Why Was This Aircraft Consisting Only of Wings a Failure?

In the November 1941 issue of the New York Times, the following sentence was written, which went down in aviation history: “Flying Wings; will dominate the entire military, commercial and private flight area. Maybe one day is not too far away.”

So, if there was such a great vision back then, why is it today? A pair of wings flying in the sky can’t we see? Or what exactly was Flying Wings and what happened next? Let’s go into details.

How does the idea of ​​an airplane consisting only of wings sound to you?

In conventional aircraft, the tail and fuselage provide control and stability, but they also It also increases friction and reduces aerodynamic efficiency. That’s why an airplane consisting of only wings may sound perfect.

Many companies and individuals throughout history have made great efforts to design airplanes with wings, but only one person has made significant progress. That person was none other than Jack Northrop. It emerged as a visionary idea, but to the failure story had transformed.

Its developer had managed to fly a flying wing, even though he had no training.

Northrop was one of the most innovative and talented aircraft design geniuses of his time. Although he had no university education, he flew his first airplane wing in 1929. Over time, he improved his designs and his first aircraft, the N-1M, It came to life in 1940 had provided.

The success of N-1M, Inspired the US Air Force’s interest in Northrop because at that time II. There was World War II and a faster, lighter aircraft was needed. However, flying wings became obsolete in the 1950s. You ask why?

The first reason was that there was not enough facility space to assemble the planes.

The army needed a lot of planes, but there was no space for planes. Outdoor production lines were not an option and Disappointment for the US military had happened.

At one point, the tender was given to a company called “Glenn Martin” because it had the necessary production capacity, but even then the first flight was three years late and had consumed four times its initial budget.

There are also technical problems.

Its propellers were a big problem because they often failed to spin properly. In addition, shaft vibrations sometimes became uncontrollable and the part where the gears were located became very hot. Of course, all of this is also during wartime Considering that it is…

However, to solve some of these problems, the engines were replaced with jet engines, four vertical wings were added to the rear to maintain stability, and a number of other interventions were made. This improved speed and appearance but it got heavier and severely limited its range and bomb load.

It was also left behind in terms of speed, radar and bombing.

Another difficulty that accelerated the extinction of flying wings was speed limitations. By design, they were below the speed of sound (subsonic) and they were falling short of supersonic options. Additionally, radar detection was not good.

It made accurate bombing impossible during wartime. Even experienced bombers’ bomb throws are slower than ever before. four times longer It was going on. Miss rates were much higher than other aircraft. Just something that would be needed during wartime (!).

Flying Wings was falling short trying to keep up with the times.

In short, flying wings could not keep up with the demands and technology of fighter jets. The war was over until they made up for the deficiencies. With the discovery of the atomic bomb a plane that can carry thousands of tons of bombs were needed, and Flying Wings was not one of them. He lost his war in this field as well.

It also disintegrated during a flight test on June 5, 1948, killing the aircraft, including the captains on board. all the crew He was dead. About two years later, it crashed again during a test and the pilots almost died.

If Northtop lived today, maybe things would be different.

But that didn’t mean Northtop’s idea was bad. Technologies to develop wings did not yet exist and he was able to do this much with the means he had. So we can say that it was an idea ahead of its time.

In short, Flying Wings failed in many aspects. Much better planes and jets than that had already been developed. It was pointless for the army to invest further, and the final nail was hammered into the grave of the visionary idea.

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