the year is 1945 and allied forces in world war ii come across a hidden german hangar in the woods
and what they discover would spark controversies that continue to this day
the luftwaffe the german aerial warfare branch was secretly developing an aircraft that they
believed could help them win the war led by none other than hermann goering what they find
is one of the so-called german secret weapons the horton ho229 v3 prototype an otherworldly
looking jet powered flying wing aircraft the ho229 housed two jet engines integrated into
a sleek flying wing design and resembled nothing else of the era in the late stages of world war
ii the americans initiated operation paperclip an effort to capture advanced german weapons research
and keep it from falling into the hands of the advancing soviet forces through operation seahorse
the ho229 was shipped back to the us in 1945 and the allies removed yet another chess piece
from the board of germany's high-tech military arsenal but the story doesn't end there in fact
it raises some fascinating questions was the ho229 sleek design purpose built to evade radar was the
northrop grumman b2 stealth bomber influenced or even copied from the ho229 and what if germany
had achieved production of the ho229 could it have turned the tide and changed the outcome of the war
we wanted to take a moment to pause and thank all of our viewers and subscribers and if you
are looking for another way to support us we are now on patreon to understand why the h0229 existed
in the first place let's look at the forces that drove its creation in 1943 the so-called three by
1000 was hermann goering's call for a light bomber capable of carrying 1 000 kilograms of ordnance
over 1 000 kilometers at 1 000 kilometers per hour these requirements would allow germany to extend
their reach into britain and would prove ambitious ultimately powered by two jet engines and
constructed with a center pod made of steel tubing and wings made from plywood the horton brothers
reimar and valter believe the ants lie in a unique flying wing design foregoing the conventional
fuselage and wing construction the entire ho229 generated lift while greatly reducing drag after
some convincing guring was sold on the scale of the brothers ambition and their unconventional
design awarding them the 3x1 000 contract the first version of the 229 was an unpowered glider
with fixed landing gear and took its first flight in march of 1944. the second version was powered
by yunkas yumo turbojet engines and took its first test flights between december of 44 and february
of 45. it reportedly displayed very good handling qualities with only moderate lateral instability
which is a common characteristic of tailless aircraft at this point research and development
responsibilities were handed over to coach builder gutar wagen fabrik and the ho229 was subsequently
called the ghouta go229 the brothers then shifted their focus to the next evolution of their design
with the america bomber project more on this later but the third version was larger than previous
prototypes the shape also being refined throughout moving toward pre-production models that had been
ordered however with the war coming to a close none were ever produced after the war reimar
horton immigrated to argentina where he continued to work on gliders and other experimental aircraft
valtter remained in germany and would become an officer in the post-war german air force but this
wouldn't be the last we'd hear from the horton brothers in the 1983 book nerf legal translated
only the wing reimar horton claimed that he wanted to add charcoal to the glue in between
the plywood layers used in the 229 skin saying it should diffuse radar beams and make the aircraft
invisible on radar while reimar was referring to a future version of the production model that was
never made it certainly seems plausible that it could have been used on the v3 prototype that the
allies discovered and although we will come back to his claim shortly this book set off a debate
among aviation enthusiasts and world war ii buffs alike further fueled by a 2009 national geographic
documentary on the 229. that documentary was an attempt to determine if the ho229 was the world's
first true stealth fighter bomber northrop grumman engineers painstakingly rebuilt a
non-flying replica over a period of three months and then exhaustively tested its radar signature
their conclusion there was just a 20 improvement in radar detection range over planes of the time
it turns out that the nose the inlets and the canopy were primary weaknesses in terms of
radar signature remember that one of the keys to britain's defense in keeping german air raids at
bay was their advanced radar system also called chain home which had a range of about 100 miles
the royal air force usually had about 19 minutes advanced warning of impending air raids and could
even see german fighters marshalling before they crossed the channel but with the 229's
reduced radar detection range combined with the speed afforded the jet engines northrop
grumman concluded that it would have reduced the warning to a mere eight minutes at high altitude
and less than three minutes if flown at low altitude in 2012 a research paper was published
by the smithsonian national air and space museum shedding some light on an otherwise dark topic the
paper entitled is it stealth sets out to examine the claims of rymar horton as well as analyze
the ho229 v3 prototype for presence of carbon in between the plywood layers in short their
conclusion was reimar horton's published statement in the 1980s about wanting to add charcoal to the
production model must be taken at face value as an idea a production model was never fabricated and
the prototype does not show any clear evidence of charcoal as a stealth ingredient so was the horton
purpose built to avoid radar detection or was it an inherent consequence of the basic flying wing
design it's unlikely that it was purpose built its radar signature was only marginally improved
about 20 percent less than other aircraft of the day and no evidence of radar absorbing materials
was found it's more likely that the reduced drag of the flying wing combined with the jet engines
would allow it to meet guring's requirement of three by one thousand looking at true stealth
aircraft like the f-117 nighthawk and the b2 you'll notice the engines are placed on top
shielding it from ground radar systems while the ho229 had front mount engines that would suggest
their design prioritize performance over low observability and according to lockheed martin
analyst dennis overholser the four keys to stealth are shape shape shape and materials he worked
heavily on the f-117 considered to be the first operational stealth aircraft design for warfare
so was the b2 spirit stealth bomber influenced or even copied from the ho229 probably not jack
northrup made flying wings the focus of his work during the 1930s and northrop has several designs
before during and after the war according to a 2005 history channel documentary modern marvel's
secret luftwaffe aircraft world war ii northrop grumman engineers visited the ho229 v3 prototype
but little is known of their visit it's more likely that the early b2 design kicked off in
1979 was based on earlier northrop designs like the yb49 not the horton h029 but if the germans
had more time to get the ho229 into production could that have changed the outcome of the war
again it's unlikely jets were a very cutting edge technology and jet fuel availability would
have been a major issue for germany especially this late in the war where oil shortages were a
big problem all flying wing aircraft of this vintage were difficult to fly and although
a promising experiment the first jet-powered ho229 prototype crashed on only its third flight
killing its pilot without a tail or vertical stabilizers the flying wing design poses some
lateral instability in its flight characteristics and a fully production level flying wing wouldn't
take to the skies until 1989 with the b2 in those four decades mankind would have broken free of the
earth and landed on the moon before the dream of a stable flying wing aircraft would be realized
the ho229 was a groundbreaking proof of concept but it was far too early for the technology of
the day and until flight control computers and fly-by-wire systems came into their own in the
1970s it would remain just an unstable dream the horton h.o.229 was a remarkable glimpse
into what the future of stealth aviation could be and was decades ahead of its time the radical
jet powered flying wing design would have many benefits and once fly-by-wire computer systems
entered the equation the advances could finally be realized if you would like to go even deeper
check out david meera's interviews with the horton brothers in the 80s and 90s
although the smithsonian has not digitized the nearly 250 different tapes and cds gifted to them
some of their descriptions of their content is quite interesting you might also want to take
a look at the smithsonian research paper as well as the nat geo and history channel documentaries
we will link all of the resources below and if the thought of a semi-stealth german bomber
capable of slipping past british defenses isn't terrifying enough hermann goering was determined
to have nuclear weapon capabilities by 1946 he commissioned the brothers to work on an even
larger transatlantic bomber project called the america bomber dubbed the horton 18 it was a much
larger version based on the ho229 if the allies hadn't won the war when they did and the german
war machine continued on could nuclear attacks on the u.s have become reality and whatever happened
to the german aircraft that would destroy new york and washington dc that's a subject
for another video if you enjoyed this video we would be honored to have your subscription so
you can get notified of more videos like this we're 2-bit davinci thank you for watching you