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Northrop N-9MB – Living History Flying Day at Planes of Fame Air Museum

by | Nov 6, 2016 | Historic Aircraft | 0 comments

[UPDATE] On April 22nd, 2019, the museum lost its Northrop N-9MB flying wing in a tragic crash that also claimed the life of David Vopat, a museum pilot who was testing the plane before the upcoming annual airshow.

Northrop N-9MB Flying Wing

Living History Flying Days at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California is a monthly event that features one of the airworthy planes from their extensive collection. This time it was the Northrop N-9MB Flying Wing.

Northrop N-9MB Flying Wing

Northrop N-9MB Flying Wing

Discussion panel

During a discussion panel of aviation experts, historians and veterans the plane was put on display outside of the hangar and around noon David Vopat, a Planes of Fame volunteer pilot, took off and performed a flight demonstration.

Northrop N-9MB Flying Wing

Northrop N-9MB Flying Wing

Flying Wing’s history

Planes of Fame’s Flying Wing was built by Northrop in 1944 as one of four prototypes, but this is the only one that survived to the present day. The N-9MB was a 1/3 scale proof of concept model for the Northrop XB-35 Flying Wing and is a grandfather of modern B-2 stealth bombers. The museum acquired the plane in the 1950s and started a 13-year long restoration process in 1981.

Northrop N-9MB Flying Wing

Northrop N-9MB Flying Wing

POF Events

Living History Flying Day at Planes of Fame Air Museum is a free event for museum members and included in the price of the ticket for everybody else. See the museum website for a schedule of future events.

Northrop N-9MB Flying Wing

Northrop N-9MB Flying Wing

About The Author

Igor K.

I am the founder and editor-in-chief of the AirMuseumGuide.com blog. Together with my son - hopefully a future aerospace engineer - we are trying to visit as many aviation and aerospace museums in the US as possible with the ultimate goal of visiting them all. We have been able to visit approximately 60 so far. We are hoping this site will help preserve aviation history and inspire young people to pursue a career in aerospace.

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