The Most Radical Fighter Experiment of WW2 - Northrop XP-56: The Black Bullet

Video from the channel Dark Skies about Northrop, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 9:01. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Documentary about the Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet. It was a World War II interceptor fighter prototype, almost a flying wing with a pusher propeller, which never reached production.

According to the video, in July 1939 the US Army opened a competition for advanced high-performance fighters. Jack Northrop had spent a decade studying the flying wing. He submitted a pusher design with coaxial contra-rotating propellers and won a prototype contract on 26 September 1940, alongside other unconventional designs such as the Curtiss XP-55. After the Pratt & Whitney X-1800 engine was cancelled, the heavier, bulkier R-2800 Double Wasp radial had to be fitted instead. Because of aluminium shortages, a magnesium alloy that was difficult to weld was used, which led to the development of Heliarc welding with Vladimir Pavlecka. The configuration had previously been tested on the N1M, a smaller aircraft.

The first prototype flew with serious stability problems. On 8 October 1943 it was nearly destroyed when a tire blew during a high-speed taxi run on the Muroc dry lake. The pilot, John Myers, was thrown clear with minor injuries. The second prototype was finished in January 1944 with changes to the centre of gravity and the vertical stabilizer. Harry Crosby first flew it in March and made ten flights over five months. Because of vibration it never exceeded about 250 miles per hour. The planned armament, two 20 mm cannon and four .50-calibre machine guns, was never installed. The project was abandoned, and its experience fed into designs such as the XB-35. The surviving example belongs to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, stored and unrestored.