Photo Alert: These Pictures Show the Prototypes That Would One Day Become the B-2 Stealth Bomber

Dario Leone

History, Americas

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Noteworthy Northrop developed also a reconnaissance version of the YB-49, named YRB-49A, whose sole prototype made its first flight from Hawthorne, Calif.

Conceived by Jack Northrop as a large wing-only, long-range heavy bombers, the Northrop XB-35 and YB-35 were experimental airplanes developed by the Northrop Corporation for the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) during and shortly after World War II. 

The aircraft used the radical and potentially very efficient flying wing design, in which the tail section and fuselage are eliminated and all payload is carried in a thick wing. Only prototype and pre-production aircraft were built, although interest remained strong enough to warrant further development of the design as a jet bomber, under the designation YB-49.