Aerial Oddities

Jack Northrop’s XP-79B jet fighter looked unusual,
but its method of attack was even more bizarre.

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By Jon Guttman

In the late stages of World War II, American bomber formations over Germany were occasionally attacked by a small, rocket-powered interceptor, the Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet. Fast as the Me-163s were, however, they were usually more spectacular than effective. Nevertheless, American aircrews must have marveled at the technology behind such an advanced-looking weapon–unaware that since 1942, something similar had been secretly under development in their own country.

The fighter that eventually became the Northrop XP-79B had an astonishing parallel development to the Me-163. It began in 1942 as a rocket-powered flying wing, but, in contrast to the Me-163, the American design was later adapted for jet power. Another difference between the XP-79B and its distant German cousin lay in their methods of attack. The Me-163 was meant to defend a faltering Third Reich with wing-mounted 30mm cannons or unguided rockets. The XP-79B’s main means of downing its adversaries is best expressed in its nickname–Flying Ram.

John K. (”Jack”) Northrop designed numerous advanced aircraft of conventional configuration, but he was fascinated by the flying-wing concept. He believed that such a pure airfoil surface would have the most efficient lifting capabilities. Also, the absence of a fuselage and tail unit would mean less drag to affect overall performance–as well as lower production costs. Shortly after designing Lockheed’s famed Vega series of monoplanes, Northrop formed a small company of his own, the Avion Corporation in Burbank, Calif. His first Flying Wing made a successful maiden flight from Burbank Airport in 1929. It was originally powered by a single tractor-mounted engine, and tail surfaces mounted on twin booms aft of the wing increased controllability. Northrop’s creation was modified to pusher-engine configuration before undergoing further flight testing at Muroc Dry Lake, Calif. Avion was renamed the Northrop Aircraft Corporation that same year and became part of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, an early superconglomerate that also included Boeing.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Northrop temporarily shelved his flying-wing dream to create some solid moneymakers, like the record-breaking Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta series of high-speed mail planes, and military designs such as the BT-1 and A-17. Then in 1939, Northrop broke away from United to form a completely independent firm, Northrop Aircraft Inc., and relocated to Hawthorne, Calif. He obtained subcontracts to manufacture other companies’ aircraft before gaining his first new contract for a design of his own–an order from Norway for 24 N-3PB seaplane patrol bombers.

Northrop felt confident enough to resume his flying-wing experiments in 1940. His next attempt, the N-1M, was the genuine article, dispensing with the boom-mounted tailplanes. It first took to the air on July 3 with Vance Breese at the controls. Breese reported that the N-1M handled well and seemed to require less horsepower than a conventional aircraft to achieve the performance he wrung out of it. The N-1M originally was powered by twin 65-hp Lycoming engines driving pusher propellers, but it underwent several changes in power plant and wingtip configuration in the course of more than 200 flights. Fortunately, the historic N-1M was preserved, and it is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum.

Northrop continued to experiment with flying wings like the N-9M and JB-1 during World War II. He also produced a fighter, the XP-56 Black Bullet (see “Aerial Oddities” in the May 1991 issue). This was a pusher-engine canard design that was almost all wing. (There was a tailless fuselage of sorts, from which dorsal and ventral vertical control surfaces protruded.) The XP-56 proved to be a failure, but that was compensated for by the brilliant success of Northrop’s more conventional twin-engine, twin-boom night fighter, the P-61 Black Widow.

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