WI Flying Wings were put intro production

Every now and then I read how Flying Wings were superior to conventional aircraft. So how come they never caught on? Were there disadvantages, that are never mentioned?
 

CalBear

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Every now and then I read how Flying Wings were superior to conventional aircraft. So how come they never caught on? Were there disadvantages, that are never mentioned?

Besides the fact that they were dynamically unstable (i.e. tended to go into multi-axes spins and crash) before the advent of "fly by wire"?
 
Lockheed

Besides the fact that they were dynamically unstable (i.e. tended to go into multi-axes spins and crash) before the advent of "fly by wire"?

Yeah, I think that's why one of the early one's crashed in the 1940's. That was when Lockheed was really pushing them and there was only two test planes and one crashed.
 
Windows

No windows are a problem when it comes to comercial airrtravel (or so they say).

I recall seeing windows on some of the designs that Lockheed had back in the 1940's, but since the one crashed and then the USAF dropped it the civilian versions never got any further than the planning stages.
 
No windows are a problem when it comes to comercial airrtravel (or so they say).

The Northrup pictures and mock ups for the passenger carrying Flying Winds does provide for a large series of windows across the leading edge of the wing to both sides of the cockpit. When the plane was cruising at altitude passengers would walk to the front of the main cabins peer out ahead. At the rear of the place, between the engines there was a tiered multi-seat 'blister' or 'stinger' of glass that would let passengers look aft and view the landscape as it flew past. I think it was called 'the theater of the sky' or something like that.
 
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