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Description
| Manufacturer: | Northrop |
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| Base model: | B-49 | ||
| Designation: | YB-49 | ||
| Designation System: | U.S. Air Force | ||
| Designation Period: | 1924-Present | ||
| Basic role: | Bomber | ||
| Status: | Prototype | ||
| First Flew: | 1947/10/21 | ||
| See Also: |
Specifications
| Length: | 53.08 | ||
| Height: | 15.17 | ||
| Wingspan: | 172 | ||
| Wingarea: | 4,000.0 sq ft | 371.5 sq m | |
| Gross Weight: | 193,938 lb | 87,953 kg | |
Propulsion
| No. of Engines: | 8 | ||
| Powerplant: | Allison J35-A-15 | ||
Performance
| Range: | 3,155 miles | 5,080 km | |
| Cruise Speed: | 419 mph | 674 km/h | 364 kt |
| Max Speed: | 493 mph | 793 km/h | 428 kt |
| Ceiling: | 40,700 ft | 12,405 m | |
Recent comments by our visitors
| John Garner Terre Haute, IN | To the gentleman who wants to know the location of the gravesite of John Knudsen Northrop, the information on the website "Find-A-Grave" (google it) says...
John Knudsen Northrop Birth: Nov. 10, 1895 Newark Essex County New Jersey, USA Death: Feb. 18, 1981 California, USA Chief Engineer for Douglas Aircraft in 1923. In 1932 he founded the Northrop Corporation in El Segundo California with the backing of Donald W. Douglas Sr. Burial: Unknown Created by: Paul Kirsten Record added: Jul 26 2008 If you find out where Jack Northrop's city of residence is you may be able to find more information in the newspaper archives obituaries. There are some VERY GOOD biography videos, one of which, "The Wing Will Fly" contains lots of good information. The cheapest was at .... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wing-Will-Fly-Flying-Stealth/dp/B00004CM4R I hope this helps. Good Luck! 09/05/2008 @ 18:54 [ref: 22617] |
| Brian Lee Corber north hollywood, CA | The flying ing was not in the movie THEM, it was in the movie the war of the worlds, DIRECTED BY bYRON hASKIN, WHICH FEATURED FOOTAGE FROM THE COMMERCIAL FILM "THE STORY OF THE fLYING wING." The actor who played the pilot was James Lawry also known as James Seay. He died in the early 1990s. I think I read that the planes of fame's N-9MB is out of commission due to a fire in flight. Well, because of this site Robert Starling and I have communicated. I believe he produced the discovery channel show "The wing will fly." a great documentary. 06/30/2008 @ 14:19 [ref: 21728] |
| Robert Starling Riverton, UT | Dear Fellow Flying Wing Enthusiasts,
I've been fascinated by the flying wing ever since seeing them in 1950's movies. I think it was also in the 1954 "Them" about giant ants. Then I went to work for Northrop in 1984 and spent 9 years on the B-2 program as an audio-visual video producer. I was able to interview many Northrop employees (including the original Northrop YB-49 test pilot Max Stanley) for the 50th anniversary videos, etc. and of course I asked about the YB-49. (I have copies of the audio tapes!) A touching side note: I was told that the Northrop Corporation executives got special clearance from the USAF which allowed them to visit Jack Northrop shortly before he died and show him a model of the B-2 (whose existence was still classified at that time). They said the 94 yr-old man broke down in tears to see that his dream of a flying wing bomber was finally going to come true. He reportedly said, "Now I know why God allowed me to live this long, to be able to see this". I also want to see a movie made (similar to "Tucker- A Man and His Dream") about Jack Northrop and the flying wing. I was a consultant for the Discovery Channel's "The Wing Will Fly" and I got to accompany the producers on location to the home of one of Jack's sons in S. Calif. (By the way, Jack may be buried in Santa Barbara, CA where he retired to, but I don't know.) Little known tidbits about Jack Northrop: He invented slot car racing, but someone stole his idea and made millions. He also invented an adapter "shoe" for outboard motorboats that cheaply and easily converted them into jet-boats. And he built the first ski resort in S. Calif. (Well, he and some friends would go to Snow Summit and put up a temporary rope tow powered by the back wheels of an automobile. I really home myself or someone can do the movie about the flying wing. There's lots of skullduggery and intrigue involved in the story, possibly including sabotage of the YB-49 and even murder. What a story! Robert Starling Riverton, UT starlingrd@msn.com (May 2008) 05/12/2008 @ 21:13 [ref: 20856] |
| Bill California City, CA | I live about 8 miles from Edwards AFB where the Flying Wing was based. I have visted the crash site and it very clear where the plane impacted the ground. You can dig around in the dirt and find bits of wiring and melted metal. I'm glad to see that the pilot's ring was returned to his wife. A few years ago I visited the Planes of Fame Airshow and saw the 1/3 model of the Flying Wing in action. It is truly an amazing airplane. For those of you who are interested in seeing more film of the Flying Wing there is a Popular Science DVD out that has a color segment on the Wing. 03/30/2008 @ 05:49 [ref: 20291] |
| James Crowell, formerly of Hawthorn , IN | Sadly, it is becoming a bit too late to get first hand accounts in person, since the events took place approximately 60 years ago.
My adolescent years included knowing Mr and Mrs Crozier, he was the mayor of Hawthorne during the War and they owned a machine shop on Prairie Ave, Hawthorne, just north of the airfield, now Hawthorne Airport. Mrs Crozier hired me (ten years old at the time) to do yard work. They had huge aviaries in the side yard, and I became enchanted with breeding parakeets, at one time having over 200 in my own backyard. They were good friends with Jack Northrop, and did quite a few sub-assemblies for the company. Another friend I had was George Dion, who worked on the planes following the War. Prior to moving to Indiana in 2003, my family supported the Western Museum of Flight, in Hawthorne, located at the northwest corner of the airport. There was a goodly amount of information on the Wings there, as the museum was supported by Northrop. It is now located at Torrance Airport. Most of the large aircraft are stored offsite, though, due to space limitations of the new site. My dad, Dwight Crowell, worked for North American Aviation, at the Los Angeles Airport location. He was part of the teams that developed the X-15, B-70, Apollo, and several proposals for fighter aircraft, including their version of the F-15. Currently, models in 1/72nd scale of the Wings have been discontinued by AMT, but may be redone at some time in the future. On Ebay, they currently go for about $100-$130 each. I plan on building the B-35, B-49 and RB-49 with the underslung engines, which reminds me of a throwback in looks to the early 30s. The original building in which Northrop Aviation was chartered is still (?) on Hawthorne Blvd. It went from a hotel to a bowling alley to a school district office. If I remember correctly, it is located on Hawthorne Blvd between Rosecrans to the south and El Segundo on the north on the east side of the street. It is brick (?). 01/31/2008 @ 04:19 [ref: 19485] |
| Jim Mill Creek, WA | My father was a sheet metal engineer at Northrop, and worked on most of the major programs from the N3PB through to the F-5.
He always mentioned that the gearboxes on the B-35 engines were a constantly recurring problem which was never solved. My mother, on the other hand always would remind him that when my brother was born, he was at Northrop Field watching the first flight of the B-35. 01/30/2008 @ 04:33 [ref: 19472] |
| Brian Lee Corber North Hollywood, CA | A few things: there are 2 bona fide Northrop flying wings still in existence: the N-1M ("the jeep") which is on static display at one of the Smithsonian facilities. Also: the N-9MB, owned and operated (at air shows) by the Chino Planes of Fame Museum in Califonia. It is beautiful. It came to Van Nuys Airport 2 years ago for a static display and I had it to myself for an hour. I took many pictures. This plane can be seen at various air shows around southern California during the year. I myself, have multiple copies of the model of the YB-49, some still in their boxes, the XB-35, the N-9M, and the Horton 229 v. 2. I also have wooden models of the YB-49, YRB-49, and XB-35. I had a wooden model of the Horten HO 18A, never built in reality, specially made, as well as the Horten 18B. I own the domain names of theflyingwing.com and thelflyingwing.net. I haven't put up a website yet. I have been planning to do a freedom of information act request to the USAF on the cancellation of the YB-49 program, the crash of YB-49 #2 (and death of its crew), the deliberate destruction of all YB-49s and XB-35s by the Air Force but have yet to do so. I have also written and registered a motion picture length screenplay featuring the YB-49 which I hope to have made into a major motion picture in the next few years. The Arizona landing was made during the return flight of YB-49 #2, that Robert Cardenas flew from Muroc to Andrews AFB in Feb., 1949 and then flew over Washington, D.C. on orders from President Truman. They stopped at Wright in Ohio, and someone forgot to put oil in some of the engines. They overheated on the way back to California so they had to divert to AZ. This flight yielded the picture of the YB-49 buzzing the US Capitol dome. Caredenas lives with his family down in San Diego county. Boeing is planning on building a passenger jet called a "blended wing" which looks like a cross between an Arado flying wing and the flying wing. Boeing, apparently, thinks it invented something never seen before. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE JACK NORTHROP IS BURIED? 04/19/2007 @ 16:04 [ref: 16235] |
| Philip Dandy Geelong, OTH | Having discovered your web site about the YB-49, it has been a real eye opener for me. I have been most fortunate here in Australia, to have located a model of the YB-49 flying wing. I came across it when I was holidaying in the small country city of Echuka here in Victoria. I must say that I had not planned on purchasing any aeroplane models, i as was just killing time. I decoded to go into a toy sdtore and upon browsing through thweir modellingt section I came across the YB-49. Just one look and that model was not staying on the shelf. It just leaped out at me saying I'm yours. As yet I have not made the up, but when I do I know your web site will come in very handy. Having read some of the tales from people who remember the Flying wing it must have been a sight to behold when airborne. Keep up the good work. 11/25/2006 @ 13:57 [ref: 14844] |
| Brian Corber Los Angeles, CA | For the curious: the flying wing appears in stock footage incorporated into the 1953 film "The War of the Worlds" produced by George Pal. The footage came from the corporate film commissioned by Northrop Aviation entitled "The Story of the Flying Wing" produced by Cascade Productions. The actor playing the pilot was James Seay (aka James Lawry) who died circa 1992. The flying wing in the footage is YB-49 #1, designated "2367" as confirmed by Seay's dialog in the corporate film. That was the wing first flown by Max Stanley (deceased, 1999) on Oct. 21, 1947, one week after Yeager flew the X-1 faster than sound. The footage never actually shows the wing dropping an atomic bomb on the Martian ships. The wing was destroyed in a high speed taxi test in 1949, I believe, or 1950 (there are contradictory reports). The pilot on that test was Russell Schleeh, who, escaping the burning wreck, told the fire people to "let it burn." Schleeh may still be alive, living in Orange County, California. In 1999, scavengers at the debris site for the wing #2 found Danny Forbes's wedding ring and returned it to his wife, still alive back in Kansas. Forbes AFB back in Kansas, named after Major Forbes, has been de-commissioned by the USA. Edwards AFB is one of the most important and best known AF bases in the world.
In 1981, reporter Clete Roberts interviewed, live, on the air, Max Stanley, John Myers and Russ Schleeh about the flying wing. None knew of the development of the B-2. Roberts died in 1984. 07/06/2006 @ 01:20 [ref: 13663] |
| Brian Lee Corber Los Angeles, CA | I would like to communicate with those of you have actually saw, in person, the YB-49, YRB-49 or XB-35. I am interested in any story, any anecdote, anything about the planes and about Jack Northrop himself. If anyone of you knew or ever met Captain Glen Edwards, I'd like to hear from you as well.
There is so much misinformation out there on the net on these planes, even from so-called experts. Especially about the actual reasons for canceling the plane. Have any of you ever been to Jack Northrop Elementary School in Lancaster, California or Glen Edwards Middle School up in Lincoln, California? 07/06/2006 @ 00:29 [ref: 13662] |
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