Edit: I am aware my name pronunciations are terrible in this episode!
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In the waning hours of world war two, the allies faced a new terror in the skies. It had twin engines, twin machine guns, and flew like nothing they had ever seen before.
It was capable of flying faster than traditional planes, impossible to detect on radar, and it would prove to be the winning hand for the defense of the nazi state.
But this alternative history never happened.
The Ho 229 was a radical departure from modern aircraft design, and had it been rolled out, could have change the the outcome of the war, the way we design planes today and even led to something far more sinister…
This is the original flying wing, the Horten 229.
As BBC Future noted in 2016, the ‘flying wing’ design is not a common sight in the skies because it’s an incredibly hard concept to make work.
Remember, the main tail of any aircraft keeps it stable and prevents it from swerving or yawing from side to side.
Therefore, a lack of tail makes the aircraft a lot harder to control.
Even more of a challenge is what happens to an aircraft without a tail when its engine stops; that is, can it still fly during a stall?
The ability to do that is an inherent capability that any aircraft has to be able to do.
So why would you try to build an aircraft inherently difficult to fly?
Because a flying wing has several benefits. For one thing, it’s difficult to spot on radar, since it has no tail fins that are what usually bounce back radar waves back to earth.
For another, a flying wing is sleek and smooth in shape, which means it has minimal drag.
That should make it a lot lighter and more fuel-efficient than most fighter jets.
Lastly, it should theoretically fly faster than a conventional plane using the same engine.
The famous Northrop B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, first released in 1989, is a modern example of a flying wing aircraft.
Before that Northrop was working on a propeller bomber design, called the XB-35, and later upgraded to the YB-49 with jet engines.
But believe it or not, they were not the first.
Go back more than four decades from when the B-2 stealth bomber was launched and you have a far earlier plan for a flying wing - and a fairly stunning one at that.
It was the Ho 229 and it was set to revolutionize the air force of a certain country fighting a certain major war at the time.
The Horten Ho 299 was a sleek number, measuring 7.4 metres or 24 feet 3 inches in length at its centre-line, with a total wingspan of 16.8 metres or 55 feet 1 inch.
The Horten wing concept addressed the whole engine stall dilemma that afflicts flying wing aircraft by ensuring that the aircraft would keep stable at all times.
Bowers says that the Horten wing not only cancelled out the yawing issues that an aircraft without a wing can suffer, but that it also dramatically reduced drag.
The Horten Ho’s cockpit height was a decidedly low 1.1 metres or just 3 feet 7 inches, although it overall height was 2.81 metres or 9 feet 3 inches.
Unsurprisingly, this cramped space meant that it only allowed for one crew member - and even that would be damn tight for said pilot.
Its range was a highly impressive 1,900 kilometres or 1,200 miles, noteworthy too because it was far in excess of the 1,000 kilometre range demanded by Herman Göring.
It also had a flying ceiling of 15,000 metres or 49,000 feet, which was useful in terms of stealth.
That allowed for performance outputs of a maximum speed of 960 kilometres or 600 miles per hour or Mach 0.77 at sea level, whilst having an acceleration speed of up to 977 kilometres or 600 miles per hour or Mach92 at an altitude of 12,000 metres or 39,000 feet.Its cruise speed was 900 kilometres or 560 miles per hour.
And why weren’t those speeds particularly impressive? Because the attentive among my listeners will have realized that none of those speeds matched or exceeded the 1,000 kilometres per hour demanded by Herr Göring.
Even so, it was said to possess a ‘never exceed speed’ of just 1,000 kilometres or 620 miles per hour. Perhaps Göring was suitably impressed by a take-off speed of 150 kilometres or 93 miles per hour and a rate of climb of 22 metres per second or 4,300 feet per minute.
In terms of armaments, the Ho 229 was hardly packing, being only able to carry two 30 mm or 1.181 inch MK 108 cannons.
Nevertheless, the Nazis believed that an entire squadron of them would have sufficed in what would have been their main role, which was to hunt and shoot down the fleets of Allied bombers that were attacking Germany’s industrial plants, main infrastructure and largest cities.
Alas, reality made all these ambitious plans come crashing down
29 сен 2024
