Editing Flying wing (section)

===Early research===
[[File:XB-35.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Northrop YB-35]] bomber prototype began its development during World War II.]]

The concept of the flying wing was born on 16 February 1876 when French engineers [[Alphonse Pénaud]] and [[Paul Gauchot]] filed a patent for an ''aero-plane or flying aircraft'' <ref>{{cite web|url=http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1693475|title=Reproduction de la dernière page du brevet {{numéro|n117.574}}|publisher=NYPL Digital Gallery}}</ref> powered by two propellers and with all the characteristics of a flying wing as we know it today.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ballarini |first1=Philippe |title=Alphonse Pénaud (1850-1880) - Brillant et tragique |journal=Aerostories |date=2002 |volume=12}}</ref>

[[Tailless aircraft]] have been experimented with since the earliest attempts to fly. Britain's [[J. W. Dunne]] was an early pioneer, his swept-wing biplane and monoplane designs displayed inherent stability as early as 1910. His work directly influenced several other designers, including [[G. T. R. Hill]], who developed a series of experimental [[tailless aircraft]] designs, collectively known as the [[Westland-Hill Pterodactyl]]s, during the 1920s and early 1930s.{{sfnp|Sturtivant|1990|page= 45 }} Despite attempts to pursue orders from the [[Aviation Ministry]], the Pterodactyl programme was ultimately cancelled during the mid 1930s before any order for the Mk. VI was issued.{{sfnp|Mettam|1970}}

Germany's [[Hugo Junkers]] patented his own wing-only air transport concept in 1910, seeing it as a natural solution to the problem of building an [[airliner]] large enough to carry a reasonable passenger load and enough fuel to cross the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] in regular service. He believed that the flying wing's potentially large internal volume and low drag made it an obvious design for this role. His deep-chord [[monoplane]] wing was incorporated in the otherwise conventional [[Junkers J 1]] in December 1915. In 1919 he started work on his "Giant" [[JG1]] design, intended to seat passengers within a thick wing, but two years later the Allied Aeronautical Commission of Control ordered the incomplete JG1 destroyed for exceeding postwar size limits on German aircraft. Junkers conceived futuristic flying wings for up to 1,000 passengers; the nearest this came to realization was in the 1931 [[Junkers G.38]] 34-seater ''Grossflugzeug'' airliner, which featured a large thick-chord wing providing space for fuel, engines, and two passenger cabins. However, it still required a short fuselage to house the crew and additional passengers.

The Soviet [[Boris Ivanovich Cheranovsky]] began testing tailless flying wing gliders in 1924. After the 1920s, Soviet designers such as Cheranovsky worked independently and in secret under [[Stalin]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.century-of-flight.net/new%20site/frames/horten%20frame.htm |title=German flying wings |publisher=Century-of-flight.net|access-date=2012-03-30}}</ref> With significant breakthrough in materials and construction methods, aircraft such as the [[Chyeranovskii BICh-3|BICh-3]],<ref>"History of aircraft construction in the USSR" by V.B. Shavrov, Vol. 1 p. 431 (with images)</ref> [[Chyeranovskii BICh-14|BICh-14]], [[Chyeranovskii BICh-7|BICh-7A]] became possible. Men like Chizhevskij and Antonov also came into the spotlight of the Communist Party by designing aircraft like the tailless BOK-5<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ctrl-c.liu.se/misc/RAM/bok-5.html |title=BOK-5, V.A.Chizhevskij |access-date=17 December 2010 |archive-date=31 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181231190646/http://www.ctrl-c.liu.se/misc/ram/bok-5.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> (Chizhevskij) and OKA-33<ref>"History of aircraft construction in the USSR" by V.B. Shavrov, Vol.1 pp. 547–548.</ref> (the first ever built by Antonov) which were designated as "motorized gliders" due to their similarity to popular gliders of the time. The BICh-11, developed by Cheranovsky in 1932,<ref>"Rocket fighter" by William Green, p. 39-41.</ref> competed with the Horten brothers H1 and [[Adolf Galland]] at the Ninth Glider Competitions in 1933, but was not demonstrated in the 1936 summer Olympics in Berlin.

In [[Germany]], [[Alexander Lippisch]] worked first on tailless types before progressively moving to flying wings, while the [[Horten brothers]] developed a series of flying wing gliders through the 1930s. The H1 glider was flown with partial success in 1933, and the subsequent H2 flown successfully in both glider and powered variants.<ref name="CADOHORTTOPSECRET">{{cite web|title=Technical Report No. 76-45 on. Horten Tailless Aircraft|url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA800146.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119033714/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA800146|url-status=live|archive-date=19 January 2012|publisher=Central Air Documents Office|access-date=18 July 2010|author=U.S. Naval Technical Mission in Europe|page=5|quote=Hor ten. H-II Both glider and powered version - (see figures 19 and 20)}}</ref>

[[File:YB49-2 300.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Northrop YB-49]] was the YB-35 bomber converted to jet power.]]

In the [[United States]], from the 1930s [[Jack Northrop]] independently worked on his own designs. The [[Northrop N-1M]], a scale prototype for a long-range bomber, first flew in 1940. In 1941 Northrop was awarded a development contract to build 2 examples of the YB-35 flying wing, a very large 4 engined flying wing with a span of 172'. Development and construction of this aircraft continued throughout World War II.{{sfn|Gunston|1996|p=26}}<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/jack-northrop-and-the-flying-wing/|title= Jack Northrop and the Flying Wing|access-date= 3 April 2023|last= Correll|first= John T.|work= Air & Space Forces Magazine|date= 21 December 2016|archive-url= https://archive.today/20230403170815/https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/jack-northrop-and-the-flying-wing/|archive-date= 3 April 2023|url-status= live}}</ref>

Other 1930s examples of true flying wings include Frenchman [[Charles Fauvel]]'s AV3 glider of 1933 and the American [[Freel Flying Wing]] glider flown in 1937.{{sfn|Pelletier|p=15}} featuring a self-stabilizing airfoil on a straight wing.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009|reason=Freel not cited}}