Aug 20th, 2018 : The Batplane

[xoxoxoBruce]

Two YB-49’s were built, one crashed, the other burned on the runway when the nose wheel collapsed during taxi trials.
It flew well in undisturbed air but not on simulated bombing runs were it had to turn and bomb on the return pass.

The Northrop YB-49 was a prototype jet-powered heavy bomber developed by Northrop Corporation shortly after World War II for service with the U.S. Air Force. The YB-49 featured a flying wing design and was a turbojet-powered development of the earlier, piston-engined Northrop XB-35 and YB-35. The two YB-49s actually built were both converted YB-35 test aircraft.

The YB-49 never entered production, being passed over in favor of the more conventional Convair B-36 piston-driven design. Design work performed in the development of the YB-35 and YB-49 nonetheless proved to be valuable to Northrop decades later in the eventual development of the B-2 stealth bomber, which entered service in the early 1990s.

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