I read that the YB-35 managed to do without vertical surfaces due to the
props providing enough longtitudinal stability; although I'm not
entirely clear as to how that would work.

It wasn't the props as much as the drive shaft fairings.

Right, the fairings were long and (by the time they reached the prop)
high above the trailing edge of the wing, rather like the wing of a
paper dart. They would have acted very much like a vertical
stabilizer. (And created, as was posted, no end of problems with the
XB-35's propeller shafts, which vibrated.)

The fairings (and later the vertical fins on the YB-49) also served as
air dams, perhaps inadvertently solving a problem with swept-wing
designs, where the airstream tends to move laterally toward the
wingtips rather than straight back in the line of flight.


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

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