Northrop NS-9 Flying Wing
(Martin 205)

USAAF designation: Martin B-35-MA Flying Wing

Engines: 4 x 3000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major

Significant dates: ordered June 1943; cancelled May 1944

The multitude of requirements generated by World War II complicated from the start the Army Air Forces' many tasks. While all sorts of weapons were urgently needed, shortages of material and manpower resources could not be immediately resolved. National priorities, regardless of their careful selection, hampered the timely progression of some aircraft programs and nearly stopped the development of crucial experimental projects. Two cases in point were the Convair B-36 and the Northrop B-35, the latter presenting the AAF with a peculiar situation. Northrop, located in Hawthorne, California, while sharing the industry's shortage of engineers, also lacked adequate production facilities. The Materiel Command's efforts to borrow engineers from other West Coast manufacturers to assist the young corporation had been totally unsuccessful, and the possibility of enlarging the Hawthorne plant was non-existent.

By the end of 1942, it seemed that Northrop's problem was solved as negotiations, instigated by the AAF, were being concluded between Northrop, Incorporated, and the Glenn L. Martin Company. In short, Northrop had indicated that it would be satisfied to fabricate only the experimental XB-35s and prototype YB-35s. The Martin production contract for 400 B-33 "Super Marauder" bombers had been canceled on 25 November, and this actually meant that the B-35 could be produced, in lieu of the deficient B-33, at Martin's spacious Baltimore plant in Maryland. This change would also allow Northrop and the AAF to benefit from Martin's engineering talent and experience in the design of large, long range transport airplanes. But this optimistic outlook was to prove deceptive. A contract for 200 B-35s was initially planned in November of 1942, and was formally issued on June 30, 1943 by Contract W535-ac-24555, which called for delivery of the first "flying wing" by June 1945. The first production B-35 was to be delivered by June of 1945.

The defensive armament was to consist of a set of remotely-controlled barbettes. A quartet of 0.50-inch machine guns were housed inside each of dorsal and ventral barbettes that were mounted on the tailcone along the wing's centerline. Four 0.50-inch machine guns were installed in the rear of the tailcone. A pair of 0.50-in machine guns were installed in each of four barbettes mounted on the wing outboard of the outermost engines, one above and one below the wing. The guns were remotely sighted by gunners sitting in stations in a bubble in the upper rear part of the tailcone, in a ventral station, and in a position in the pilot's bubble immediately behind the pilot's seat. The bombs were carried internally in eight individual bomb bays cut into the under surface of the wing outboard of the main crew cabin.

Unfortunately, Martin had already begun to lose personnel to the draft before the contract was signed. In mid 1943, projected delivery rates were reduced by 50 percent, and Martin pointed out that changes requested by Northrop amplified the many risks shrouding the aircraft's manufacture. In August, Martin reiterated its concern for the shortage of engineers and the project's uncertainties, adding that perhaps further production expenditures should be postponed. By March 1944, the Baltimore plant still lacked tooling, and Martin had rescheduled delivery of the first B-35 to 1947. Not surprisingly, the AAF's headquarters canceled the Martin production contract on 24 May 1944.

The decision, however, did not spell the end of the "flying wing." In November, the Air Technical Service Command's Engineering Division reported that the XB-35 project seemed worthwhile "even if the B-35 never becomes operational". By mid-1948 the piston-engined B-35 was definitely outdated, and the program was clearly doomed. A propeller-driven aircraft was simply much too slow for the era of jet propulsion, and the flying wing as it then existed was much too unstable to make a good bombing or camera platform. Nevertheless, the Air Force did not want to throw in the towel completely after having spent so much money, and for a while considered studying the feasibility of adapting the B-35 for the air-refuelling role, but this was not pursued any further. The B-35 program was therefore continued specifically to gather test data on flying wings.

Population: none built [200 ordered as 43-35126/35325]

Specs: similar to XB-35

Crew/passengers: 9 (plus space for 6 relief crewmen)