sincerely hope that Jack Northrop was aware of the development of the the B-2 before he died.

I do understand Symington's concern about having another large aircraft manufacture for the Air Force to manage. Even today, with just 3 major manufactures, the Air Force struggles to maintain them. Seems like he took a very heavy handed approach to the matter though.

I wonder if the B-49 had gone intro production if it would have prevented the B-52 from happening, despite the B-52 being so much larger.

 

He was given a clearance and saw a scale model from his wheelchair. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Northrop

 

At least one XB-49 should have been retained for some years to do test flying, as was done with the XB-70.

 

What's old is new again...

 

I think they were all scrapped or destroyed.

 

They were YB-49's,

They were all converted YB-35's (propeller version).

SecDef ordered all but one scrapped, it was scrapped several years later.

 

I was lucky enough to meet Jack a few months before his passing at a group gathering in his honor. He repeated this story to the people there almost word for word. Someone should make movie about this story as it seems incredible. Something like Tucker.

Jack said that the plane had some stability control issues in bombing tests but he felt the technology existed to correct it. He also spoke of the accident of the YB-49 saying it was due to the AF trying to push the plane beyond its parameters.

 

Spin testing something without a tail and marginal stability was silly, but USAF insisted. They spin tested the F-111 once, as an example of another unnecessary spin test, and lost the aircraft.

 

Today computer simulations would have proven what would have happened. In those days, it was the test pilot and his ass in the seat.