Replica Horten Ho 2-29 reconstructed from blueprints.
“The Horten Ho 229 was a late-World War II Nazi German prototype fighter/bomber. It was the first pure flying wing powered by a jet engine and designed to be more difficult to detect with radar – the first aircraft to incorporate what is now known as stealth technology.”
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Images (c) Arthur Bentely / Linda Reynolds / Flying Wing films
Thank you to the Daily Mail
I hate to admit it, but that’s a beautiful looking machine.
At first I thought this was another fantasy uber-advanced nazi aircraft like the haunebu… until I found pictures of the surviving real one!
I’ve read about the Nazis exploration into jet power. To see this photo is…kind of creepy – as the design is so close (if not the same) to the current stealth.
Don’t forget, a lot of the scientists who developed these sorts of things like the V-2 were being compelled to do it, so don’t necessarily hate the plane. A lot of these guys came to work for us after 1945.
I’m guessing that this was hard to fly without vertical flight surfaces. I know that the stealth bomber has to be flown with the assistance computer just because it flew like a wadded up piece of paper.
“came to work” or “were forced to work”?
Die Nazis hatten zwar eine ziemlich zersplitterte Entwicklungslandschaft mit allen möglichen “Gadges”, aber so eine Maschine wäre schon wegen Materialmangels nicht möglich gewesen. In Deutschland wird auch nur mit Wasser gekocht.
the fuhrer could tell better jokes than churchill
Porsche design features or similar design tradition. Beauty!
Hah.
Tscherman Eentschneeringgg.
And Tscherman Diissignn.
…rrrocks.
There is only one big way to be stealthy, that’s having very few edges…. so the wing is what happens.
Plus none metal construction is also good.
The engine is the problem the inlets and exhaust.
Small beads in the paint to absorb the radar, so the reflected radar if any reflects back off a surface is minimal.
I think carbon fibre was beyond them.
This is a fantastic looking machine.
I have also seen the plans, directly from one of the Horton brothers, which they drew up for a flying saucer. They worked, after a fashion!
i worked on the film attached to this. i have TONS of great pics of this beast and got to sit in it. a real treat.
For anyone who thinks you need a computer to fly a flying wing I’d say check here first: http://youtu.be/60CgYmNb2a8
Flying wings are no more difficult or easier to fly than any other aircraft.
First Porsche makes the world’s first hybrid car, then they make the ancestor to the B2. Germany: “We made it first”. Heh
When the Smithsonian used to do tours of the Garber facility, I saw the lone surviving example back in a corner with the wings removed. Flying wings are beautiful, but they are very sensitive to changes in their center of gravity. The aelirons have a very short lever arm. So I suspect that it wouldn’t take very much battle damage to the air frame before this would have become impossible to fly.
But does it hear a Who?
this is one the aircraft in the Sturmovik WW2 game.”flying” it is a real hoot..
This makes me want to play Wolfenstein.
To P who wrote, “’came to work’ or ‘were forced to work’?” – you may want to research Operation Paperclip.
There is an old joke along the lines of, “How do you know who won the war?” to which the response is, “Whoever captured the most German scientists.”
Also, there is some unintended irony in asking whether these scientists were “forced to work.” A cursory search into the use of forced labor by NASA cornerstone Werner von Braun during his time with the V-2 rocket program at Peenemunde will provide some insight.
Ask him back in the day, and ol Werner knew “nuthink” of Mittelbau-Dora.
Though most German “rocket scientists” went to work for the US/English or Soviets, the Horten brothers went to live in Argentina after the war (they were not considered war criminals or anything of the sort) where they developed some of their flying wing concepts into high performance gliders.
” A lot of these guys came to work for us after 1945.”
Such a typical arrogant American comment, suggesting that no other country exists outside the USA.
Get your head out of your arse !
Not sure why you find that arrogant. It’s simply a statement of fact – many former German scientist involved in developing WWII aircraft subsequently went to US, to work on military planes/spacecraft.
Most obvious example is ‘father’ of US space program Wernher von Braun : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun and there are many other examples : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_rocket_scientists_in_the_United_States
The motivation for these guys to strike a deal was obvious. Their personal level of guilt for WWII crimes, whether it was right for the US to take them, even to kick start a space program, is open to debate.
If any of you have seen the new Captain America film, the plane that is used at the end (flown by Red Skull) is actually based on this! Bit of film trivia for you there! (’bout the only thing I know about Captain America though)