The Edwards Diaries Test pilot Glen Edwards kept book on the
Flying Wing. Now we know what he thought of the airplane he died
in. - By Daniel Ford - Air & Space magazine, July 1997 (Page 2
of 5) By 1941 German troops occupied most of Europe's capitals
and appeared ready to capture London and Moscow next. Fearing it
might have to fight a transatlantic war, the U.S. Army wanted a
super-bomber that could carry 10,000 pounds of bombs to Germany
from North America. Northrop built the B-35, a Flying Wing,
while Consolidated Aircraft developed the B-36, conventional in
every respect but its size (see "B-36: Bomber at the
Crossroads," Apr./May 1996). Even the Wing was huge by the
standards of the day: It spanned 172 feet, weighed 100 tons, and
developed 12,000 horsepower from four huge engines. It was such
a giant leap from the N-1M that the Army also agreed to fund an
intermediate version. One-third the size of the big bomber, the
N-9M was supposed to be aerodynamically identical. So it was a
bad omen when the first