Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Horten Ho. 229


10 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Yes and I can only say that their scientists were far ahead of the crowd.

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  2. I will refrain from the Dr. Seuss reference ...

    The A-12 prototype I saw in Fort Worth a couple of years ago looked almost exactly like this Horton - not the SR-71 relative, a flying wing attack plane they wanted to use to replace the A-6.

    And yep, the German scientists were damn good - good thing Hitler was such a micromanager which stalled their progress just enough... and our post war rocket program benefited greatly from the German missle program

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  3. I'll just quote General Patton, "We fought the wrong enemy."

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  4. For all the monstrosity of the Nazi regime both their their aircraft and naval designers were years ahead of the allies. The numbers and varaity of their designs is staggering.
    The picture in the video is kind of deceiving as the Horton brothers addressed the the high G loads produced by the planes manuverability at high speed by having the pilot lay prone and facing forward.
    Although designed by the Hortons the official designation was as the Gotta Go 229 (Go 229 A-0).

    Another remarkable design was the Junkers Ju287. This was a craft was powered by four BMW003 jet engines and had forward swept wings! The US never attempted this technology until late in the 20th century and we're only able to create adequate stability with computerised controls. The Ju287A prototype flew 17 tests in August of 1944 and was found to have "excellent flight characteristics." The production models were nearly ready to fly and were equipped with 6 engines when the Soviets overran the airfield. The Soviets managed to get one of them flying in 1947 but not being German engineers were never able to fully developed the technology.
    US fears of a German "Amirika" bomber were also quite real as they had several designs in development including the Ju390 that as early as 1943 had demonstrated a remarkable 32 hour endurance and once flew within 12 miles of New York City.
    Anyone wanting to do further research I would refer to "Hitler's Luftwaffe" by Tony Wood and Bill Gunston.

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