And about time too....

[Maverick]

G'day Gang,

Italeri is finally re-releasing Northrop's first big flying wing.

http://www.cybermodeler.com/news/news080722b.shtml

Not before time if you ask me.

Regards,

Mav

[LemonJello]

That right there just might be the first 1/72 scale airplane that I buy.  I want one!

[Shasper]

Ex AMT, if my theology is correct

Shas

[Maverick]

Shas,

I'd hazard a guess at you're being correct, given they released the Buff as well.  Not two aircraft you'd really think of being brand new moulds.

Regards,

Mav

[Mike Wren]

the best thing about it is that it's in a box half the size as the AMT one I have... half the size=twice as many for the stash!

[John Howling Mouse]

Hmmmm....now what fuselage can I stick back in the middle of this big wing?  1:72 B-36.  Modified 747 1:144 scale?  1:48 B-24?

[kitnut617]

I've got a 1/72 C-141 vacuform kit which comes with two complete fuselages, one for the A and the other for a B version.  As I can only build one or the other, an XB-35 wing might looked pretty wild on the one I don't build.  The C-141 has the same diameter fuselage as a C-130.

With the connection that Jack Northrop had with Lockheed it could really throw a loop into a few of the anal people we know about.

[Mossie]

You know what, I just going to suggest that Baz didn't bother with a fuse & just stuck the wings together to make a Super-YB-35 in 1/144 scale.

[elmayerle]

With the connection that Jack Northrop had with Lockheed it could really throw a loop into a few of the anal people we know about.

I think you could get quite a debate on that subject.  It could be argued that he had a much stronger connection with Douglas than he did with Lockheed, in any incarnation (though there are some fascinating anecdotes about his work for them in "The Early Lockheeds").  Considering that the specs for the DC-1/2/3 all contain direct references to the Jack Northrop's Alpha as an example of the technology/approach to be used and that the SBD is a direct descendent of the Bt-2/a-17 family, and that Douglas-El Sguendo was originally the second company founded by Jack Northrop (the first having been bought by Boeing) which had significant Douglas investment (Jack sold out to them when he decided he wanted a company all his own and formed the direct ancestor of what's now the NOrthrop part of Northrop-Grumman as well as facilities in Hawthorne now owned by Vought).

As an aside, I find it interesting that the first two Chief Aerodynamcists Lockheed had both left to form their own companies, Jack Northrop and Gerald Vultee.

[kitnut617]

Now that's interesting Evan,  I hadn't realised that he was that close to Douglas.  Thanks for the info.  Do you have a good book you can recommend about Jack Northrop?

[elmayerle]

I don't know that there'a a good one currently available, more's the pity.  "The Early Lockheeds" nicely covers his time with them (his inspired 1919 approach to a smoke tunnel to study flow around struts and joins is a classic piece of work in my book).  Beyond that, there's, if it's still available, "Norhtrop: A History" from Northrop itself, written in the 1970s, it still has a fair perspective on Jack and the work done while he was still associated with the company.  I don't remember the exact title, but there was one that came out in the 1980s covering Jack Northrop's career up through when he left the last company he founded to save it from distruction at the hands of his enemies in the US Government (the same fine folks (Stuart Symington, I believe - who has later denied this, but not under oath) who tired to force him to merge with Convair and then killed the flying wing when he wouldn't - and, yes, the writer of the book in question was there so we have more than Jack's word on that).  That has some tidbits I hadn't known, such as Northrop setting up a factory in south-central LA both to help the people there and to build B-17 nacelles he had the sub-contract for.