indwe magazine – April 2005

Wings Of Flight
One Man's Dream
Text: William James
Images: © Getty Images/Touchline Photo
In Newark, New Jersey there stands a statue of a native son who for all intents and purposes failed as a aircraft builder, but whose success as the inventor of the first effective flying wing not only earned him the recognition of his birthplace, but would also have consequences far beyond what he ever imagined.
A case could be made, in fact, that the statue of John Northrop would be as appropriate in Silicon Valley as in Newark, and that its subject and his invention played a role in the development of the most advanced aircraft ever to take to the skies.
Northrop’s story is about ambition and innovation. It’s a tale of economic rivalry and industrial competition, a chronicle of an individual obsessed with a better way of doing things, and a political order determined to stop his progress at all costs. And the heart of the tale is the art and craft of building the most efficient aircraft.
From relatively early on, airplane designers had come to realize that a reduction in drag could drastically improve an airplane’s performance. Early steps in this direction were changes from biplane to monoplane designs; the elimination of external wing struts and flying wires; and the incorporation of retractable landing gears. However, in order to reduce drag to its absolute minimum, in 1940, John Northrop designed and built the first aircraft that eliminated the fuselage and tail, and incorporate the cockpit, engines and payload in the wing envelope, thereby creating the first Flying Wing.
A design as aeronautically efficient as the Flying Wing has a big advantage over conventional aircraft design. The Flying Wing design not only reduces drag, but also increases lift, and as a result of this the performance of the Flying Wing design is unequalled in speed, range and operating economy. Today, in spite of massive advances in design efficiency, conventional airplane designs still have two to four times the drag of Northrop’s original Flying Wing.
John Northrop was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1895, and he was nine years old when his family moved to Santa Barbara, California. His keen interest in mechanics would eventually curtail his formal education, and after brief periods as garage mechanic, carpenter and draftsman, in 1916 he went to work for the Lockhead Brothers, who were then building twin-engine flying boats in Santa Barbara. During a short stint with the Douglas Aircraft Company, he participated in the design of the Round-the-World-Cruiser. He rose rapidly from draftsman to designer to project engineer on the husky Douglas biplanes of the period.
Casting his lot with the just formed Lockheed Aircraft Company in 1927, his genius came to wide public acclaim with the flight of the famed VEGA monoplane, an airplane that was far ahead of its time and widely used by many of the top pilots, including Amelia Earheart.
In 1928, John Northrop began his research on flying wing aircraft, and in the same year he saw his first semi-flying wing plane take to the skies.
In partnership with Donald Douglas, he founded the Northrop Corporation in 1933, but desolved the company in 1937. Two years later, he formed the Northrop Aircraft, Inc., and immediately began engineering tests for a new flying wing design. This design was known as the N1M “Jeep,” with the first flight tests were conducted in July 1940. During 1940 and 1941, over 200 flights were made in this aircraft to gather further data. Control of the aircraft was achieved through the use of a system of elevons and wing tip rudders.
The N1M “Jeep” was truly the first flying wing aircraft, and today it resides in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D. C. – the only Northrop flying wing still in existence.
The N-1M led to the giant XB-35 flying wing bomber, the first in a series of large Flying Wing Bombers. The first XB-35 flew on 25 June 1946. The first two XB-35 and sole YB-35 Flying Wings were fitted with turboprop engines, while later models were fitted with jet engines. These models were known as YB-49 jet Flying Wing Bombers. The XB-35 had a maximum speed of 395 miles per hour and a cruising speed of 183 miles per hour.
With the introduction of the YB-49 to flight status in the fall of 1947, it was anticipated that this model would prove to be the most successful flying wing aircraft. The YB-49 had a top speed of 520 miles per hour and placed the ceiling surface at 42,000 feet, with a range of 4,450 miles.
In 1948, the US Air Force had ordered 26 YB-35 Flying Wings. But with the advent of the jet age, the existing piston-powered YB-35s were modified with jet engines and redesignated as YB-49s.
Tragedy struck when late in 1948, a crash of a test YB-49 killed the entire crew, including Captain Glen Edwards, for whom Edwards Air Force Base was later named. Coupled with political pressure on Northrop to merge with Consolodated-Vultee Aircraft, and Northrop’s subsequent refusal to do so, the Air Force cancelled the contract that had grown to $88 million in 1949. The government also ordered that all the Flying Wings were to be destroyed along with all the tooling used to fabricate the state-of-the-art aircraft. The official reason for the cancellation of the contract was said to be “budget constraints,” but until his death in 1981, John Northrop maintained that the US government had a secret agenda with his Flying Wing designs. Whatever the reason may have been, the Flying Wing concept would remain dormant until the Northrop B-2 Spirit appeared nearly 40 years later.
At its time the Northrop Flying Wings were the world’s longest ranging jet aircraft. Flying scenes of the YB-49 aircraft were featured in a Hollywood film based upon H. G. Wells’ ‘War of the Worlds’. In viewing this film, it is quite evident that the Flying Wing performed an extraordinary form of flying, banking, rolling and turning more gracefully than any conventional airplane could ever do.
One major Los Angeles newspaper stated: “It is hard to believe we have scrapped a design which is as modern as the planes today. Perhaps we will have to wait twenty years or longer before we find out the true significance of our mistake.” True, the Flying Wing was years ahead of its time, but it got caught in a political play with all the trappings of covert funds and operations.
The B-2 Spirit is an example of modern technology finally catching up with an earlier idea. With its unique flying wing configuration, this sleek aircraft shows clear signs of having been designed on the blueprint of John Northrop’s YB-35. Even the B-2 Spirit’s wingspan of 172 feet is exactly the same as that of the YB-35. But John Northrop was a forgotten man when, in 1991, the National Aeronautic Association awarded the B-2 design team the Collier Trophy for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America.
The first B-2 was rolled out November 1988 and it flew for the first time on 17 July 1989, exactly forty years after the US Air Force had relieved John Northrop of his ingenious design.
The contributions of Northrop and his flying wing to the history of aeronautical engineering continue to this day, and are more than mechanical. The acts of destruction aimed at his aircraft are among the first widespread examples of industrial sabotage and political conspiracy. Today it is evident that one day, all planes will be built like Northrop had wanted to build them.
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