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.