What if Jack Northrup traveled to Britain?

[kerick]

I'm considering a couple of slightly swept vertical fins just inboard of the ailerons. I might cut them from the horizontal stabilizers from the kit. I tried a few other kit parts and it wasn't working.

[Rick Lowe]

Sounds sensible, but would it be 'A Northrop Thing'?

[kerick]

The jet powered YB-49 had four fins. The prop powered YB-35 had none so either way in that regard. I would just have to make the fins look similar to the wing.

[NARSES2]

The jet powered YB-49 had four fins. The prop powered YB-35 had none so either way in that regard. I would just have to make the fins look similar to the wing.

Indeed and as the YB-49 was a later development, I'd go with the fins 

I've always liked flying wings ever since I saw that one in the 1953 film "War of the Worlds"

[PR19_Kit]

The XB-35's prop fairings acted as the 'fins' for that airframe, but swapping the radials for jets mean there was NO lateral 'fin' area at all, thus the real fins on the YB-49.

Having inherited the late, and much missed, Mike McEvoy's Northrop bomber collection I can compare them side by side. 

[kerick]

I've been spending some time building landing gear from spare parts yesterday and today. I wish it wasn't so stinking cold in the basement where my work desk is. Let's just say the refrigerator down there doesn't run much.

[steelpillow]

Sounds sensible, but would it be 'A Northrop Thing'?

Have to say, Northrop is a bit of a stretch here. Short Bros. had proposed the PD.1 tailless swept-wing V-bomber, based on GTR Hill's SB.4 Sherpa's tailless aeroisoclinic swept wing. Meanwhile the Avro Vulcan had very little more fuselage than this one, while both their delta and Handley Page's crescent were based on German research not Northrop's. Reimar Horten had also been sponsored by the Brits for a while after the war but was unable to get work here.
Jack N. had indeed come to the UK in 1947 and delivered a lecture to the RAeS (copies available on request). But his ideas were nowhere near as sophisticated as this, and anyway the UK had a robust tradition of its own, to wit ignoring its homegrown Hill and going German instead (while refusing to employ said German designers).
So, here in Whiffland, what are we to make of all this? We could just rip it all up and reinstate the well-known Mr. N. Or we could insinuate a V-Bomber Mk II fleet upgrade, with say Hill cherry-picking the best of breed and adding some stealth for good measure.
But this has such a contemporary feel with its BWB-style compound near-delta, maybe it's just B.Ae's current stealth reconnaissance-bomber?

Any which way, I love it. Has a real, "Yeah, that would do the biz" feel to it.

[kerick]

History can be so complicated. Let's say he got some heads to start thinking together instead of arguing.

[Rick Lowe]

Has a real, "Yeah, that would do the biz" feel to it.

I like that concept. 

History can be so complicated. Let's say he got some heads to start thinking together instead of arguing.

And that one. too! 

[steelpillow]

Well, slap me round the face with a wet kipper if it ain't th' truth! One of the things I love about whiffs is how often the come closer to the truth than we know. The above has jogged my memory.

Before the war, Gustave Lachmann (a German immigrant) had developed the Handley Page Manx tailless research plane. Come 1947, the year of Jack Northrop's visit, he was rustling up preliminary designs for the Type 80, which would become the Victor. Like his Manx it was tailless, and only grew that bit later (due to stability problems) after Lee and Stafford had taken over. Lachmann would surely have known of Northrop's lecture, and may well have attended it.

Back in Whiffland, all he had to do was have a business dinner with Messrs. Northrop and Hill, and be persuaded to pursue his original concept and call on Hill's expertise to solve the stability issues. I reckon the resulting design programme took some time, and this 'ere appeared as the Victor's somewhat stealthier replacement.

I do hope that's not too complicated.

[smeds]

Dumb question, what is "Aves" and the red/brown filler you use please?

[kerick]

Well, slap me round the face with a wet kipper if it ain't th' truth! One of the things I love about whiffs is how often the come closer to the truth than we know. The above has jogged my memory.

Before the war, Gustave Lachmann (a German immigrant) had developed the Handley Page Manx tailless research plane. Come 1947, the year of Jack Northrop's visit, he was rustling up preliminary designs for the Type 80, which would become the Victor. Like his Manx it was tailless, and only grew that bit later (due to stability problems) after Lee and Stafford had taken over. Lachmann would surely have known of Northrop's lecture, and may well have attended it.

Back in Whiffland, all he had to do was have a business dinner with Messrs. Northrop and Hill, and be persuaded to pursue his original concept and call on Hill's expertise to solve the stability issues. I reckon the resulting design programme took some time, and this 'ere appeared as the Victor's somewhat stealthier replacement.

I do hope that's not too complicated.

Sounds like the lead in for the backstory to me. Just complicated enough to be believable.

Dumb question, what is "Aves" and the red/brown filler you use please?

Aves epoxie sculpt. A two part fifty/fifty mix that works well for me. Available on line or at some craft stores.
The putty is Bondo spot putty. Not the two part gallon can but the tube for filling small imperfections. There are local brands of basically the same stuff. It doesn't shrink and sands well.

[Gondor]

Northrop and Horten walk into a bar......

Where the Jukebox is playing a Charlie Drake song....

"My Boomerang Won't come back...."

 

Gondor

[NARSES2]

Northrop and Horten walk into a bar......

Where the Jukebox is playing a Charlie Drake song....

"My Boomerang Won't come back...."

 

Gondor

       Showing my age a bit