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"Mysteriously, the U.S. Air Force ordered the flying-wing bombers on the assembly line scrapped." Nothing mysterious about it. The original YB-49 was a bear to
by CapitalistCartr 9y ago
"Mysteriously, the U.S. Air Force ordered the flying-wing bombers on the assembly line scrapped."
Nothing mysterious about it. The original YB-49 was a bear to control in flight and prone to crashing. It appears to be the nature of flying wings. The modern B-2 solves that by fly-by-wire, with computers between the pilot and control surfaces, keeping the plane stable.
- dingaling 9y agoBut why order them to be scrapped? That costs the Air Force more than just striking them from inventory, recovering the GFE and letting Northrop deal with them. Both the UK and Canadian governments issued similar orders ( TSR2 and CF-105 ) but in those cases it was spiteful destruction to prevent a subsequent government from reinstating the programmes.
- CapitalistCartr 9y agoSecrecy. The USAF routinely orders enough (?) spare parts for secret equipment, then scraps all the tooling. They love shredding/burning amything classified. Then the system gets extended to a longer life, and an expensive new store of spare parts gets rolled into upgrades. Full dosclosure: old guy who experienced enough of USAF to be a touch cynical about procurement.
- drharby 9y agoFormer acquisitions officer, that government spending puts a smirk on my face