Just when the Japanese were bidding for their own jet fighters, the Dragon Soul Ordnance Complex, which was far away in Sweden, finally completed the test flight of the flying wing bomber and put this unique bomber into mass production. This time, China ordered 50 flying-wing bombers, and Britain, France, the Soviet Union, the United States and other major countries also ordered small quantities.

This kind of flying-wing bomber was named the Holden H-1 bomber, Xiao Weiguo still named the name of the flying-wing bomber after the Holden brothers, which was returned to them, after all, the Holden brothers were also the pioneers of flying-wing aircraft in history. Moreover, this kind of flying-wing bomber was also developed under the auspices of the Horton brothers, of course, the key design of my key design was proposed by Xiao Weiguo.

Horton H-1 bomber is a new type of aerodynamic layout of the bomber, in fact, there is a person in history among the Americans who is particularly keen on flying wings, and built a series of test aircraft, of course, the success of flying wings will not be until decades later, the United States B2 ghost stealth bomber is the most powerful and mysterious bomber in the world!

Back in 1923, Jack? Northrop had strong faith in the wings. The flying wing eliminated the fuselage and tail, and all the load and handling systems were installed inside the wing, which was the next major advance in aviation history. In order to realize the idea of flying wings, Jack? Northrop built several small-scale demonstrators for concept evaluation. One of them was the N1M flying wing demonstrator, which made its first flight on July 3, 1940.

On April 11, 1941, the U.S. Army Aviation issued a request for proposals for a new type of bomber, requiring this high-altitude bomber to be able to carry 4,500 kg of bombs and fly up to 16,000 kilometers, with a maximum speed of 7,620 meters to 724 km/h, a cruising speed of 440 km/h, a practical ceiling of 13,710 meters, and a maximum range of 19,300 kilometers (cruising at an altitude of 7,620 meters). Finally, the scheme of the United Aircraft Corporation and the Boeing Aircraft Corporation finally went into preliminary design, of which the scheme of the United Company eventually became the B-36. as part of the project. The military also awarded Northrop a contract on May 27, 1941, to study the flying wing scheme. It is required that the flying wing program can hang 1 ton of bombs at an altitude of 7,620 meters and fly 12,870 kilometers, with a cruising speed of 402 kilometers per hour, a practical ceiling of 12,190 meters, and a bomb load of 4,500 kilograms, which is lower than the proposal for proposals in April.

In August 1941, Northrop received more ambitious performance requests. In September 1941, Assistant Secretary of the Army Robert ? Levitt, Henry? General H. Arnold and Oliver? Admiral P. Eccles after visiting the Northrop plant. The Army launched the Flying Wing Bomber Project, and on October 30, 1941, a formal contract was signed, which included payment for engineering data, model testing, and the construction of a 1/3 scale N9M demonstrator.

The detailed design of the XB-35 began in early 1942, which was about the same time as the design of the Pterodactyl bomber began, but the Pterodactyl bomber was significantly faster than the XB-35! On July 5, 1942, the full-size model of the XB-35 passed the audit! To support the project, Northrop built four N-9M flying wing demonstrators with a wingspan of 18.29 meters. The aircraft, which is about one-third the size of the B-35, was used to verify the feasibility of the overall concept and to train pilots on how to fly the wing. The N9M is a mixed wood and metal structure with welded steel pipes in the central section. The fuselage is covered with wood and metal skin. The outer segments are wood-skinned, but have metal slits and wingtips. The first N-9M made its maiden flight on December 27, 1942, and the aircraft crashed on May 19, 1943, killing the pilot.

Obviously, the Dragon Soul Ordnance Complex is much faster than the Northrop in the design and development of flying wing bombers, which is of course due to the presence of Xiao Weiguo, a future ordnance expert! The Dragon Soul Ordnance Consortium is directly manufacturing prototypes, while Northrop is still experimenting with small demonstrators.

Northrop's four N-9M demonstrators were later called N-9M-1, N-9M-2, N-9M-A, and N-9M-B, respectively. The N-9M was initially fitted with two 290-horsepower Menask's C65-4 six-cylinder air-cooled engines, which drove two pairs of two-bladed pusher propellers through an extended shaft with a hydraulic coupler. The cooling air for the engine comes from a large air intake under the wing. The N-9M-B was later replaced with two 400-horsepower Franklin air-cooled engines. The N-9M can carry one pilot and one passenger. All sit under a single bubble canopy. The aircraft is equipped with a front three-point retractable landing gear and is also equipped with an anti-scuff tail wheel. The experience gained by the N-9M in the design was borrowed by the XB-35.

But even if it's a validator. The test flight process was also very unsmooth. This is all due to the lack of stability of the flight control of the flying-wing aircraft. The Pterodactyl bomber is different from the flying wing demonstrator of the American Northroop spectrum, it not only borrows from the shape design of the later B2 bomber in the United States, adopts the W-wing, but also uses a more advanced double-cracked flap configuration, and has reached a high degree of flight control stability, although there is no computer and fly-by-wire flight control system at this time. But it was enough for the Pterodactyl bombers to fly freely at high altitude and take off and land normally.

In fact, the reason for the failure of the N-9M and XB-35 demonstrators of the American company Northrop is not only because of the aerodynamic control problems of the flying wing. What's more, the XB-35's complex coaxial counter-rotating propeller caused a lot of problems and had to be grounded for modification. By the middle of 1948, the B-35 with a piston engine was seriously outdated. The project was doomed. The propeller bomber was too slow in the jet age, and at that time it did not solve the problem of flight stability of the flying wing, and the B-35 could not be used as a good bombing or photographic platform.

The Holden H-1 bomber, nicknamed the Wraith, also uses a layout of four propellers to propel forward behind the fuselage, but with the Wind Thunder turboprop engine, it does not have the problems of the XB-35.

At the time when the Horton H-1 bomber was put into mass production, the development of the Horton H-2 flying wing bomber with a turbofan engine began again. This is a larger flying-wing bomber, which can be called a real strategic bomber, with a take-off weight of more than 100 tons and a range of 10,000 kilometers. Much larger and longer range than the Horton H-1 bomber. This is all due to the introduction of a new turbofan engine. (To be continued.) )