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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 มี.ค. 2009
- This is a video of the Planes of Fame Museum's (Chino, California) Northrop N9MB Flying Wing during a recent (March 2009) engine run-up of its remaining serviceable engine. This aircraft was originally built as part of the November 1941 contract that Northrop was awarded for four, 1/3-scale aircraft, designated N9M, that were to act as flying test beds for various flight systems for the full-size XB-35 flying wing program and also to familiarize Air Force pilots with flying wing operations
This aircraft experienced an in-flight engine fire in 2006 in its left, 300 hp., 8-cylinder Franklin 0-540-7 engine. The Flying Wing has since been totally restored, but the restoration of the rare Franklin 0-540-7 engine is another matter. There were only about 27 of these engines ever built and it is believed that only three of them exist today. The needed parts will need to be newly manufactured as necessary, but the museum has committed to getting this aircraft back in the air. Common parts from a 12-cylinder Franklin engine are already being scavenged to help in the restoration. The flying scenes in this video were taken just before the engine fire. Progress towards flying staus is well on its way and this aircraft will definitely once again fly, no doubt!
Best,
- Octane130 - - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
The wing crashed 6 months ago and killed the pilot. Please respect his hard work on the wing and his memory. He was a good friend.
Flyerbob: Very sorry to hear that. Why did it crash?
@@stranraerwal we are not sure. The aircraft was destroyed so there was little to go by.
Much respect to the good man
That’s a shame , such a loss of life and history . I doubt that aircraft could be rebuilt from the photos I’ve seen .
Heartbreaking to know that the plane and pilot are gone.
@Alan Roehrich, Yes, I heard about that happening shortly after it took place, in April of 2019... It is so sad... But the memory of the plane and the pilot will live-on... I guess there is a bit of a 'Nor-crafter' in all who appreciated this masterpiece, being brought back to life....
I actually used to watch this exact plane fly as a child in California whenever the Airshow was in town, I called it the boomerang plane. It's crazy that it is gone and there won't be anymore 😢
This is why such aircraft should NEVER fly.
The 'wing was restored by volunteers of the Planes of Fame Museum at Chino airport over a period of about 12 years. I don't think a realistic dollar amount could be placed on the restoration since there was so much volunteer work done. Gorgeous restoration! The wing now (July 2012) has two overhauled engines and is in perfect flying condition. It flies maybe half a dozen times a year. Thanks!
Fantastic! Beautiful aircraft
i was on my way over to chino for breakfast in my Cessna 150 in the late 90's when the tower advised this plane was doing figure 8's low over the field. It was an awesome site. What really threw me is how I could see the wing's planform perfectly when he was turning but when he rolled out level heading towards me he VANISHED! It was like he turned invisible.
I believe THAT invisibility to sight was, by design intended to be also invisible to RADAR. Compare the B-2 Stealth bomber and general stealth birds' design eliminates the usual telltale 90 degree fuselage/wings relationship by blending the two. The Wing eliminated the fuselage aft of the cockpit, as well as the forward fuselage nose, and fit the elevators, ailerons and rudder within the Wing itself, the technological puzzle that had to be solved in order to go without a tail. Northrup was Alexander the Great to this Gordian Knot aviation challenge. He did it by doing it.
What a sharp looking bird. Looks cutting edge even for today.
Sweet sound is old school.
Ear candy, eye candy.
I saw this wing fly a demo at the Chino air show in 2012 and it was a beautiful sight. A very lucky pilot has the privilege of flying an historic aircraft! Outstanding!
Great video. It's so sad that it and it's pilot are gone.
Definitely aviation history right there.
oh my gosh that thing actually flies! Now that just blew my mind.
That was wonderful. I'm glad somebody is keeping it flying.
No computers no fly by wire but pure genius. Shows that amazing machines could be conceived by the human brain.
that machine is beautiful!
Wow!!! The N9M flies again!!! WOW!!! One of the most innovative planes, EVER!!! JACK Northrop would be so proud to see this beautiful restoration!!! It is heartbreaking to realize that about 3 years ago this amazing survivor which was painstakingly restored to it's original condition, crashed and was destroyed, and also killed the pilot... But it sure is nice to see her flying in those amazing video's... Thank you for posting this!!!
thats good that volunteer helped to restore that plane, but wow i think that those 12 years were very well worth it because that is incredible for a 1940's plane!
@dregerclock : Yes, the Flying Wing now has two new rebuilt engines and took to the air in May 2010 and flew in the Planes of Fame airshow a week later!
Awesome video as always octane! You are so lucky to be able to get so up close to these aircraft.
I would go to the airshow and endure all that traffic and everything just to see this flying wing!!
It was great!!! Thanks for all your hard work getting it ready!
amazing! thanks @octane130 for making this video documentation...
highly appreciated for all member of Planes of Fame Museum's (Chino, California)...
Beautiful, and graceful.
Thanks for posting
My uncle flow the first XB -35 in the 1940 his name is Brig-General Roberto L. Cardenas born in Mexico educated in USA was the Commanding Officer of the wing program...He is list in the Air Force Hall of fame.
Jose Cardenas ok?
Jose Cardenas en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cardenas
+Tomasina Covell Nerb?
Wonderful. That’s something to be proud of for sure. I had uncles serve in the Army, Air Force and Marines in the 50’s and 60’s. All of Mexican heritage. Burns me when trump said a judge couldn’t do his job fairly because of his Mexican heritage. I could question his American loyalty with his immigrant parents and his many foreign business interests.
It’s sad that this aircraft is no more.
Amazing, I saw one of these in a magazine once. I was so happy to see this in my "recomended videos" thing, I wasnt expecting it at all!! Glad to see it flying, its an amazing piece of American history! Thankyou.
I saw the center part of the aircraft sitting under a tarp at Chino more than 30 years ago. It's a real delight to see that it's been restored and is flying again.
As a former Mojave Airport tenant-I have to express my heartfelt "Like"-s and nostalgy!
Imagine being a person from 1944 and seeing THIS! Exciting stuff!
Way too COOL, nice job getting her flying again!! Well done!!
Supremely cool. The crazy guys who made this wing and keep it flying fly are the BEST!
Wow... That's a beautiful plane with a very unique engine signature. Very cool looking and sounding. I had no idea that there were any of these flying!
Very nice...beautiful restoration
Excellent video. Jack Northrop was a man ahead of his time!
Ohh damn, That sound was amazing, I want more of it !!!
THANK YOU, JACK ❣️
That's pretty freaking awesome..
I've been Building/ flying RC planes for over 20years. The fact that this plane flies as well as it does is a damn engineering Marvel. No Vert Stabilizers. Only elevons? Where does the Yaw Authority come from? Or is it simply yank and bank?
You know there was an original “Flying Wing” in the Boneyard at the Naval Air Station in China Lake, CA in 1971 that I had an opportunity to see. I always wondered what happened to it.
+Dave R. That is unlikely unless it was small concept model. One the main reasons that the flying wing program was terminated was revenge against Northrop by AF Secretary Stuart Symington after Northrop refused to merge with Convair. Symington ordered all planes scrapped and went as far as to have them scrapped on location in view of Northrop employees.
I saw this aircraft fly in person at Chino in the early '90's. I was on an airline layover and made my rounds to Fla-Bob and Chino. Was a pleasant surprise to stumble upon the crew getting the airplane ready.
love this,, very cool that it still flies!!
This is fantastic guys keep up the good work.
Good job. Thanks for sharing.
First truly powered flying wing
It was really neat to see something like that fly. It is a historical plane.
So nice. Well done!
BEAUTIFUL!!
this is so cool !! I can't believe there is a privately owned horten out there :) well done guys I bet she's fun to fly
A design decades ahead of its contemporaries
Great video, I didn't know any of these still existed.
Brave pilot to fly such an old airplane with a rough running engine. Gave me the willies. Could have lost the plane and pilot. I would have said, “Yep, it’s the original air frame and engine, the engine runs, ok put it in the museum.”
In case of a accident the pilot will always be the first one there.
Awesome video!
Sounded like a bucket of bolts on the ground. Once it was in the air.... WOW!
53secs. Sharp intake of breath. Stunning.
many people were working on aircraft design in the early years,and the wing design was a popular type due to efficiency. Jack Northrop was very interested in wing-body designs and worked for many years on his own,especially in the controls. His designs were very radical in many ways. There's no doubt he was well aware of what the Horten Brothers and others were doing and had done ,but he also had his own ideas and made many research planes well on his own.
Amazing aircraft!
love the wing, there have got to be great advantages to this design surely
Efficiency and structural simplicity. Although, this design is really a dud. It takes quite a lot to design a good wing.
wow that thing is awsome! i wonder when someones going to make a flying horten 229 replica cause that would be awsome!
Wow what a beautiful aeroplane !
Awesome !
This is beyond cool.
So cool!
This was restored at the smithsonian Silver Hill facility where it was stored for years along with the Enola Gay. Great to see it flying again.
The Smithsonian has a different Northrop wing. This one was restored in California.
@kondakor1998: The yaw control is handled by the "rudders" which are the split control surfaces nearest the wingtips. They open up to provide yaw control in turns. They also can be used as airbrakes for speed control when you push both rudder pedals down at the same time. These control surfaces also serve as the pitch trim, which is electrically controlled whereas all of the other control functions are hydraulic. Nose-down pitch attitude is quite pronounced when the flaps are dropped. Thanks!
OH WOW!! LOL I can't believe it from the angle I could've sworn it was a Soviet Yak-15 jet - silver paint job what appeared to be Yak style wings and no prop in front fooled the heck out of me LOL but you're definitely right now I can see the Bearcat - great job and so glad its back :)
cool plane !! wish to see the take off and landing
@wrh61 scwtrials- This is 1/3 scale ( 60 ft) of the later built XB-35, 4 prop engine & YB-49 jet, 8 engine Flying Wings which were 172 ft wing spans. The XB-35's were rushed into production before reliable jet engines were avaliable. Then in mid production, the remaining airframes were fitted with Allison turbojet engines.
The video revealed an interesting feature required in building the Wing. With the engine cowling removed while preparing to start an engine, I noticed that the engine had a 4 foot long drive shaft to the propeller that I thought looked wildly unusual. But to get the big propellers adequate clearance from an inboard-mounted engine would require such an arrangement by default. Northrup HAD TO figure that out. Surely only the P-39 Aircobra only had a longer driveshaft by virtue of a oneuvakind rear-mounted engine, behind the pilot, in THAT great, but highly unusual aircraft. That driveshaft extension was a big part of the puzzle they had to solve and did.
nice project
Go there,tell Your family You're taking them to Disneyland in LA if You have to,and take a trip out.It's east on I-10 in the riverside/Ontario area, easy to get to. Get there early,you'll need all day to see the place,well worth it.I saw the N-9 when it was restored,such a beautiful plane,I'd have loved to see it in the air.
Hi. The leading-edge slots on the 'wing are fixed even though a hinge attachment is present. Another interesting thing that you would have to look closely for is that the outboard split "rudders" are contained within slightly larger, hinged control surfaces that control the pitch trim. All controls are hydraulic with the exception of the pitch trim, which is electric. Some Northrop engineers consider the hydraulic control system the greatest achievement of the aircraft, of which there are many!
There used to be an airbase near me in the UK where they used to test all sort of planes including these sorts of flying wings. I recall being told that sadly many of these experimental planes had all crashed locally. The last I can recall many years ago was that a keen elderly plane enthusiast was sure a farmer was still using the remains of one mackeled up to form a farm trailer.
Rob in UK
@scwtrials The XB-35 was designed from the start to be piston powered. The YB 49, a hasty conversionof the B-35, came about only because the newly formed US Air Force had annouced a policy of only procuring jet powered bomber designs. The XB-35 was never "rushed in to production" its gestation in fact taking several years. If anything it was the YB-49 which was hastily produced and solely for the reason stated. Douglas & Convair also took the same route with their Mixmaster and B-60
beautiful
That is fantastic :) btw is that a Yak in the background I saw last few minutes of the video??
@DDspider Nicely put. I was just thinking how in the hell the guy flew this thing.
Wow.amazing
loving it! but secretly i wanna see a horten :(
Theres one in Germany that is flying. :)
What a beautiful bird.
One badass little plane
just to wonderful for words, Jack would be in a peaceful dream now:-}
@kondakor1998: The Planes of Fame museum (which owns the Northrop Flying wing, the subject of my video) also has an ORIGINAL Horten flying wing GLIDER on display, built in the 1930s. This is the aircraft (among others) that all Luftwaffe pilots trained on early in their training. Come to our museum at Chino airport, Califorinia sometime if you can; you will really like it! Contact me on TH-cam if you want and I will personally show you around the museum.
Thanks and fly on!
Absolutely incredible and STILL ahead of its time. Jack Northrop was a genius when it came to flight.
Yes, it has already been fully restored and is now in Texas with owner Rod Lewis. It is painted in the colors of the Thailand Air Force, which flew the Bearcat for a while. They also have a restored and flyable Bearcat in Thailand. This aircraft is one of the two original Bearcats obtained by the Confederate Air Force in Texas in 1958 at auction for $805.
Thanks!
Very nice indeed, too bad I didn't have enough of it while flying.
eerie looking to cool
I like the " wheelie bar " !
Very nice!!! I wonder if they flew the plane with a BRS considering it may be a little bit tricky to fly etc.
@deetjay1 it was a prototype, you don't want to build something huge just to find out it doesn't work, northrop did develop a 4 engine bomber the XB-35 and YB-49
dam that thing is cool
Magnificent
The N9M, test project for the B35 and B49. Rebuilt from the original plans, and apparently, the bird was lost with its pilot.
Jack Nothrop was an aeronautical genius, there is no doubt in my mind about that, but he was not the first with the idea of a flying wing. The very first ones were the "ruskies" yep that's right, in the late 1920-ies, and the germans in early 1930-ies , but of course the aeronautical "buffs" do know that facts.
However, I am so very pleased to see a significant point in history to come to "LIFE" again in this huge project. My hat is down to you all who made it happen !!! Thank you.
Awesome! I wish there was more video of it flying!!!!! I don't see a location, is it at a museum somewhere?
This was developed almost at the same time that the 229 was. Though there are similarities the Horten 229 did not influence these Northrop Flying Wings.
What a Beauty !
@octane130 i wish i could im only 14 years old but iv wanted to become a pilot eversince i was3 and im always amazed to see the technology thats so old but still seems futuristic and thank you for the offer ill discuss it with my parents i would love to go and see those marveleous flying machines thank you have a nice day :-)
Sweet 😁!
Magnificent! Now, I'd love to see the Northrop restored Horten Ho-229 Flying Wing take off for real...
Wouldn't be a good idea, the aircraft killed its pilot on its second test flight, I severely doubt they'd attempt a rebuild and flight.
I hear you. I'll look it up but, as I remember reading, I believe that crash was due to a jet engine malfunction, not the plane itself. Not surprising since the German jet engines that had been used (Junker Jumo's???) were notoriously unreliable. If a new flight is ever attempted, it should be with either Pratts, Westinghouses, General Electrics or Rolls Royces... if they fit! I will look up the facts though...
Philippe Renaud Don't get me wrong I'd love to see one flying, perhaps even with an J-004 engine rebuild perhaps boosted with modern fuels, but it's air frame would be massively overhauled I'm sure, so not technically original.
I fully understood and your point was well taken. Our wish might actually be granted. I discovered last night (in part thanks to you) that a group of people is actually trying to build one in Long Island, NY. They seem to have acquired jet engines already (General Electrics --far safer than the Junker Jumo J-004, or so we hope). I believe the website is www.hortenwings.com . I hope the endeavor meets with fascinating results and not tragic ones.
Philippe Renaud Unfortunately this project began in 2010, the projected completion time was 6-12 months, well.. it's now 2016 and all their social media has been dead since 2012.
I'm guessing they ran out or didn't receive enough funding, it's a tragedy.
damn that hing is cool, how much did that restoation job go for because that looks imaculate!
@yumyumsashimi scwtrials- Not a glider but the N-1 "JEEP", Flying Wing. The 1st trure all wing from Northrop powered by 2, 65hp Lycomings, then changed to 2, 120hp Franklins. 38 ft wing span x 17ft length. First flight in July,1940, Muroc Dry Lake. It's now in the Air & Space Museum, Wash, D.C.
@lordandprotector so the question is. does this aircraft have a washout or re flexed and if so then the stall charateristics should be MUCH different than what was experienced in the yb49. I dont recall any accidents including stalls with the Me 163. although they might have SIMULATED a reflex instead of actually making the wing into a Reflex. not sure about that. I appreciate the info though.
@yumyumsashimi scwtrials- An experimental glider version of the JB-1 ( jet bomb), Buzz Bomb Program. This tiny glider was built to test the efficiency of the flying wing design in jet bombs for the MX-324 & JB-1. The MX-324 is at the Air&Space Museum,Wash. DC. The demo glider was fitted with a cockpit& canopy for a test pilot to fly & gather data for design, control & stability of the Jet Bombs.
Although people state the designs were not influenced by German technology the reality is the Horten brothers had been designing Nurflugels for many years and it did influence others to explore flying wing designs. I don't mean this in a bad sense Nurflugels whoever designs them are great and I think the possibility should still be developed further in general aviation to this day. :-)
+zooknut The true reality is that many people built and flew flying wing designs before the Horten brothers flew their first glider. There were even powered, flying wing biplanes in the air prior to 1920... yes, completely tailless.