Jack Northrop’s Flying Wings: Related Stories and Resources
The Related Stories and Resources page is where you can find additional material related to the essay Jack Northrop’s Flying Wings by Terence C. Gannon. You can also listen to the original essay on your favourite podcasting platform where it appeared as part of the Not There Yet podcast narrated by the author. Items below appear in reverse chronological order based on the date of original publication.
Airbus unveils ‘blended wing body’ plane design after secret flight tests Reuters, February 10, 2020 reported by Tim Hepher and edited by Gerry Doyl. Airbus has been secretly testing a 3.2 metre span scale model of their ‘blended wing’ aircraft. It seems to have inherited at least some DNA from Jack Northrop’s designs. Read the entire Reuters article.
B-2 Spirit: The $2 billion flying wing CNN Style, January 27, 2020 by Jacopo Prisco. We absolutely love the fact that CNN chose to feature this article in their Style section. Not Military. Not Aviation. Style. We couldn’t agree more. A recently updated, luxuriously long article which is well worth a read.
Horten HX-2 Flying Wing To Make U.S. Debut At Oshkosh AVweb, June 4, 2019 by Marc Cook. The EAA’s AirVenture event is now a mandatory stop for any new aircraft hoping to make a splash in the marketplace. As such, the Horten HX-2 mentioned at the conclusion of Jack Northrop’s Flying Wings is set to make its first, high profile public appearance at the event coming up on July 22nd through 28th at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We believe if Jack Northrop were alive, he would be both pleased and proud.
KLM and TU Delft join forces to make aviation more sustainable TU Delft, June 2, 2019. We can’t help but notice the family resemblance between this newly proposed aircraft from TU Delft in the Netherlands and the flying wing designs of Jack Northrop. One of the major differences is the amount of sweep of the wing which appears to be a clever means of making the aircraft compatible with existing airport facilities. But Northrop’s goal of more efficient flight by eliminating a separate fuselage and tail is right there in the justification for the new design. We’ll be keeping track of this interesting project.
Jack Northrop and the Flying Wing Air Force Magazine (via NorthropGrumman), February, 2017 by John T. Correll. An excellent article which originally appeared in Air Force Magazine. It was then picked up by NorthropGrumman which added some great, original black and white photos and used the article as part of their coverage of the B-21 Raider which is currently in development.
Air Force Cancels Flying Wing Plan The Oakland Tribune, October 30th, 1949. We find it interesting how time can augment or diminish a story. An observer from here in the 21st century might think the cancellation of Jack Northrop’s flying wing would be headline news. Back in 1949, however, it rated just a couple of column inches. It was on the front page, but well below the fold. Incidentially, while the title of the article — reproduced faithfully here — looks more-or-less correct, it may be the editors intended it to be Air Force Cancels Flying Wing Plane? We’ll never know.
