Northrop Flying Wing Down

[The Brummie]

Being reported that the N-9M yellow flying wing has been lost today in California.

Apparently crashed into a prison yard. No official news on the pilot however unconfirmed reports are that he did not survive.

[MartG]

Sad news

[Equus]

Funnily enough I was reading up on this only yesterday - I drifted onto it after reading about the Horten 229.

I was surprised to find that it was still flying - they always were tricky things to get right. It always stuck me that the basic layout must make the margins for pitch control fairly slender, at best, and longitudinal stability without a tailfin/rudder must be challenging?

[Eric Mc]

Sad to hear. It was restored to airworthy condition only a few years ago.

Although it's too early to speculate, I wouldn't be surprised if the natural instability of all wing designs played a part in the accident.

[dr_gn]

Equus said:

Funnily enough I was reading up on this only yesterday - I drifted onto it after reading about the Horten 229.

I was surprised to find that it was still flying - they always were tricky things to get right. It always stuck me that the basic layout must make the margins for pitch control fairly slender, at best, and longitudinal stability without a tailfin/rudder must be challenging?

Depends on the design - stability in pitch isn't an issue at all with a properly designed flying wing, with sweep and washout or reflex built into the profile. Trouble is, by adding these features, efficiency is reduced. Yaw stability is more tricky with a pure flying wing with no vertical surfaces, but it's not impossible to overcome.

[aeropilot]

Eric Mc said:

Sad to hear. It was restored to airworthy condition only a few years ago.

Nearly 30 years ago actually

I saw it flying in 1997 when in the USA.

It suffered an inflight engine fire about a decade or so ago, but was able to land OK, and thus had to undergo a long term repair, and it was after this repair that it took to the air again a few years ago.

[Eric Mc]

It was the latter restoration I was referring to.

[ChemicalChaos]

Confirmed this morning that the pilot has died and the aircraft was totally destroyed. In the overhead picture going around, there's no pieces of wreckage left bigger than a suitcase, so it was obviously a monumental crash

[MartG]

A lot of it was constructed from wood, so not surprising there isn't much left after a fire