MX-324_r_bw_o_n (1963, Northrop Corp. PR photo, verso stamped 9460)
“MX-324 ROCKET WING - (1944) -- Northrop’s Rocket Wing MX-324 was America’s first military rocket airplane. It was completed in 1944 under strict secrecy; the world did not learn of its existence until early in 1947. Its first flight was made in the presence of a few Northrop and U. S. Air Force personnel July 5, 1944, at Harper’s Dry Lake near Barstow, California. The MX-324 was a Flying Wing of 36-foot wing span with a prone cockpit. The prone cockpit enabled the pilot to lie flat and withstand higher accelerations. The MX-324 was powered by an Aerojet XCAL-200 rocket motor, which used monoethylaniline, oxidized with red fuming nitric acid, as fuel. Other glider-type models (MX-334) were designed to take off and land on skids.”
That’s some ‘out of the cockpit’ thinking, although the fuel mixture seems particularly…unappealing.
As you might expect, multiple articles are available online.
MX-324_r_bw_o_n (1963, Northrop Corp. PR photo, verso stamped 9460)
“MX-324 ROCKET WING - (1944) -- Northrop’s Rocket Wing MX-324 was America’s first military rocket airplane. It was completed in 1944 under strict secrecy; the world did not learn of its existence until early in 1947. Its first flight was made in the presence of a few Northrop and U. S. Air Force personnel July 5, 1944, at Harper’s Dry Lake near Barstow, California. The MX-324 was a Flying Wing of 36-foot wing span with a prone cockpit. The prone cockpit enabled the pilot to lie flat and withstand higher accelerations. The MX-324 was powered by an Aerojet XCAL-200 rocket motor, which used monoethylaniline, oxidized with red fuming nitric acid, as fuel. Other glider-type models (MX-334) were designed to take off and land on skids.”
That’s some ‘out of the cockpit’ thinking, although the fuel mixture seems particularly…unappealing.
As you might expect, multiple articles are available online.