Some cool precision grinding and manufacturing images:
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Yellow Northrop N1M flying wing airplane, in front of Northrop P-61C Black Widow and tail of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay”, et al
Image by Chris Devers
See more photographs of this, and the Wikipedia report.
Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Steven F. Udvar-Hazy | Northrop N1M:
John K. "Jack" Northrop’s dream of a flying wing became a reality on July 3, 1940, when his N-1M (Northrop Model 1 Mockup) 1st flew. One of the world’s preeminent aircraft designers and creator of the Lockheed Vega and Northrop Alpha, Northrop had experimented with flying wings for more than a decade, believing they would have much less drag and greater efficiency than standard styles. His 1929 flying wing, even though profitable, had twin tail booms and a traditional tail. In the N-1M he created a accurate flying wing.
Constructed of plywood around a tubular steel frame, the N-1M was powered by two 65-horsepower Lycoming engines, later replaced with two 120-horsepower Franklins. Even though its flying qualities have been marginal, the N-1M led to other designs, which includes the Northrop XB-35 and YB-49 strategic bombers and eventually the B-2 stealth bomber.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Northrop Aircraft Inc.
Date:
1940
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Wingspan: 11.6 m (38 ft)
Length: 5.2 m (17 ft)
Height: 1.5 m (5 ft)
Weight, gross: 1,814 kg (4,000 lb)
Top speed: 322 km/h (200 mph)
Engine: two Franklin 6AC264F2, 120 hp
All round: 72in. (182.9cm)
Other: 72 x 204 x 456in. (182.9 x 518.2 x 1158.2cm)
Supplies:
General: Plywood
Physical Description:
Twin engine flying wing: Wood, painted yellow.
Lengthy Description:
The N-1M (Northrop Model 1 Mockup) Flying Wing was a organic outgrowth of John K. "Jack" Northrop’s lifelong concern for an aerodynamically clean style in which all unnecessary drag caused by protruding engine nacelles, fuselage, and vertical and horizontal tail surfaces would be eliminated. Created in 1939 and 1940, the N-1lM was the initial pure all-wing airplane to be developed in the United States. Its design and style was the forerunner of the bigger all-wing XB-35 and YB-49 bomber! reconnaissance prototypes that Northrop hoped would win Air Force production contracts and at some point modify the shape of modern day aircraft.
Soon after serving apprenticeships with the Lockheed brothers and Donald Douglas in the early 1920s and designing the extremely successful and revolutionary Lockheed Vega in 1927, Northrop in the late 192Os turned his interest to all-wing aircraft. In 1928, he left the employ of Lockheed and organized the Avion Corporation a year later he created his first flying wing, which incorporated such revolutionary functions as all-metal, multicellular wing and stressed-skin building. Despite the fact that the 1929 flying wing was not a accurate all-wing style due to the fact it produced use of external handle surfaces and outrigger tail booms, it paved the way for the later N-1 M, which proved the basic soundness of Northrop’s thought for an all-wing aircraft. At the time, nevertheless, Northrop did not have the income to continue building the all-wing thought.
In 1939, Northrop formed his own aircraft business, Northrop Aircraft, Inc., and as a result was in a position to finance study and improvement of the N-1M. For help in designing the aircraft, Northrop enlisted the not aerodynamicist Dr. Theodore von Karman, who was at the time Director of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute Technology, and von Karman’s assistant, Dr. William R. Sears. Walter J. Cerny, Northrop’s assistant design and style chief, became the general supervisor for the project. To decide the flight characteristics of an all-wing style, Northrop Cerny performed comprehensive wind tunnel tests or flying wing models. Ultimately, the design and style of the N-1 M benefited from the new low-drag, boost stability NACA airfoils as properly as enhanced flaps spoilers, and other aerodynamic devices.
Right after a period of a year, the N-1M, nicknamed the "Jeep," emerged in July 1940 as a boomerang-shaped flying scale mockup built 01 wood and tubular steel with a wingspan of 38 feet a length of 17 feet, and a height of five feet. Pitch and roll handle was achieved by means of elevons on the trailing edge of the wing, which served the function of both elevator and aileron the location of the traditional rudder was a split flap device on the wing ideas these had been initially drooped downward for what was thought to be better directional stability but later straightened.
Controlled by rudder pedals, the split flaps, or "clamshells," could be opened to enhance the angle of glide or reduce airspeed and as a result act as air brakes. The center of gravity, wing sweep, arrangement of manage surfaces, and dihedral have been adjustable on the ground. To lower drag, the aircraft’s two 65-hp Lycoming -145 four-cylinder engines had been buried within the fuselage. These were later discovered to be lacking in sufficient power to sustain lift and were replaced by two 120-hp six-cylinder 6AC264F2 air-cooled Franklin engines.
The N-1M produced its initial test flight on July three, 1940, at Baker Dry Lake, California, with Vance Breese at the controls. Breese’s inaugural flight in the N-1 M was inauspicious. During a high-speed taxi run, the aircraft hit a rough spot in the dry lake bed, bounced into the air and accidentally became airborne for a handful of hundred yards. In the initial stages of flight testing, Breese reported that the aircraft could fly no larger than five feet off the ground and that flight could only be sustained by preserving a precise angle of attack. Von Karman was known as in and he solved the dilemma by making adjustments to the trailing edges of the elevons.
When Vance Breese left the N-1 M plan to test-fly the North American B-25, Moye Stephens, the Northrop organization secretary, took over testing of the aircraft. By November 1941, after possessing created some 28 flights, Stephens reported that when attempting to move the N-1M about its vertical axis, the aircraft had a tendency to oscillate in what is called a Dutch roll. That is, the aircraft’s wings alternately rose and fell tracing a circular path in a plane that lies between the horizontal and the vertical. Despite the fact that Stephens was fearful that the oscillations might not be controllable, he discovered that adjustments to the aircraft’s configuration cleared up the problem. In May possibly 1942, Stephens was replaced by John Myers, who served as test pilot on the project for about six months.
Although the precise period of flight testing for the N-1M is tough to figure out because both Northrop and Army Air Forces records have been lost, we do know that after its initial test flight at Baker Dry Lake, the aircraft was flown at Muroc and Rosamond Dry Lake, and at Hawthorne, California, and that late in the testing system (probably after January 1943) it was towed by a C-47 from Muroc to Hawthorne on its final flight with Myers as the pilot.
From its inception, the N-1M was plagued by poor performance since it was each overweight and chronically underpowered. In spite of these difficulties, Northrop convinced Common H. H. Hap" Arnold that the N-1 M was successful enough to serve as the forerunner of much more sophisticated flying wing concepts, and the aircraft did kind the basis for Northrop’s subsequent development of the N-M9 and of the larger and longer-ranged XB-35 and YB-49 flying wings.
In 1945, Northrop turned the N-1M more than to the Army Air Forces in the hope that it would someday be placed on exhibit. On July 12, 1946, the aircraft was delivered to Freeman Field, Indiana. A little over a month later, the N-1M was given to the National Air Museum and placed in storage at Park Ridge, Illinois. On Could 1,1949, the aircraft was placed in the Museum’s collection, and a handful of years later moved in packing crates to the Museum’s Preservation, Restoration and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland. In 1979, the restoration of the N-1M began, and by early 1983, some four decades soon after it had created its final flight, the aircraft had been returned to its original situation.
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Northrop P-61C Black Widow:
The P-61 Black Widow was the initial U.S. aircraft designed to locate and destroy enemy aircraft at evening and in bad climate, a feat produced possible by the use of on-board radar. The prototype first flew in 1942. P-61 combat operations began just following D-Day, June 6, 1944, when Black Widows flew deep into German airspace, bombing and strafing trains and road site visitors. Operations in the Pacific started at about the identical time. By the end of Globe War II, Black Widows had noticed combat in every theater and had destroyed 127 enemy aircraft and 18 German V-1 buzz bombs.
The Museum’s Black Widow, a P-61C-1-NO, was delivered to the Army Air Forces in July 1945. It participated in cold-weather tests, high-altitude drop tests, and in the National Thunderstorm Project, for which the prime turret was removed to make space for thunderstorm monitoring equipment.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Northrop Aircraft Inc.
Date:
1943
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
General: 450 x 1500cm, 10637kg, 2000cm (14ft 9 three/16in. x 49ft 2 9/16in., 23450.3lb., 65ft 7 3/8in.)
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay":
Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of Globe War II and the initial bomber to house its crew in pressurized compartments. Although designed to fight in the European theater, the B-29 discovered its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a selection of aerial weapons: standard bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.
On August 6, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the very first atomic weapon employed in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. 3 days later, Bockscar (on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Great Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on both missions.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Boeing Aircraft Co.
Martin Co., Omaha, Nebr.
Date:
1945
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
All round: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft six 5/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)
Materials:
Polished overall aluminum finish
Physical Description:
4-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and higher-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish all round, common late-Globe War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin 509th Composite Group markings painted in black "Enola Gay" in black, block letters on lower left nose.
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: British Hawker Hurricane, with P-38 Lightning and B-29 Enola Gay behind it
Image by Chris Devers
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIC:
Hawker Chief Designer Sydney Camm’s Hurricane ranks with the most important aircraft designs in military aviation history. Designed in the late 1930s, when monoplanes had been regarded as unstable and as well radical to be productive, the Hurricane was the initial British monoplane fighter and the very first British fighter to exceed 483 kilometers (300 miles) per hour in level flight. Hurricane pilots fought the Luftwaffe and helped win the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940.
This Mark IIC was built at the Langley factory, near what is now Heathrow Airport, early in 1944. It served as a instruction aircraft during the World War II in the Royal Air Force’s 41 OTU.
Donated by the Royal Air Force Museum
Manufacturer:
Hawker Aircraft Ltd.
Date:
1944
Nation of Origin:
United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Wingspan: 12.two m (40 ft)
Length: 9.eight m (32 ft 3 in)
Height: four m (13 ft)
Weight, empty: 2,624 kg (5,785 lb)
Weight, gross: three,951 kg (8,710 lb)
Best speed:538 km/h (334 mph)
Engine:Rolls-Royce Merlin XX, liquid-cooled in-line V, 1,300 hp
Armament:4 20 mm Hispano cannons
Ordnance:two 250-lb or two 500-lb bombs or eight three-in rockets
Supplies:
Fuselage: Steel tube with aircraft spruce forms and fabric, aluminum cowling
Wings: Stressed Skin Aluminum
Horizontal Stablizer: Anxiety Skin aluminum
Rudder: fabric covered aluminum
Manage Surfaces: fabric covered aluminum
Physical Description:
Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIC single seat, low wing monoplane ground attack fighter enclosed cockpit steel tube fuselage with aircraft spruce types and fabric, aluminum cowling, stressed skin aluminum wings and horizontal stablizer, fabric covered aluminum rudder and handle surfaces grey green camoflage top surface paint scheme with dove grey underside red and blue national roundel on upper wing surface and red, white, and blue roundel reduced wing surface red, white, blue, and yellow roundel fuselage sides red, white and blue tail flash Rolls-Royce Merlin XX, liquid cooled V-12, 1,280 horsepower engine Armament, four: 20mm Hispano cannons.
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay":
Boeing’s B-29 Superfortress was the most sophisticated propeller-driven bomber of World War II and the initial bomber to home its crew in pressurized compartments. Although created to fight in the European theater, the B-29 identified its niche on the other side of the globe. In the Pacific, B-29s delivered a selection of aerial weapons: conventional bombs, incendiary bombs, mines, and two nuclear weapons.
On August six, 1945, this Martin-built B-29-45-MO dropped the 1st atomic weapon utilised in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. 3 days later, Bockscar (on show at the U.S. Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio) dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Enola Gay flew as the advance weather reconnaissance aircraft that day. A third B-29, The Wonderful Artiste, flew as an observation aircraft on each missions.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Boeing Aircraft Co.
Martin Co., Omaha, Nebr.
Date:
1945
Nation of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 900 x 3020cm, 32580kg, 4300cm (29ft 6 five/16in. x 99ft 1in., 71825.9lb., 141ft 15/16in.)
Components:
Polished general aluminum finish
Physical Description:
4-engine heavy bomber with semi-monoqoque fuselage and high-aspect ratio wings. Polished aluminum finish overall, standard late-Planet War II Army Air Forces insignia on wings and aft fuselage and serial number on vertical fin 509th Composite Group markings painted in black "Enola Gay" in black, block letters on reduce left nose.
• • • • •
Quoting Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Lockheed P-38J-10-LO Lightning:
In the P-38 Lockheed engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson and his team of designers created a single of the most productive twin-engine fighters ever flown by any nation. From 1942 to 1945, U. S. Army Air Forces pilots flew P-38s more than Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific, and from the frozen Aleutian Islands to the sun-baked deserts of North Africa. Lightning pilots in the Pacific theater downed a lot more Japanese aircraft than pilots flying any other Allied warplane.
Maj. Richard I. Bong, America’s top fighter ace, flew this P-38J-ten-LO on April 16, 1945, at Wright Field, Ohio, to evaluate an experimental approach of interconnecting the movement of the throttle and propeller control levers. However, his proper engine exploded in flight ahead of he could conduct the experiment.
Transferred from the United States Air Force.
Manufacturer:
Lockheed Aircraft Business
Date:
1943
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
All round: 390 x 1170cm, 6345kg, 1580cm (12ft 9 9/16in. x 38ft 4 5/8in., 13988.2lb., 51ft ten 1/16in.)
Materials:
All-metal
Physical Description:
Twin-tail boom and twin-engine fighter tricycle landing gear.