N9M Crash

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My understanding is the WWII & post-WWII era flying wings were not the most stable platforms . Lacking " modern " fly by wire technology .

If I am wrong , I welcome additional info / corrections .
 
Some more info on the airplane. Such a lose of both the plane and pilot.
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https://planesoffame.org/aircrafts/plane-N9MB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_N-9M

[Linked Image]
 
Sad for the loss of the pilot and airplane. Condolences.

If there is only one example left of an aircraft, should it be flying? I am of two minds...rare and historically significant aircraft should be flown and shown, but i'd lean towards having sole survivors being museum pieces. If there are two, fly the wings off of one, but preserve the other.

That is a beautiful picture. Appears that roll control is done with the inboard flaperons with the outboard control surfaces controlling yaw?? Fascinating. I'll have to read up on that.
 
There were also politics involved in killing off further flying wing development.

Edwards Air Force Base is named in honor of Glen Edwards who was killed in a flying wing.
 
I think the B2 actually "brakes" itself left and right in lieu of a rudder control. Wonder if this worked the same way?

I think the only reason the B2 ever came to life was because getting rid of the horizontal stabilizer was such a huge advantage to reducing radar profile.
 
Originally Posted by DoubleWasp
I think the B2 actually "brakes" itself left and right in lieu of a rudder control. Wonder if this worked the same way?

I think the only reason the B2 ever came to life was because getting rid of the horizontal stabilizer was such a huge advantage to reducing radar profile.


That is what I was thinking. It looks like N9M's ailerons, in the pic above, are split open to different amounts and being used as a rudder.
 
Originally Posted by AZjeff
Not enough left to fill a pick up truck.

That's for sure. That thing was moving when it hit. From the looks of the impact site it looks like it dove into the edge of a concrete pad shattering it, then scattered pieces everywhere.
 
In 1923 aircraft engineer Jack Northrop built a balsa model of a
futurist plane so streamlined it was practically all wing. That model
was the first step toward realizing his dream of a pure flying wing.

Northrop believed that a pure wing with no tail or fuselage to produce
drag could carry any load faster, father and more economical than a
conventional plane of similar size. And he envisioned the skies filled
one day with his planes. Over the next three decades, Northrop
doggedly built a series of such aircraft ranging from the primitive
1929 flying wing which retained a tail assembly to the huge pure wing
YB49 all jet bomber

The YB49 was one of the fastest big planes of its day with a speed of
500mph and in 1948 set an endurance record by remaining a loft 9 1/2
hours without refueling. Even though the aircraft was some what
deficient in directional stability it was Honeywell's little "Herbert"
a stability augmentation system that essentially corrected this
problem... Nevertheless a tight budget and the fact that among other
things the plane lacked the capacity to carry the all important atomic
bomb forced the USAF to scrap the YB49 in favor of the conventional
B36.

Test pilot Max Stanely after the successful first flight of the XB35 a
4 engine piston powered bomber stated that Jack's flying wing handled
so well "I'd never know the plane didn't have a tail if I didn't look
behind me."

In 1981 Jack Northrop, the aviation pioneer who founded Northrop
Corp., was granted an extraordinary government security clearance just
before his death to see the company's design for the B-2 Stealth
bomber, which resurrects the "flying wing" concept he had invented in
the 1940s.
[Linked Image]


I loved studying Jack's flying wing up close and personal on the ramp and then
watching the N9M show case its stability and maneuverability at the Chino air shows...

[Linked Image]
 
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