Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet

The Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet was a unique prototype fighter interceptor built by the Northrop Corporation and one of the most radical experimental aircraft of World War II. Conceived in 1939, it was to be a tailless flying wing with a small central fuselage and a pusher engine driving contra-rotating propellers, built from magnesium alloy because aluminium was expected to be scarce. The team developed heliarc welding to join the magnesium. The US Army ordered it in 1940 and the Pratt and Whitney R-2800 replaced the cancelled X-1800 engine. The first prototype flew on 30 September 1943 and was destroyed in a taxi accident on 8 October 1943. The second flew on 23 March 1944, showed severe yaw and tail problems, and the project was abandoned. It survives in the National Air and Space Museum collection.