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JB 10
Northrop

No Freeman Photo

The JB-10 was to be a low-precision standoff weapon for the planned invasion of Japan. The missile used a simple preset guidance system, where it would fly a predetermined distance into the direction of launch and then dive to the ground. The first flight of a JB-10 occurred in April 1945, but was not successful. In fact, of the 10 test-launches of JB-10s there were eight failures and two only partial successes. Because of the development problems (caused by several components of the system) and because the need for such a weapon had disappeared, the JB-10 program was terminated in January 1946.

Source

Disposition

Freeman 05/09/46

Relocate to Chicago

Jack Northrop

Northrop (1895-1981) excelled as a designer of conventional aircraft and strikingly unusual concepts. He is associated with many design breakthroughs, ranging from the famous Lockheed Vega of the 1920s to the giant Northrop flying wings of the 1940s. In 1916, while working for the Loughead Aircraft Company (later Lockheed), he co-invented a process for making monoplane fuselages and helped design the F-1 flying boat. He became chief engineer at Lockheed in 1927 and built the Vega monoplane. As founder of Northrop Aircraft, Inc. (1939) he built the first successful N-1M flying wing and the XP-56 flying wing fighter. He also created the first U.S. rocket-powered aircraft, the JB-10 flying bomb, the P-61 Black Widow night fighter and the XP-79 flying wing fighter.

The Army had been working with Northrop to build another cruise missile, based on Northrop's famous flying wing concepts. The first model, the "JB-1", was a flying wing with a central fuselage housing twin GE turbojets. The missile carried two 900 kilogram (2,000 pound) bombs, built into pods on each side of the fuselage.

Only two JB-1s were built, one as a piloted glider, designated the "MC-543 Bat", and the other with the GE engines. It proved to be underpowered, and so the design was modified to accommodate a single Ford PJ-31 pulsejet. The new version was named the "JB-10", and ten were built. It was launched off a rail using solid rocket boosters.

   NORTHROP JB-10:

   _____________________   _________________   _______________________

 

   spec                    metric              english

   _____________________   _________________   _______________________



   wingspan                8.9 meters          29 feet 1 inches

   length                  3.6 meters          11 feet 10 inches

   total weight            3,200 kilograms     7,080 pounds

   warhead weight          1,650 kilograms     3,650 pounds



   speed                   680 KPH             425 MPH / 370 KT

   range                   300 kilometers      185 MI / 160 NMI

   _____________________   _________________   _______________________

The problem with the JB-10 was that Northrop had designed it to aircraft standards of quality, and it was simply too expensive. The project was cancelled in 1946. A wide range of other missiles were investigated in the JB program, including air to air and anti-radar weapons, but it appears little progress was made on these projects, and the cancellation of the JB-10 ended the JB program.

Source: http://www.vectorsite.net/twcruz2.html#m2

Northrop JB-10

After the JB-1 program had been terminated because of the failure of the turbojets, the remaining JB-1s were modified to a pulsejet-powered configuration, designated JB-10. A single Ford PJ31 pulsejet engine was mounted in a centerline shroud. The latter was of larger diameter than the pulsejet to allow the flow of cooling air around the engine. The prominent bomb containers of the JB-1 were also removed and replaced by integral warhead sections in the wing roots.

Data for JB-1, JB-3, JB-4, JB-10:

	JB-1	JB-3	JB-4	JB-10
Length	3.21 m (10 ft 6.5 in)	4.37 m (14 ft 4 in)	?	3.65 m (11 ft 11.6 in)
Wingspan	8.64 m (28 ft 4 in)	?	3.6 m (12 ft)	8.89 m (29 ft 2 in)
Height	1.38 m (4 ft 6.4 in)	(n/a)	(n/a)	1.47 m (4 ft 10 in)
Weight	3210 kg (7080 lb)	270 kg (600 lb)	1360 kg (3000 lb)	3270 kg (7210 lb)
Speed	727 km/h (452 mph)	965 km/h (600 mph)	716 km/h (445 mph)	685 km/h (426 mph)
Range	1080 km (670 miles)	?	120 km (75 miles)	300 km (185 miles)
Propulsion	2x General Electric B1 turbojet; 1.8 kN (400 lb) each	Dual-thrust solid-fueled rocket; 32 kN (7200 lb) / 0.9 kN (200 lb)	Ford PJ31-F-1 pulsejet; 4.0 kN (900 lb)
Warhead	2x 900 kg (2000 lb) GP bomb	225 kg (500 lb) high-explosive	900 kg (2000 lb) high-explosive	2x 825 kg (1825 lb) high-explosive

Source: http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/jb.html