Post amazingly cool pictures of aircraft (Volume 2)

[RizzoTheRat]

Interesting, I hadn't realised Northrop was that early, YB-35 first flew in 1946 apparently, I thought it was mid 50s.

[Eric Mc]

And he had been playing around with tailless designs as far back as 1929.

This is the X-216H which was his first "proof of concept" machine. Because Northrop was not sure how unstable it would be, he fitted twin booms and a tailplane, although he intended to get rid of these in later designs, which he did.



For economic reasons, Northrop spent the rest of the 1930s working, mainly as a consultant, on more conventional aircraft. He famously designed the wing of the Douglas DC-1/2 and 3 family and also worked on aircraft such as the SBD Dauntless and its ancestors.

By the early 1940s he was able to return to his pet project of designing tailless aircraft and built this, the N-1M of 1941 which is a true tailless aeroplane and flew quite successfully.

[yellowjack]

Flying Wing documentary from American TV, 1979/80...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui_o257DZE0

...with an interview with an elderly John K Northrop.

Poor sound quality, but interesting.

A close contemporary of Sydney Camm too. It seems that a number of aircraft designers of that era, born before the dawn of powered flight, were less constrained by the "rule book" of aircraft design and development because they were too busy drafting those rules. Their early careers both involved WW1 and immediate post-war aeroplanes, and both went on to play a part in creating what can only be described as groundbreaking iconic designs.

[Eric Mc]

I presume it's this one. I bought this as a VHS about 30 years ago -

[JuniorD]

AshVX220 said:

El stovey said:

Su 57 Felon

Having seen a few pictures of these and a couple of videos of them flying, they do look fantastic I think. However, the rudders do seem very small to me. I wonder if they affect flight control in a negative way.

Don't they have all-moving vertical stabilizers? Probably more than plenty of rudder authority in those.

[yellowjack]

Eric Mc said:

I presume it's this one. I bought this as a VHS about 30 years ago -

Quite possibly not, as it certainly pre-dates the 'Stealth Bomber'. Titled "The Flying Wing - What Happened To It", and theme/incidental music from the movie Star Wars is used liberally at the beginning, over the Northrop Company stock film of aircraft going back to 1948.


...although I'll wager it contains a lot of the same film and possibly interviews. I'd imagine your vhs tape is a more recent documentary, but without seeing it I couldn't really be certain.

Edited by yellowjack on Tuesday 5th November 15:39

[Eric Mc]

My video shows some footage of a very old Jack Northrop attending the roll out of the B2 in 1988.

[MB140]

Taken this bonfire night. Wish I could claim to have taken it but I’m not that talented. Credit goes to the station photography section. Think that is grumpy in the photo but I do struggle to remember all their names.

[lazy_b]

Some old 35mm slides of London airport in the 1960s. They were among the stuff I found when clearing out my late father's house a few years ago. I have no idea who took them; my best guess is one of my uncles, who lived in Hayes (close to Heathrow) at the time.









I'll upload some more if anyone is interested.

[Dr Jekyll]

lazy_b said:

I'll upload some more if anyone is interested.

Yes please!

Judging by the livery they are late 50's pictures, 1960 at the latest.

Edited by Dr Jekyll on Saturday 9th November 20:39

[lazy_b]

Dr Jekyll said:

Yes please!

OK, here goes:-
















Edited to add:
The scan of the Aer Lingus plane has cropped a bit off the picture; the slide shows its registration as EI-AJK - a Vickers Viscount, built in 1958.

Edited by lazy_b on Saturday 9th November 20:54

[hidetheelephants]

lazy_b said:

Looks like Danair Avro Yorks and BEA Viscounts.

[Caruso]

I can remember flying in Viscounts from Aberdeen to Shetland when crew changing for the rigs in the mid 90s. That must have been their last hurrah.

[AlexC1981]

lazy_b said:

What a delightfully fat looking aeroplane.

I looked it up, which led me to find this experimental Nene engined variant.

[Dr Jekyll]

AlexC1981 said:

lazy_b said:

What a delightfully fat looking aeroplane.

I looked it up, which led me to find this experimental Nene engined variant.

It's actually a development of the Wellington bomber, and also gave rise to this:

[AlexC1981]

Dr Jekyll said:

It's actually a development of the Wellington bomber, and also gave rise to this:

I wouldn't have recognised the Wellington as being related, but I see the similarity in the wings.

Whilst looking at google images this Avro Ashton popped up. Those twin engine nacelles...

[NM62]

lazy_b said:

OK, here goes:-
















Edited to add:
The scan of the Aer Lingus plane has cropped a bit off the picture; the slide shows its registration as EI-AJK - a Vickers Viscount, built in 1958.

Edited by lazy_b on Saturday 9th November 20:54

Thank you - remember my first visit to Heathrow and The Queens Building when it still looked like that and the old Hunting hanger - some of the aircraft were testers though!

[Ayahuasca]

Is there still a viewing area at Heathrow?

[NM62]

Ayahuasca said:

Is there still a viewing area at Heathrow?

I think the Queens building shut in the 80's (which was a shame), we used to use the central car parks or the perimeter parking (hotels, Myrtle Avenue etc) usually keeping out of the way of security, always dependent on the active runways / wind direction.

[FourWheelDrift]

NM62 said:

I think the Queens building shut in the 80's (which was a shame),

Is that the one (back then) that you could see both runways from, I remember as a child seeing a Viscount in front of me just arrived and taxiing in then turned around to the runway behind me to see Concorde take off.