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Northrop X-4 Bantam

1948 COLD WAR X-PLANE

History of the Northrop X-4 Bantam

The Northrop X-4 Bantam compact research aircraft was built by Northrop for the National Advisory Council for Aeronautics (NACA) (predecessor of today's NASA) and the United States Air Force (USAF) for use in Research all aspects of flight testing related to tailless aircraft design. Two prototypes were eventually completed and the first flight took place on December 15, 1948. In the absence of a true horizontal control surface at the tail, the design instead relies on a combined elevator/aileron arrangement (called "elevator") to manage the aircraft's pitch and roll actions.

The pair proved problematic throughout testing because their designs were often unsound and unstableonly ten flights in total were recorded between 1950 and 1953.

When finished, the X-4 will look similar to the sleek, stylish single-seat fighter imagined by cartoonists in the 1950s. The fuselage is very rounded, albeit intentionally shortened, and the main plane and wings are swept back and account for the majority of the aircraft's outreach surface area. In a way, this design mimics the WWII-era Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet" rocket-powered interceptor that appeared in the second half of WWII. The X-4 opted for a twin-engine configuration with two Westinghouse J30-WE-7/9 series turbojets, each rated at 1,600 pounds of thrust, with air intakes on either side of the cockpit.

The tail contains only one vertical tail, and the landing gear is a wheeled tricycle arrangement. Dimensions include a length of 7 meters, a wingspan of 8.2 meters and a height of 4.5 meters.

The performance of the two engines enables a top speed of 625 mph, a range of up to 420 miles, a service ceiling of 42,300 feet and a rate of climb of 7,700 feet per minute.

Work on the tailless aircraft began with a formal contract awarded to Northrop on June 11, 1946. By this time, nearly a year into World War II, Northrop had furthered his interest in the tailless fly through his collection of flying wings. So for this kind of effort between the USAF and Northrop, the marriage was a bit of a fit at the time.

The first test vehicle was delivered to the USAF in November 1948, and NACA began testing the X-4 system in September 1950.

Throughout the testing life cycle, the X-4 underwent the necessary modifications and rework to address many of the issues that permeated the product. The X-4 was also far ahead of its time, as flight control systems at the time limited fairly advanced designs. The Air Force began to look more closely at the delta-wing configuration, eventually abandoning the idea of ??a tailless aircraft for the time being.

The original X-4 plane was cannibalized before the end to help the second plane.

The pair of X-4s were formed from the short-lived Bantam program. The only remaining example is currently (2015) the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.