What if the US Air Force decided to adopt the Northrop B-49 Flying Wing as it's first Intercontinental Strategic Bomber instead of the more conventional Convair B-36 Peacemaker.
The B-49 IIRC was an absolute horror to fly and flying wings only really became viable with fly by wire and much more advanced tech. Plus the 49 will have the same problems as overheating as the 36 with its pusher engines. Not sure on the performance difference between the two.
Not sure on the performance difference between the two.
There's going to be more accidents. Those flying wings really do need computerized controls, due to inherent instability. Might make the USSR do the same thing, and that might be interesting
The main problem was that the B-35's wing was designed for much lower airspeeds than what jets could push the thing to. And as the primary advantage of jet power for aircraft then was the higher speeds they availed, that meant a jet engined B-35/ B-49 was inherently limited. Solving that would've meant a substantial redesign of the entire aircraft to come up with a faster wing.
Then there's the stability problem. Jack Northrop claimed he had fixes in the works that'd have solved those problems. But, again, it was a time and money thing that was competing against Convair and Boeing who were offering more conventional designs that had far less risk, far more growth potential, and were also being capable of being manufactured in far, far greater numbers than Northrop could dream of.
That last point is an oft overlooked one when it comes to all this. The Air Force was looking at having to fight World War Three against the Soviets in the very near term and they needed to be able to produce heavy aircraft in the same numbers as in WWII. That is, by the tens of thousands.
Northrop simply didn't have the physical plant nor the corporate expertise to be able to handle such a production volume. Yes, they could've come up with it. Eventually. But that was more time & money again and the Air Force didn't figure the advantages of the Flying Wing warrented expending it.
Oh, and the airframe itself would've had a hard time fitting the huge size of the early nukes as well.
Only the B36 bomber could carry and drop the huge primitive early H bombs. As the big city buster H bombs got smaller and smaller then the later B52 could carry them.
What if the US Air Force decided to adopt the Northrop B-49 Flying Wing as its first Intercontinental Strategic Bomber instead of the more conventional Convair B-36 Peacemaker.
Not to hijack the thread, but what was expected survivability of the B-36? Seems like it would be easy pickings for Soviet fighters. Especially when they stripped off the defensive guns.
Better Question I should say, what if the B-49 just entered service.View attachment 404865 View attachment 404866
What if the US Air Force decided to adopt the Northrop B-49 Flying Wing as it's first Intercontinental Strategic Bomber instead of the more conventional Convair B-36 Peacemaker.
Makes the R.A.F's Lincolns look a trifle outdated, though they were the same vintage.Some interesting video on the B-36