Design and Development
The resulting unorthodox design, first flying on 28 October 1949, was (unusually for a combat aircraft) fitted with three engines, General Electric J47s in this case: one at the extreme tail with an intake at the base of the tailfin, and two underneath the forward fuselage in pods. The innovative wings, swept at 35° and with 6° anhedral, were equipped with variable incidence, leading-edge slots, full-width flaps and spoilers instead of ailerons. The combination of variable incidence adjustment and slotted flaps allowed for a shorter takeoff run. Four 954 lb (4.24 kN) thrust Rocket-Assisted Take Off (RATO) bottles with a 14-second burn duration could be fitted to the rear fuselage to improve takeoff performance. Spectacular launches were a feature of later test flights.
The main landing gear consisted of dual sets of wheels in tandem in the fuselage, similar to the B-47 Stratojet, with outrigger wheels at the wingtips (originally proved on a modified B-26 Marauder named "Middle River Stump Jumper"). The B-51 was a large but aerodynamically "clean" design which incorporated nearly all major systems internally. The aircraft was fitted with a rotating bomb bay, a Martin trademark; bombs could also be carried externally up to a maximum load of 10,400 lb (4,700 kg), although the specified basic mission only required a 4,000 lb (1,814 kg) bombload. Eight 20 mm (.79 in) cannons mounted in the nose would have been installed in production aircraft.
Crew provision was for a pilot under a "fighter"-type bubble canopy and a SHORAN (short-range navigation and bombing system) operator/navigator in a compartment located lower than and to the rear of the cockpit (only a small observation window was provided). Both crew members were provided with a pressurized, air-conditioned environment, equipped with upward-firing ejection seats. The XB-51 was the first Martin aircraft equipped with ejection seats; the ejection seats being of their own design.
Read more about this topic: Martin XB-51
Famous quotes containing the words design and/or development:
“What but design of darkness to appall?—
If design govern in a thing so small.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The man, or the boy, in his development is psychologically deterred from incorporating serving characteristics by an easily observable fact: there are already people around who are clearly meant to serve and they are girls and women. To perform the activities these people are doing is to risk being, and being thought of, and thinking of oneself, as a woman. This has been made a terrifying prospect and has been made to constitute a major threat to masculine identity.”
—Jean Baker Miller (20th century)