Northrop MX-324

The Northrop MX-324 was an experimental flying wing built by Northrop Aircraft in the early 1940s, and it made the first rocket-powered flight of an American aircraft. Northrop proposed a tailless rocket aircraft to the United States Army Air Forces in September 1942, first as an expendable point-defence interceptor, with the pilot lying prone to withstand higher manoeuvring forces. The Army ordered one rocket-powered MX-324 and two unpowered MX-334 gliders, built mainly of plywood around a welded steel tube centre section. The MX-324 first flew as a glider in 1943. After being towed to about 8,000 feet by a P-38 and released, it flew under power on 5 July 1944 with Harry Crosby at the controls, using a small Aerojet rocket motor of about 0.9 kilonewtons thrust. Early fast flights showed the pure wing to be unstable, so a plywood fin was added. The aircraft was a test vehicle for the planned XP-79 rocket fighter, and its details were only made public in February 1947.