Summary
- Northrop’s WWII-era flying wing, the YB-35/XB-35, preceded the famous B-2 Spirit stealth bomber.
- The YB-35 aimed to revolutionize long-range strategic bombing but faced technical issues and was ultimately terminated.
- The Northrop YB-49, a turbojet-powered development of the YB-35, had a tragic crash in 1948 and 1950.
When one thinks of “flying wing” military aircraft, chances are Northrop’s B-2 Spirit (the original “Stealth Bomber”) comes to mind, as do the upcoming Northrop Grumman B-21 “Raider” and the Red Chinese X-20.
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However, Northrop’s experiments with flying-wing warbirds far predate the B-2 (which made its maiden flight in July 1989 and officially entered into operational service with the US Air Force on New Year’s Day 1997). Indeed, the concept predates the Jet Age. Simple Flying now looks at Northrop’s WWII-era flying-wing, the YB-35/XB-35.
YB-49 initial history and specifications
The YB-49 made its maiden flight on June 25, 1946. As Willie Bodenstein of Pilot’s Post elaborates:
“In 1941, before the USA entered World War II, Northrop and Consolidated Vultee Corporation had been commissioned to develop a large wing-only, long-range bomber designated XB-35 and XB-36. Jack Northrop, who made the flying wing the focus of his work during the 1930s, advocated a ‘flying wing’ as a means of reducing parasitic drag and eliminating structural weight not directly responsible for producing lift.”
“The Northrop XB-35 and YB-35 were experimental heavy bomber aircraft developed by the Northrop Corporation for the United States Army Air Forces during and shortly after World War II. The airplane used the radical and potentially very efficient flying wing design, in which the tail section and fuselage are eliminated and all payload was carried in a thick wing. Only prototype and pre-production aircraft were built, although interest remained strong enough to warrant further development of the design as a jet bomber, under the designation YB-49.”
Part of the idea behind the YB-35 was the ability to bomb Nazi-occupied Europe in the event Great Britain fell. In short, had it succeeded, it would have revolutionized long-range strategic bombing.
The YB-35 had the following specifications:
Crew: |
9: pilot, copilot, bombardier, navigator, engineer, radio operator, three gunners |
Fuselage Length: |
53 ft 1 in (16.2 m) |
Wingspan: |
172 ft (52.2 m) |
Height: |
20 ft 3 in (6.2 m) |
Empty Weight: |
89,300 lb (40,590 kg) |
Max Takeoff Weight: |
209,000 lb (94,802 kg) |
Powerplant: |
2 × Pratt & Whitney R-4360-17 and 2× R-4360-21 Wasp Major radial engines, 3,000 hp (2,237 kW) each |
Max Airspeed: |
Mach 0.51 (393 mph, 632 km/h, 341.5 kn) |
Range: |
8,150 mi (13,100 km, 8,150 kn) |
Service Ceiling: |
39,700 ft (12,100 m) |
Armament: |
|
Experimental performance
The aforementioned first flight was a 45-minute trip that embarked from Hawthorne, California, and landed at Muroc Dry Lake without incident.
However, trouble soon arose, as the Rare Historical Photos website explains:
“Actual flight tests of the aircraft revealed several problems: the contra-rotating props caused constant heavy drive-shaft vibration and the government-supplied gearboxes had frequent malfunctions and reduced the effectiveness of propeller control.”
“After only 19 flights, Northrop grounded the first XB-35; the second aircraft was grounded after eight test flights.”
“In the end, the program was terminated due to its technical difficulties and the obsolescence of its reciprocating propeller engines, and the fact it was far behind schedule and over budget.”

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Where are they (Where is it) now?
None of the 14 XB-35s and YB-35s built survive. However, back in 1942, Northrop also built two all-wood one-third-scale flying models to measure performance and stability, dubbed the N-9M (“M” as in “Model”), which would be used to gather flight test data on the Flying Wing design.
One of these N-9Ms was preserved and even restored to flying status, thanks to the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California. Tragically, this plane crashed into a prison yard in Norco, California, on April 22, 2019, killing the pilot.
Cinematic legacy
Those who are old-school sci-fi movie buffs may recall George Pal’s 1953 adaptation of H.G. Wells’s 1898 novel “War of the Worlds.” There is a scene in that film where a flying wing drops an atomic bomb on the invading Martians (to no effect, of course).
That particular plane was the Northrop YB-49, which was a turbojet-powered development of the YB-35 (and is referenced in the Pilot’s Post piece I quoted earlier). The film scene incorporates Northrop color footage of a YB-49 test flight, which was originally used in Paramount’s Popular Science theatrical shorts of the era.
A total of two YB-49 prototypes were converted from the YB-35, with the maiden flight taking place on October 21, 1947 (coincidentally, one week after Chuck Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier and just over a month after the US Air Force became a separate and independent branch of service). Tragically, one of these planes was lost in a crash on June 5, 1948, killing all five crew members aboard, among them 1st Lieutenant Edward Lee Swindell, who had been a crew member on the B-29 Superfortress that assisted Chuck Yeager on his history-making flight. The second prototype was destroyed on 15 March 1950, during high-speed taxi trials at Muroc Field, California.