Last Northrop N9M Crashes

[Rolls-Royce]

I wasn't sure if this belonged here or in the WWII area, but the last surviving Northrop N9M Flying Wing crashed a little while ago in a prison yard at Norco, California, several miles east of the plane's home at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino. No one on the ground was hurt, but the aircraft was totally destroyed and the pilot apparently perished. It's a sad day for aviation history buffs. I was lucky enough to have seen it in the pattern at the Ontario (California) airport a number of years ago and was hoping to see it again someday.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Very sad, they should have never flown something so rare like that. I feel sad for the pilot and his family. I hope they can find some way to build one from the ground up that is static ? It deserves to be seen as something more than a photo. 

[Tony Edmundson]

17 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Very sad, they should have never flown something so rare like that. 

THEY rescued it from a scrap heap;  THEY spent many years and their own money to restore it; and as a result many more people saw it fly than would ever wander into the museum.

 

Passion aside, aircraft are meant to fly, but they are mere machines.   So what if it is the last one to fly.

 

Tony

[cngaero]

1 hour ago, Tony Edmundson said:

Passion aside, aircraft are meant to fly, but they are mere machines.   So what if it is the last one to fly.

 

Yes they are machines, but if everyone adopted that same sentiment, there would be no original airframes for us or  future generations to admire, learn from, let alone take measurements from to produce the models that we all crave. 

[72modeler]

Tony and Chris,

You both make solid and valid points.

 

The topic is a double-edged sword- on the one hand, they are not inanimate objects and to see, hear, and smell them in action is so  much more impressive than standing behind a roped-off area to be viewed in a  museum or at an airpark. On another hand, if a group or individual spends the incredible amount of time and money to recover and restore an aircraft, then they certainly have earned the right to operate said aircraft as they desire . On yet another hand, as many of these aircraft are the only existing examples of  their type, and if you consider yourself a custodian of history, then  I think (my opinion only!) you have an obligation to preserve the aircraft for all succeeding generations to enjoy. I guess, speaking as a person who has been around long enough to have had the joy of witnessing  the sound, smell, and majesty of many classic aircraft in flight as well as a cold inanimate display artifact, the enthusiast in me loves to see them fly, but the modelmaker/historian in me wants to make sure they are available for study and remembrance. Does that  make any sense?

Mike

Edited April 25, 2019 by 72modeler
corrected spelling

[e8n2]

Makes sense to me Mike.  I was at Chino a few years ago and got some shots of the N9M and posted them in the real aviation section.  It might take a bit to find it again but it might be worth taking a look for it.  Some of the panels were off of the aircraft at the time I was there.

Later,

Dave

[Britman]

Could the no fly argument apply to ARCO`s lovely Blenheim ? Maybe the last flying Meteor NF II being grounded for the occasional run down the runway on a fast taxi display is a good idea, but in our heart of hearts we would rather see it in the sky would we not? The argument of to fly or not to fly is as old as Shakespeare and hind sight a wonderful thing after the event ( Black 6 etc ) .

 

Keith

[e8n2]

On 4/24/2019 at 10:20 PM, e8n2 said:

Makes sense to me Mike.  I was at Chino a few years ago and got some shots of the N9M and posted them in the real aviation section.  It might take a bit to find it again but it might be worth taking a look for it.  Some of the panels were off of the aircraft at the time I was there.

Later,

Dave

Here are the pictures that I took of the N9M four years ago:

 

Later,

Dave