![]() ![]() “Reimar argued that he understood the chemistry of stealth coatings and was going to, or had, added this material into the Ho 229 V3,” Lee says. Comments made by Reimar Horten after the war led enthusiasts to speculate that the plane could elude radar and fly undetected by enemy observers. It was fueled by the aircraft’s unique design-a cross between a “Star Wars” Snowspeeder and U-2 Spy Plane with its wings bent back at a sharp angle. One such legend was the Ho 229’s stealth capability. It includes a new introduction that discusses recent developments and dispels some of the myths that have taken root over time. Originally published in 2011, a second edition of Only the Wing: Reimar Horten’s Epic Quest to Stabilize and Control the All-Wing Aircraft was released last month. Lee wrote the book-literally-on that aircraft, its development and Reimer Horten's career. Lee is a curator in the aeronautics division at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. In the late 1920s, Reimar Horten began experimenting with flying models equipped with fuselages, stabilizers, rudders and elevators, but his life’s work involved systematically removing these components from models until he could achieve flight with only the wing. Only the Wing: Reimar Horten's Epic Quest to Stabilize and Control the All-Wing Aircraft / With a New Introduction The laminated wood was separating, paint flaking and metal rusty. The Ho 229 V3 (above: interior of cockpit at the time of conservation) showed considerable deterioration after being stored outdoors for many years. In about 1942, both brothers put pen to paper and designed something that eventually became the Horten 229.” Walter thought the all-wing plane was the answer to Germany’s needs. “One of the lessons they took from the Battle of Britain was the need for a new fighter aircraft. Lee, curator in the aeronautics department of the National Air and Space Museum. “Reimar was a brilliant designer and Walter was a fighter pilot,” says Russell E. Their work on dozens of creations of large winged gliders and jet-powered planes, including a four-engine bomber akin to the one in the film, primed the creative juices of future engineers who would eventually develop the Northrop Grumman B-2 stealth bomber and similar aircraft. That’s because this conceptualization comes directly from the promising prototypes and plans of Germany’s Horten brothers, Reimer and Walter, who conceived and developed the idea of an all-wing aircraft before and during World War II. While it is certainly the product of a director’s hyperactive imagination, it is strikingly similar to the Ho 229 V3, the first jet-powered flying wing, preserved and on display at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. ![]() All made up, that is, except for one thing: the huge bomber. Of course, it’s all Hollywood CGI and comic-book action rolled into a blockbuster film-the stuff of dreams and star-studded spectaculars. The future of freedom hangs in the balance as the sophisticated jet plane zooms toward New York City with a payload of super weapons intended for total annihilation. In the 2011 movie Captain America: The First Avenger, the eponymous hero battles the evil Nazi Red Scull onboard a sleek, menacing all-wing aircraft in the waning days of World War II.
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