Horten 229 Nazi stealth aircraft could have changed WWII results?
Could the Horten 229 (Horton 229) have changed the results of World War II? The Horten 229 was a top-secret Nazi stealth aircraft designed to evade radar detection. Otherwise known as Hitler’s stealth fighter plane, it was a jet-powered fighter aircraft with a smooth contour in the shape of a flying wing designed by Walter and Reimar Horten, hence the name of the stealth plane. The aircraft secretly began construction on the project. The Horten 229 was briefly flight-tested but could not be
deployed before the end of the war. Many historians now say the fighter plane could have changed the result of World War II.
Northrop Grumman engineers have recreated the top secret Nazi stealth aircraft from designs recovered after the war. They designed a full-scale model of the 55-foot flying wing and built it to the exact specifications of the original. To test the viability of its design and stealth capabilities, the Northrop team measured its radar ‘signature’ at the company’s test range in the Mojave Desert and found that it had a radar cross-section only 40 per cent that of conventional aircraft.
According to records, German designer Reiman Horton said he mixed charcoal dust in with wood glue on the exterior of the aircraft to absorb radar waves. This was found to be quite successful. Although testing revealed that the Nazi stealth aircraft, with its frontally prominent engines, would still have been detected by the Allies’ primitive radar, Allied fighters would not have caught up with it given its Mach 0.92 speed. That, in itself, was a significant advantage that the Allies could not have overcome.
The full-scale Horten 229 model has been donated by Northrop Grumman to the San Diego Air and Space Museum, California’s official air and space museum and education center, where it is now in display.
German stealth fighter plane could have changed WWII results (video)
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