Northrop XP-79B Flying Ram

[Nico]

Fearing to ignore a previous tread (or thread?), I activated the search function for 'XP-79B' but I found only an 'Horton' or Horten project. Moreover, XP-79B is a secret project or a prototype? And it is 'early' as developed during WW II, or modern?
So, I opted for 'Aerospace' to show what I think is the only know colour and moving picture of the ill-fated Northrop XP-79B Flying Ram interceptor.
During the Seventies I developed some method to photograph the screen of my TV set and casually, on a trailer or a teaser of a decumentary, I saw very few seconds of un aircraft rolling on the dry lakebed of Muroc: it was, no doubt, the XP-79B some instant before its only flight.
Nico

 

[Stargazer]

Cool find! I would love to see the video of this...

 

[Nik]

I still shudder when I think of those young top-guns emptying their cannon on nuke-laden Bears, then going in for the kill...

 

[Orionblamblam]

I still shudder when I think of those young top-guns emptying their cannon on nuke-laden Bears

Well, we all knew that the right to arm bears would eventually come back to haunt us.

 

[Ray]

From what I have read, it was never intended as a 'Ram'.

 

[edwest4]

It was to be a ram.

"At this juncture the XP-79B acquired a new mission and a new nickname, the Flying Ram. Original specifications for the XP-79 do not mention ramming enemy aircraft as a mission requirement, but pilots associated with the MX-324 program recall that ramming was indeed the primary mission of the XP-79B. InJack Northrop's words, "It was designed as a projectile, with the thought that it could be used to intercept and knock wings or tails off other airplanes. Rather than shooting at them, this airplane was going to slice sections off the other airplanes to destroy them."


Source: http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/flying%20wings/northrop%20war.htm





Ed