The 1929 Flying Wing

Usage
 

Experimenta l

Fuselage Construction

Metal
 

Wing Construction
 

Metal, Muticellular Stressed Skin

Capacity
 

One/Two
 

Motor type
 

One 90 Hp 4 Cylinder Menasco (Tractor)

Motor type
 

One Cirrus (Pusher)
 

Span
 

30 ft. 6 in.
 

Length
 

20 ft.
 

Height
 

5 ft.
 

Wing Area
 

184 ft2 (17 m2)
 

Aspect Ratio
 

5.12:1
 

Pilot position
 

Seated
 
Jack Northrop formed the Avion Company after leaving Lockheed in mid 1928. Avion, located in Burbank, was to permit jack to devote his time to developing new airplanes. One of the first airplanes to roll off the Avion line was the Northrop Alpha. The Alpha featured the then revolutionary monocoque sheet metal structure, which used stress aluminum skin to carry structural loads, instead of using a much heavier conventional frame to do the same job.

In 1929, Avion built an almost all-wing aircraft. It wasn't quite a flying wing, as there were conventional tail surfaces located on booms behind the wing. Being his first flying wing project, Northrop had decided to go the belt-and -suspenders route for adequate control and safety.

The wingspan was 30' 6", and featured a 90 horsepower Monasco four-cylinder air-cooled engine buried inside the wing.

The first flight occurred at Muroc Dry lake (Now Edwards Air Force Base) in 1929. The design quickly proved that it had easy handling qualities and performed extremely well compared to other planes in the same power rating.

The airplane was modified several times, and in various configurations it had a pusher/tractor propellor, and one/two seats.

I cannot find any details on what became of the craft.

flying_wing_1_sm
Pusher Configuration in Flight

flying_wing_2_sm
Tractor Configuration

jack_northrop_and_flying_wing_1_sm
Jack Northrop and the Flying Wing