WING

LAST EDITED ON Jun-19-04 AT 12:25 PM (CDT)
 
I went out for a walk at lunch yesterday and this flew over at a very low altitude. It was cool to see!! I understand it was designed in 1941. It's called N-9M. I work near the Camarillo Airport in So. Ca.

Whoa!!! You're kidding! Too cool! Sorry, I can't seem to say ANYTHING about this without using at least one exclamation point per sentence...

Tim

>I went out for a walk at lunch yesterday and this flew over
>at a very low altitude. It was cool to see!! I understand it
>was designed in 1941. It's called N-9M. I work near the
>Camarillo Airport in So. Ca.

I've seen this yellow job a number of times. It took the Chino boys a long time to restore it. I also believe that the pristine B17 that has been flying over Simi Valley may be operating out of Camarillo, not sure.
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"I don't know about this tuned pipe business. I practiced on that thing until my lips turned blue, and I still can't play a stinkin note."
"Homer J. Simpson"

LAST EDITED ON Jun-19-04 AT 09:28 PM (CDT)
 
I'm pretty astounded to find out this is a genuine N9M. My dear ol' Dad, late Col. Paul F. Helmick, was a test pilot at Wright-Patterson both before and after WWII, and flew the N9M. We spoke of that once, he said it had some yaw stability issues, but Northrop came up with a fix for that, and it flew fine after the mod.

Dad also told me that once he came home from work (to Osborne, Ohio), and found a case of fine Scotch Whiskey on the porch. There was no note or any identification of the person who "lost" it, but he did say that he knew Jack Northrop was in town, and had little doubt about the source. So, he took it inside for safe keeping. If he'd known for absolute certain JN had left it, he'd have had to return it. Phew! A near tragedy, neatly averted...

Attached is a picture of a sterling silver money clip with the initials PFH on it. It's my understanding that these were gifts from the Northrop company, probably not an entirely acceptable practise. It shows a fair amount of wear. You may be able to make out the P and H. Dad said he couldn't recall if the version he flew had the Franklin or the Menasco engines. I didn't know they had two different powerplants. Cool looking airplane. Also attached another photo of the restored unit, previously shown on this forum. Sorry I can't offer photo credits. Steve

LAST EDITED ON Jun-19-04 AT 10:39 PM (CDT)
 
WOW Steve,
Thats fantastic. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. What attracted my attention to look up was the sound it made, very much like an old low RPM antique. I expected to see a Bi-plane or some such thing. I was astonished!! The one I saw was gray in color not the Orange or yellow one shown.

My recollection is that the reason this plane survived the draconian purge by the AF to rid themselves of the entire heavy bomber flying wing program (to ensure the survival of the B-36) is that it had already been dragged out into the desert and used on the bombing range---as a target. Probably a practice range for inert excercises. Thus, everyone forgot about it and explaining its really horrible condition before restoration. I think the restorers said afterwards that they would have never attempted it if they had understood how bad of shape it was really in. I think this is a wood airframe with plywood skins. I saw it at the Hawthorne Air Fair years ago. The field is now named Jack Northrop Field.

Imagine how Northrop must have felt when they (finally) got him cleared so he could see the B-2 being constructed decades later in utter secrecy....