What is this 60 ft. bat wing shape at the USAF boneyard?

Hey all I tried a search on this paticular wing shape at the USAF bone yard in Arizona. What makes me think its not a tail piece of another craft is for one I cant find another like it on the base or area and second the largest plane tail sections that exist that it could possibly be arent quite that span or shape. Also the shadow shows an almost German post World War II Horten type craft. But why such a piece in the junkyard.
Forgive me if this has been covered but I couldnt find much at all about this. It measures around 60 feet with the google ruler.
Could this be an X plane or demonstator or ????
Thanks.

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I can't see it really clearly, but it's probably the YB-49. Northrop was working on flying wing designs starting in the late 1930s, and had several flying, but none were put into service, as they were different and different was Bad.



[edit on 4/11/2007 by Zaphod58]

Thanks. It seems smaller than that wing and more the size of this.
www.answers.com...

However it has those German Horten design nuances a bit more to it in the one in my original pic's.
www.secondworldwarhistory.com...
Either way its certainly no Aurora. Lol
I just wonder about its id.



[edit on 11-4-2007 by VType]

[edit on 11-4-2007 by VType]

The Horten designs and the Northrop designs came about around the same time. Northrop had several designs that he was working on. The YB-49 was the most well known of them.

Just a guess... a retired F-14 with the tails removed and the cockpit chopped off at the forward bulkhead? If not... then it sure is an interesting find.

Thanx for posting,

Vic

A interesting shape for sure but when you look at it relative to the F-4's it seems quite small. Leads me to believe its scrap.

I'm no expert, Zaphod58, but I don't think it is a YB-49. I copied the image VType linked to and exported it to MS paint. Whatever the wing-shaped object is, it is a little bit wider than the wingspan on the aircraft next to it.

Now, to my eye, that second aircraft looks like an F-4, which has a wingspan of 38' 4.5'', according to wikipedia - feel free to disagree, this is not my area of expertise. The YB-49 had a wingspan of 172 feet, as did the YB-35 it was based on. Northrup had other flying wing prototypes, but the ones with dimensions similar to the wingspan of an F-4 seem to have all airframes accounted for.

I know there are boneyards where they break airframes up for recycling or to comply with certain weapons treaties. Could this be a tail or wing assembly from another aircraft, one which was broken up before the picture was taken? Just my two cents...

I found this image rather interesting as well.
www.century-of-flight.freeola.com...
It seems that the twin rotor or engine bulbs are facing forward on the ones originally pictured which is different from the Norton's rear mounted props. Odd indeed.
Im leaning toward an actual Horten/USAF tester of some type.
And at about a 60 ft wing span it could fit the bill. I just dont see aircraft part when i look at this at all.
Great discussion so far folks and thanks.




[edit on 11-4-2007 by VType]

[edit on 11-4-2007 by VType]

Just looking at this, I can distinctly see two somethings on each side of the cockpit, that look almost like prop engines. Also, strangely enough, I see two discolourations of some sort that do not match up with the positioning of the two objects on the front. They appear almost to be outlets for a jet engine.

To be honest, I've no idea what this could be. If it is a wing of some sort, its span looks to be the same as the length of the F-4s behind it. Which is 63 feet, as already stated.

How about a horizontal stabilizer from a C-5A cargo plane? Thats what it looks like to me.

I found another site that was talking about if it was a flying wing or not. I'm not sure it's the same thing, but I suspect that the poster that said it was a C-5 horizontal stabilizer is correct. They mailed AMARC and asked them what it was, and the response was that it WAS a C-5 stabilizer sitting on the ground.

Thank you for your e-mail to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) regarding the identification of an unidentified "aircraft" in the attached pictures. Much as I would like to tell you this is some exotic piece of aviation hardware - such as a captured WWII German flying wing, an exotic UAV, and so on - in reality it is the horizontal stabilizer from a C-5 Galaxy.

The unusual appearance of these stabilizers comes about after AMARC reclaims leading edge skins (that is the front of the air foil), the control surfaces and the stabilizer "tip skins" - i.e. the ends of the wing. Since they come off a C-5, these stabilizers are huge. Some Civil Air Patrol cadets on a visit suggest that the stabilizers needed only an engine to become an airplane unto themselves. In fact, they are more valuable for their parts, which support the operational C-5 fleet.

www.gearthhacks.com...

Yeah that could make sence. Seeing how its a scrap yard anyway. However this pic of a C-5 from top view doesnt look a lot like the original too me but Ive been wrong before.
Thanks for that link btw.

You're also looking at a COMPLETE horizontal stabilizer in that picture. As AMARC said, they have removed many portions of that one sitting on the ground to put onto active C-5s that needed the parts.

[edit on 4/12/2007 by Zaphod58]

I can't see it really clearly, but it's probably the YB-49. Northrop was working on flying wing designs starting in the late 1930s, and had several flying, but none were put into service, as they were different and different was Bad.

Its wasnt that different was bad it was that until computers came along the flying wing designs were to hard to fly just thought id add that.

Looks to me to be a C-5.

Let's not forget the apparent sabotage of one of them that caused it to land with one engine left running.

Not a C5 section, when comparing size against the F4's on the left hand side.

Scrap bit's lying around all over the place at the boneyard so it would be hard to identify individual sections, especially from altitude. Sure aint no flying wing though, or maybe just a very small one

Originally posted by Zaphod58
Let's not forget the apparent sabotage of one of them that caused it to land with one engine left running.

What incident are you referring to, out of interest?

They were flying back from DC, and supposedly they had failed to fill the oil in the engines, and it ran out somewhere during the flight. All but one engine seized up and they were forced to make an emergency landing.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
They were flying back from DC, and supposedly they had failed to fill the oil in the engines, and it ran out somewhere during the flight. All but one engine seized up and they were forced to make an emergency landing.

A C-5?

No, this was relating to the YB-49 post that was above my comment. I didn't want to quote it since it was the post just above mine.