History Channel - Fly Past (2001) Part 3 A Wing and a Prayer

The dream of flight was finally realized on a North Carolina beach in 1903. In the century since then, innovations have come fast and furious, and the skies have filled with extraordinary creations. This 4-part documentary mini-series looks at key developments in powered flight. Fly past tells the story of the legendary figures and machines that pepper the history of aviation, breathing new life into a story that is as vital today as it was when it began almost one hundred years ago.

Part 3 A Wing and a Prayer

The B-2 stealth bomber–one of the most advanced aircraft of all time–is the direct descendant of Jack Northrop's revolutionary XB-49 flying wing, a project cancelled nearly 40 years earlier. The history of the “flying wing” is told in episode 3, “A Wing And A Prayer”, the story of Jack Northrop and his dream of perfecting a practical flying wing. Originally designed in the 1950s, his project was canceled in favor of a more conventional B-36 bomber, but the low radar profile of the flying wing design makes a comeback decades later in the form of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber. Now the elderly Northrop, confined to a wheelchair, would view the prototype of a plane inspired by his original concept.

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