Inside the Flying Wing (Jan, 1947) Inside the Flying Wing
COMPLETELY enclosed within the outer skin of the XB-35 there is
a many-sided room that houses the 15-man crew. Pressurized for
high altitudes and large enough to provide sleeping
accommodations for six, it is the heart of the Flying Wing.
Around this center of operations is a mass of trusswork
resembling a bridge-a simpler structure than that of a
conventional airplane because the craft’s weight is distributed
throughout the wing and needs no “beefing up” around a fuselage.
The pictures on this and the following page, taken at the
Northrop Aircraft plant in California, show details of the crew
nacelle and the massive 172-foot framework in which it nestles.