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From: Steve.Hix@Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Hix)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: YF-22 vs. YF-23, Why?
Message-ID: <1991May29.011129.7003@amd.com>
Date: 24 May 91 18:20:42 GMT
References: <1991May18.050933.10816@amd.com> <1991May23.062921.17471@amd.com> <1991May24.030604.9489@amd.com>
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From: Steve.Hix@Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Hix)


jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov writes:
>wb9omc@ee.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick) writes...
>>	While the B36 wasn't the worst plane in the world, quite a
>>few authors claim that the B49 would have been a better plane from
>>several viewpoints, not the least of which were handling characteristics,
>
>Hmm.  Could you provide references?  What I heard was that the B-49 was 
>killed in part because of controllability problems.  

The initial version of the YB-49 was a less than ideal bombing platform,
being a little sensitive in pitch, mostly.  After it was equipped with one
of the first artificial stability systems (from Honeywell), it was something
else entirely.

The B-35/49 programs suffered from being stretched out over too long a period
of years.  The B-35 had right around 10,000 miles unrefuelled range...swapping
props for the early jet engines drastically reduced its range.  It didn't help
that we were at the early ramp up of jet technology, either.  In just a very
few years, new powerplants came out with better thrust/weight numbers, better
specific fuel consumption and all the rest.

>Your statements about "sabotage" in the B-49 program are also quite
>provocative and, if true, would be interesting to hear in further detail.

The competition between the B-36 and B-49 was more political than anything
else.  And the cancelling of the B-49 guaranteed that it would be a long
time before anyone else tried the flying wing for a production aircraft.