The History Of The Flying Wing And U.S. Bomber Aircraft. Jack Northrop's Dream

Learn about Jack Northrop's flying wing, its evolution, and its competitors.
Jack Northrop's brainchild lost out to the B-36 after World War II, but the low radar profile of the flying wing design made a comeback decades later in the form of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber.

The Northrop (later Northrop Grumman) B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American heavy strategic bomber, featuring low observable stealth technology designed for penetrating dense anti-aircraft defenses. Designed during the Cold War, it is a flying wing design with a crew of two. The bomber is subsonic and can deploy both conventional and thermonuclear weapons, such as up to eighty 500-pound class (230 kg) Mk 82 JDAM GPS-guided bombs, or sixteen 2,400-pound (1,100 kg) B83 nuclear bombs. The B-2 is the only acknowledged aircraft that can carry large air-to-surface standoff weapons in a stealth configuration.

Development started under the "Advanced Technology Bomber" (ATB) project during the Carter administration; its expected performance was one of the President's reasons for the cancellation of the Mach 2 capable B-1A bomber. The ATB project continued during the Reagan administration but worries about delays in its introduction led to the reinstatement of the B-1 program. Program costs rose throughout development. Designed and manufactured by Northrop, later Northrop Grumman, the cost of each aircraft averaged US$737 million (in 1997 dollars). Total procurement costs averaged $929 million per aircraft, which includes spare parts, equipment, retrofitting, and software support. The total program cost, which included development, engineering and testing, averaged $2.13 billion per aircraft in 1997.

Because of its considerable capital and operating costs, the project was controversial in the U.S. Congress. The winding-down of the Cold War in the latter portion of the 1980s dramatically reduced the need for the aircraft, which was designed with the intention of penetrating Soviet airspace and attacking high-value targets. During the late 1980s and 1990s, Congress slashed plans to purchase 132 bombers to 21. In 2008, a B-2 was destroyed in a crash shortly after takeoff, though the crew ejected safely. As of 2018, twenty B-2s are in service with the United States Air Force, which plans to operate them until 2032, when the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider is to replace them.

The B-2 is capable of all-altitude attack missions up to 50,000 feet (15,000 m), with a range of more than 6,000 nautical miles (6,900 mi; 11,000 km) on internal fuel and over 10,000 nautical miles (12,000 mi; 19,000 km) with one midair refueling. It entered service in 1997 as the second aircraft designed to have advanced stealth technology after the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk attack aircraft. Though designed originally as primarily a nuclear bomber, the B-2 was first used in combat dropping conventional, non-nuclear ordnance in the Kosovo War in 1999. It later served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.

#aviation #aircraft #b2

[charlesodonnell]

I met Jack Northrop about three years before he died. I found him to be a friendly and talkative man.

[jgar]

There can be absolutely NO QUESTION of the genius of Jack Northrop. He was years ahead of his time, with an unmatched insight into the designs of powdred flight.

[Sonormuseum]

It's an absolute crime that they destroyed all the flying wings. At least one should have been preserved for the Air Force museum. The B2 proves Jack Northrop was on the right track.

[paulmoffat]

The YB-49 did NOT loose out to the B-36, it WON the competition. The YB-49 was rejected when Jack Northrup refused to merge his company with Convair (builders of the B-36) at the insistence of the Secretary for the Air Force. This was reveled in Clete Roberts' report and interview with Jack Northrup (I have a copy of the full report recorded).

[gillmartin]

One of the neatest things in the original “War of the Worlds” movie was the use of colour footage of the flying wing supposedly dropping the a-bomb on the Martians.
Excellent use of stock footage of this rare plane.

[Rockstago]

This was such a tragic story. Jack Northrup feeling like his revolutionary design was a failure.... until computers could compensate for the Yaw issues of the flying wing. He left aviation feeling like his designs were a failure. BUT, later it was proven that he was just ahead of his time. I've heard that before his death, in violation of national security regulations, he was told that indeed his design would be the cutting edge of American bombers the country would adopt for future warfare. Better late than never I guess- I'm glad he knew before his death that his innovations were indeed state of the art and not failures-

[budwyzer]

34:20 "Now I know why God has kept me alive for the last 25 years."

I *knew* this was coming. Hits me in the emotions every time I hear this story.

[mpetry]

I enjoyed this one, some great vintage imagery. Sadly the N-9M was crashed several years ago. thanks for this !

[aandc]

During the test phase of the B-2 they brought Jack (in his late 80's and in a wheel chair) to a secret location(probably know where that is begins with a number 5)....they showed him a large model of the B2...Jack took the model with his hands shaking and said "Now I know why god has keep me alive so long.."..it took him his whole life to see his dream come true, those words mean so much to me and its something that I'll never forget

[riconui]

I have to take issue with your comment at 8:12; suggesting Germany’s “success“ at bombing Britain. I’m not sure how you are defining success in this case. While the Luftwaffe’s campaign was destructive and terrorizing, by no measure was it a success. Neither strategically or tactically. And fell far short of diminishing the moral of the British themselves. So where is the success you mention? In fact the apparent “strategy of the Luftwaffe was run incompetently by Goehring, attacking RAF vital assets, and switched, by order of the other incompetent, der fuehrer himself, to bombing British cities. It allowed the RAF to regroup and hand Germany a loss in the Battle of Britain. Success? I think not.

[jackaustin]

When Jack Northrop was shown the model of the first successful modern flying wing he cried with appreciation for his efforts....

[ShornDunlevy]

I'm pretty sure the first flying wing designs were before Northrop but to be fair, he certainly did develop the design for much longer and with much more success than anyone else.

While the Horton Ho229 looked interesting but I suggest might have been too much new technology employed into a single design.

That the B2 proved it a good solution and we are now seeing the development of a second generation of military flying wing bombers shows that their is confidence in the design.

[frankhuston]

Amazing work done by these fine gentleman. Such great work done with craftsmanship a slide rule and a #4 pencil.

[davidbaldwin]

Dig through YT for the flight tests, the Edwards crash, and behind the scenes disagreements before the cancellation of Northrop's Flying Wing. Explains much..

[jgar]

The Horton brothers were NOT ahead of Northrop. The two programs develop simultaneously with no knowledge of each other.

[paul-wegf]

Jack Northrup was allowed to see the B 2 at Edward's air force base .

[amerigo]

The B-2 and B-21 are specialist, stealth aircraft. From what I understand, they are mostly functional due to complex modern computer systems that can compensate for the lack of a fuselage and tail. Meanwhile, practically all other modern aircraft continue to have a fuselage, a vertical tail, and wings. Most of the military ones are supersonic, unlike any of the flying wing designs.

Only the stealth features kept the flying wing concept from being a complete dead end. Boy, they sure look cool though.

[Diemerstein]

When you do a documentary on technology, you need to make sure the facts are facts.
Not to take anything away from Jack Northrop, but he did not conceive the idea of a flying wing, Hugo Junker patented a flying wing design some 15 to 20 years before Northrop did.
It wasn't just Germany, but Britain and several other nation were designing flying wings concepts as far back as 1908.

[robinwells]

Technology well ahead of its time and sadly ahead of fly by wire technologies time also, which would have made its inherent instability a positive advantage. B36 was an amazing stop gap but arguably only by way of its scale.

[USAmerican]

Glen Edwards pulled the wings off the YB-49. Pulled too many G's during a stall recovery.
Inexperienced test pilot.