INTRODUCTION ..- Form years airplane designers have realized that by redacing parasite drag, that dea ‘caused by the shape of form ofthe aircrafts performance could be greatly increased. Fay steps inthis direction were the changes from biplane to monoplane desig, the elimination ‘of external struts and wires, the incorporation of retractbie landing gear, et. fn epite of all thexe advancement, the average conventional air xy has two to four mes the Arg that would be necesary i all ts fanetions ould he incorporated within is wing alone. ‘To reduce paraite deag to the absolute minimum, sera ve tought to design 4a airplane without « faselage oF tal in which the pilot, power plant, and load could be ‘atrind entirely within the wing. One of vhe early attempts slong 1928 model of were carried with proach to the allowing ideal. Lving design which served ax | vey the fying characteristics and performance of ruch era | ‘of flights were made with this airplane wing every coneetrable Might configuration. Fhece‘were mo serious dificultiee encountered and it was found that Aight characteristics were Similar to thote of eon fal alvraft “The next sep wan to Investigate the 2 sient types To this end four 60-fo0t ‘These srplanes, designated the NIMs were used Cor pilot training and as test leplanes to wee exuetly what could be expected of « larger version. An extensive Mightiest program ‘was Initiated jn which the airplanes were stalled, spun, looped, and A larger airplane were constructed Dit eheck" without dual Might intruction, They found that land flew aswell as the more conver The same em designed for long range snd high sieplanes have shown that land the pilots whe buve flown them are high in their pre ‘operation. Prelisinary flight tests with theseLet's take # look at « Fy ‘There smo tai ecu all ecemary clements for stability and conteal sre incorporated ia the wing itself, There sno fuselage requited to support a tall oF house evew oF load, but com military types itis romotimes necessary to incorporate a aim nacelle which extends to the front or rear of the wing Htelf to enclose guns, radar or other equipment. These ‘extensions have a light adverse effect on drag but iti only a small portion of that involved fn the we ofa conventional fuselage and ti, ‘The crew is hnsed at the center of the wing, and the fuel and wseful Toad are dis spanwise In the wing 10 that each part of the wing supports its own potion of ‘Substantial navy in the requiraf structoral weight (and therefore cost) are thus achieved. ‘The crew's quarters are completely heated ant pressurized and the erew is yo lated in a Wing Bomber ‘ateddoors conforming to the ‘The pilot is located forward in “bubble” canopy where he has excel considerably more than a 18eegree hemisphere. The copilot may he locate 1 the pilot, depending om the purpose of the ai ‘very small fixed vertical fins are added toFLIGHT CONTROL OPERATION S LEFT PEDAL DEPRESSED ‘3 | ert auooee ‘Oren cum) ic We. 201m reoais oernesseo Aight controls in the cockpit operate in « normal f Asgree from their conventional counterparts, Foot pedals operate the ‘of double split fap (something like dive flaps) located ‘conventional cekpit arrangement. flaps, which are Ioeated at the wing tips and are ‘ame manner a one would tase an elevator tri tab, or an adjastable stabilizer, Elevons, combining the function of elevator and aileron are loca tren fap long the trailing edge ‘om cach wing inbound of| When deflected together in the same direction by moving the control ealuma fore and aft the elevons cause the airplane to descend or climb exacly ax normal elevators operate ‘sort wwooess ren onaking eeFecn‘When moved in opposite directions by rotating the control wheel to right or lef, they cause the airplane to hank in a fashion Kentical to that caused by conventional ailerons, The levons are connect tothe control column in such » manner thet completely convention teh and roll control is obtained by moving the column, or rotating the wheel Landing ape are located in conventional post trailing edge near the center of the airplane and serve to Increase the lft (for alower landing) increase the drag (for seper approach) and decrease the angle of attack required to achleve a proper lift coef cent for lading. When depressed, they enuse « novedown effect which ix trimmed out by fan upward setting of the trim ape at the wing tips. ‘The sae of «hig bomber often require that all control surfaces have hydaulle or eleeeel boost systems to supplement the piles strength. On the B35 and B19 airplanes there are complete dual hydraulic systems, in addition to an eleteeal tem system which is suficent for control in emergency Aight. CCOWNN BACK tert wine DOWN J ‘COLUMN BACK WMEEL OvER — LEFT DaCHARACTERISTICS: lot's viewpoint a Flying Wing hes no characteristics that make it any more fly than any other sieplene- In fact it may he somewhat simpler than some ional types because weil coordinated urns can be made ymmetrieal power conditions do wot alfect the flight behavior as adverse ‘mont conventional designs. ecanse of the small amount of vertial surface paved fight at required by engine failure on one side, and the pilot ‘hance of bringing the ship home. (The BAY, with jts located Fhe low eaily with all Jetson on ome side and off om the othrand handling and taxiing are identical to that of any other large airplane having sMeerable nose wheel and tieyele gear, The pilot has excellent vision forward and downward, ‘One peculiarity of allowing aeplanes noticeable ducing take-off and landing ie cexeonsive nosehigh atitute, This seasation ix emy to become accu realized thet the reference point in olling types isthe wing tel instead of a fuselage to which the wing i attached ata postive angle of 4 5 degrees, Therefore the fying wing seems nose-high at ukeoff by about 5 degrees as corspared to conventional aircraft. "The lack of vertical surfaces reduces dit and consequently erating” to minimum when making a erosewind landing.0 att — | FLYING WING ADVANTAGES Whether (or militery or commercial ue the advantages ofa frst cost cheaper operation, higher speeds and a ing dong ald up to lower REDUCED PARASITE DRAG "The parasite drag of allving sreraft x ueually Tet than hat of its conveston Dart, and the total deag Is from 25% to 459% less depending om 1 wpe, speed and kind higher speeds or ere sores required to overcome drag and therefore smaller engines and less fuel are required fora given job. Or withthe same power and fuel, much higher speeds and greater ranges can be obtained. The ac figures vary considerably for diferent types und purposes but in general the alloving ‘am lo the job of any long-range homber or teansport. ateLOWER STRUCTURAL WEIGHT ‘The allaving type eliminates fuselage and tail suefacen It carries each element of it load lose to the actual wing surfoce which supports it Therefore very nabstantial navings (25% {to-40%) are possible in structural weight, resulting again in smaller, lower com airplanes todo given job, A further very important advantage in these days of high wpeed operations 's the fact thatthe allving design places structural elements in the most ecient position (near the wing sueface) thereby providing a atiller, more rigid structure ts eliminate sibeation ata utter, 1 Flying Wing lends itself well o manufacture, storage and parking, Less than 1, the hungar space is neode for this type of airplane than is required for its conventional counterpart, For instance a B-19 aicplane ean he stored in « bing 15 fet high, G0 feet 14 175 feet longs whereas, a comparable “conventional” airplane requires & space AAT feet high, 235 feet wide and £65 fot lama, ‘These advantages of comparatively small dimensions and si lean Hines are further2 reflected inthe difficulty of detect ewed from front, rear oF side the plane shows nothing but a thin line agains ‘only from dinectly above or Delow is It relatively easy 40 see. In light ters of ‘was almost always easier to see an accompanying Pl escort airplane (weighing 1/6 ‘much than the big bomber islf. SERVICING Because of comparatively small fore and aft dimensions, and the fact that very small vertieal suetaces iC any, are sequred, Flying Wings are built low to the gronnd and are therefore easly serviced. Short laers, oF low platforms avalable at almost any alert, ave all that ‘of even a very large alloving irplane. This ix a particularly {great advantage when outdoor storage is mandatory oF in coll weather when all extern surfaces must e cleaned of ice oF frost before takeoff. Likewise the complete elimin ‘of movable vertical nurfaces peevents the danger of damage to such parts in hgh wind hile the use of hydraulle control actustion eliminates the need of control gust locks om leplanes oo eesipped, MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS ‘Slse—Many pesvons think thhe cates asthe sae required depends ony o ve wirpose of the aircraft, the range and Speed eure, and the density of the payload, Northrop Aireralt Ine. hae built succensl '3 from 29 to 172 feet im span an from 100 to 4000 aq fin wing Military Toads of hombs, fuel, ammuaition, ete are ordinarily very heany fi terms of vs per eubic fot of space required and are therefore Jreraft. Likewise ordinary air freight can be carried 0 great advantage sieplane. Only inthe eae of large numbers of pancenges ‘This is because people requlte more space per pound tl 9 loud, An airplane the size of the B35, for example, could earry about 70 panengers plas 30,000 pound of freight, while i the sane apace about 100,000 poral of frelg ‘or fue could he earl. i homis Weight Distribution —The sweptack design ofthe Flying Wing lends ying its useful loud clove tothe acrdynamlc center of the wings therefore fg tecklles are not appreciably changed by the use of ful oF the amount of payload caried. ive Toad iti sdvamtages at climinates the need of heavy spars and Wonally required to transmit tnd disttbute fuselage loads oto the wing and til murfacer, wan sam ype powers Spas Bbe it reciprocating engine-propelier, turborel, gan turhinepropeller, rocket or rum jet. I propellers are wsed they must he pushers for rons of stability, Turborjt installations are the simplest and the fastest, but have much less range than turbo-props up to speeds ef ‘550 mph, Turborprops for large bombers combine the speed of uarhorjets withthe ranse of reciprocating engines. All ofthe types of powerplants mentioned, with the exception of gas ‘wrbine propeller, have been nied to power successful Flying Wines ‘The B-49 isthe latest and mont powerful ofa ong line of Northrop Flying Wings. 1 has a span of 172 feet,» length of 58 fect, « height of only 15 feet, and an overloud arose weight of more han 100 tons. Powered by 8 turbojets developing 4000 Ibs. of thrust apieesy it has been flown on the 4 jets on one side only, proving the excellent dicetion le in this type ‘modern military sireraft Iti an osttanding exemple of the advantages of modeenallving design, but is only a step in continually improving seen made possible bythe farsighted ‘sion ofthe Northrop Engineering Growp.Ftlane were enlarged 0 the aie of a modern fouengined wort (100,000 pounds) i mou require 370,000 horsepower to force It through the the 600snifeanshonr speed of which some modern planes are capable. Even a faily Iraneport of today would need 52,000 horsepower, which fs more than ¢an reasonsh obtained with existing power planta ut transport speeds of 600 miles an hour are # the elogmest typeof Flying Wings, And to deve this 100,000-pound version of the Fly Wing at that reawice only 13,000 horsepower, puting i well within reach of exiting power i formar “push” of horsepower must he developed by expen In modern power p ‘develop just xo se that ps pounds of Hounds. A modern fourengined transport of one type i ealer ail, eee lng 51 ps ‘he Flying Wing BA9 requires only 46 poss 3 slides thraugh the sie more emsiy Is required This aves more tl in saving i the cout of earring it ‘ransAtlantc crossing a gallon of gasoline faken on at Newfoundland is burned eight Hours ind Inter, just off the Seottish const, It has heen shipped by air express aerors the Atlan coats very nearly $9 4 gallon. Boca 89 worth of pasload behind. 16Into the Future ‘The Flying Wing is here today as a proved and powerk ccxpected fo emerge san important and infiuent Giant Flying Wing transports will enable air that of modern ocean liners The arias deawing aver «Fl [BO people im spactows room. This airplane Hx ienten osthrop for the Air Force. A 100.t0n Flying Wing transport, powered by jets could travel ‘nd'50 minaten A passenger eating breakcast jus! before departure from New York night arrive ‘Srly for noon luncheon on Califor plane lew ite most economical distance, 2,040 mies, ‘The chart shove the com