Among all aircraft ever developed, very few have captured the human imagination as did the Horten Ho 229, an all-wing flying-wing design developed by two brothers in Germany during World War II. Now conserved in the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, this jet-powered flying wing testifies to Reimar and Walter Horten’s vision for the future.
The Horten brothers, Reimar, a brilliant designer, and Walter, a fighter pilot with great combat experience, had been interested in aviation since the late 1920s. Reimar’s first tries were a gradual elimination of usual components from the aircraft design: fuselage, stabilizers, rudder, and elevators, one after another, until he could fly with just the wing. This relentless pursuit is what ultimately led to the design of the Ho 229, a jet-powered flying wing that would revolutionize the art of aerial combat.
“Reimar was a brilliant designer and Walter was a fighter pilot,” says Russell E. Lee, curator in the aeronautics department of the National Air and Space Museum. “One of the lessons they took from the Battle of Britain was the need for a new fighter aircraft. Walter thought the all-wing plane was the answer to Germany’s needs. In about 1942, both brothers put pen to paper and designed something that eventually became the Horten 229.”
The Ho 229 was well ahead of its time in design. It looked unlike any other aircraft of the period: more than 50 feet wide, angled at 32 degrees, and having no tail. On paper, it outturned the German Me 262, history’s first operational jet fighter, and reached speeds over 600 miles per hour. In comparison, its speed is easily over 437 mph in the American P-51 Mustang and 330 mph in the British Supermarine Spitfire, both of which are piston-engine-powered aircraft.
The aircraft’s unique design also led to speculation about its stealth capabilities. Comments made by Reimar Horten after the war fueled the myth that the Ho 229 could elude radar detection. “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 notes. However, scientific examinations by the Smithsonian team concluded that there was no intentional plan to make it stealthy.
Despite all the promises, the Ho 229 was beset with problems. On February 28, 1944, a glider version of the V1 took to the air and undertook some successful test flights. The V2, powered by two Junkers 004 turbojet engines, flew three times, beginning February 2, 1945. The third, on February 18, ended in tragedy when the test pilot, Lieutenant Erwin Ziller, died in a dive directly into the ground after the aircraft spun following an engine failure during the dive.
Development continued with the Ho 229 V3, but this version never flew. The war in Europe ended nearly three months later, and the half-completed prototype, along with three other unfinished models, was captured by General George S. Patton’s Third Army. The Allies never found a working version of the H.XVIII, the huge intercontinental bomber that inspired the aircraft seen in the 2011 film Captain America: The First Avenger.
Following the war, the Horten brothers went their separate ways: Walter remained in Germany to become an officer in the country’s newly reconstituted air force, while Reimar went to Argentina to work on his all-wing aircraft. Despite all of his efforts, he would never have equaled the success he had with the Ho 229.
Now, the experimental aircraft resides in the museum’s Boeing Aviation Hangar, the once-in-a-lifetime example of ingenuity and vision that the Horten brothers had. “It’s the only one of its kind,” Lee says. “We’ve taken the time and effort to preserve it and save it and now display it for our public. It’s just one of nearly 400 aircraft in our collection that are all significant and all have incredible stories to tell.”
The Horten Ho 229 will nevertheless stand as a monument to ingenuity, a very interesting episode in aviation history, and evidence that even during the most troubled times of war, human progress in technology cannot be halted.