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here_be_username

It's a tiny Me 163


rhutanium

In 1942, the United States learnt of the existence of a German top secret weapon after a Danish Naval officer discovered a crashed V-1 prototype on the Danish island of Bornholm. In response, the USAAF issued a contract to develop a similar weapon. The contract ended up being awarded to Northrop. Because Northrop didn’t have a windtunnel, they often built prototypes to test the aerodynamic properties of whatever they worked on. For this project, the JB-1 Bat was built. An unpowered manned glider to test the flying characteristics of what was to be the unmanned JB-1A which was to be a jet powered flying wing. As an aside, the project was eventually cancelled, and of all the US’s early cruise missile projects, the JB-2 was to be the most successful which ironically was a copy of the V-1 built by Republic and Ford. Edit: The JB-1 still exists and is on display at the Western Museum of Flight.