# Air Force YB-49, This Thing Actually Flew!



## imp (Jan 2, 2016)

As a kid, I was enchanted by the pics I had of this:
imp






From:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-49

Another case of political influence-peddling, lying, and conniving, by one as high up as Secretary of the Armed Services Committee, cancelled the "Flying Wing" program. See Below:
"The sole prototype reconnaissance platform, the YRB-49A, first flew on 4 May 1950. After only 13 flights, testing ended abruptly on 26 April 1951. It was then flown back to Northrop's headquarters from Edwards Air Force Base (formally Muroc) on what would be its last flight. There, this remaining flying wing sat abandoned at the edge of Northrop's Ontario airport for more than two years. It was finally ordered scrapped on 1 December 1953.[SUP][7][/SUP]
But in a 1979 videotaped news interview, Jack Northrop broke his long silence and said publicly that all Flying Wing contracts had been canceled because Northrop Aircraft Corporation refused to merge with competitor Convair at Stuart Symington's strong suggestion, because, according to Jack Northrop, Convair's merger demands were "grossly unfair to Northrop."[SUP][8][/SUP] Shortly thereafter, Symington became president of Convair upon leaving his post as Secretary of the Air Force.[SUP][4][/SUP] Allegations of political influences in the cancellation of the Flying Wing were investigated by the House Armed Services Committee, where Symington publicly denied exerting pressure on Northrop to merge.[SUP][4"[/SUP]


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## SeaBreeze (Jan 2, 2016)

Never knew of this, here's an old video.


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## Underock1 (Jan 2, 2016)

imp said:


> As a kid, I was enchanted by the pics I had of this:
> imp
> 
> 
> ...



I remember this thing, Imp. For some reason, I can't find anything on its performance, but flying wings were always unstable.


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## imp (Jan 2, 2016)

Underock1 said:


> I remember this thing, Imp. For some reason, I can't find anything on its performance, but flying wings were always unstable.



In reading through the wiki, I found that rumor, instability, was mostly not true, propaganda used by Washington big-wigs to cancel the program. Original wing development work was dug up and used in making the B-2 Bomber 40 years later! Look at how closely it resembles our current Stealth aircraft!    

SeaBreeze, thank you for that vid! I was 5 when the film was made!    imp


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## Don M. (Jan 2, 2016)

The B49 had a propeller driven predecessor...the B35.  They were pretty much identical except for the engines.  

We live about 40 miles from Whiteman AFB....the home of the B2, and we often see one of these B2's flying overhead...as they go down to Ft. Leonard Wood to make practice runs with the Army stationed down there.  It's easy to miss them if it isn't a real quiet day, as they make almost no noise when flying at higher altitudes.


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## imp (Jan 2, 2016)

Don M. said:


> The B49 had a propeller driven predecessor...the B35.  They were pretty much identical except for the engines.
> 
> We live about 40 miles from Whiteman AFB....the home of the B2, and we often see one of these B2's flying overhead...as they go down to Ft. Leonard Wood to make practice runs with the Army stationed down there.  It's easy to miss them if it isn't a real quiet day, as they make almost no noise when flying at higher altitudes.



Don, the noise thing is amazing! We saw one occasionally during our sojourns up to Rolla from bunker, flying fairly low. What we could not buy in Salem, we sought in Rolla. Plus, that "Sirloin Pit" steakhouse buffet, oh, my! 

I gather you are located closer to the Lebanon area. Beautiful country. Every friend and relative who visited us got to see a REAL wooden-barrel making facility!   imp


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## Don M. (Jan 2, 2016)

imp said:


> I gather you are located closer to the Lebanon area. Beautiful country. Every friend and relative who visited us got to see a REAL wooden-barrel making facility!   imp



We're about 50 miles North of Lebanon...almost midway between the 2 big bases...4 miles South of a little town named Stover, in the deep forest.  The military planes go over our area frequently.  The B2's are at high altitude, the F18's  practice dogfights, and the A10's come across at low altitudes, following the terrain.  There have been some A10's coming over so low that I could see the pilot in the cockpit.


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## Pappy (Jan 3, 2016)

Years ago, my dad and I would go fishing in the Adirondacks. This was a favorite spot for the A-10s to practice, out of Plattsburgh AFB, in NY. You could see them coming, but it took a few seconds for noise to catch up. It would actually vibrate our little fishing bolt. What a sight this was.


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## Don M. (Jan 3, 2016)

The A10 is probably the best, and most practical aircraft in the USAF inventory for fighting these fanatic factions in the Middle East.  Yet, the Pentagon wants go mothball that fleet, in favor of aircraft that are vastly more expensive, and probably far less effective.  I guess the Military/Industrial Complex isn't making enough money from keeping the A10 active.


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## imp (Jan 3, 2016)

Don M. said:


> The A10 is probably the best, and most practical aircraft in the USAF inventory for fighting these fanatic factions in the Middle East.  Yet, the Pentagon wants go mothball that fleet, in favor of aircraft that are vastly more expensive, and probably far less effective.  I guess the Military/Industrial Complex isn't making enough money from keeping the A10 active.



A-10 is the Warthog? If equipped with the big Gatling-type Machine Cannon, I've read a single pass over a football field can place a projectile in every square yard of it's area! Original development work was begun way back in about 1980, by Hughes Aerospace, seeking to fire big projectiles at extremely high rate, thousands of rounds per minute.    imp


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## Don M. (Jan 3, 2016)

Yup, the A10 is the Warthog, and it comes standard with the Gatling gun.  It is probably one of the ugliest modern day aircraft...but far and away the best for close air support of the ground troops.  The old F-105's, which I worked on, were the first to be equipped with a Gatling gun, and that gun was second only to Napalm in stopping a VC advance down the Ho Chi Minh trail.  I watched it being test fired a couple of times on the base firing range, and it was an Awesome weapon.  I think the F105 only carried about 2500 rounds, but a 2 or 3 second burst at 500 knots would level anything in a football field sized area.


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## SifuPhil (Jan 3, 2016)

Awesome machine!


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## imp (Jan 3, 2016)

*Great Video!*

Phil, I sure appreciate that! Never saw that cannon fired before. And our bigwigs want to retire them. Seems we have not only incompetent leaders in office, but incompetence at top military levels as well.    imp


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