Hitler’s Stealth Jet Fighter
From the V-2 rocket, to the Enigma encryption machines, Nazi scientists were at the forefront of nearly every major technological breakthrough during the 1930s and 1940s. As the war progressed the United States deemed their minds so valuable that, after D-Day, they launched Operation Paperclip, an operation to capture Nazi scientists and technology for use in a potential future war against the Soviet Union. During this operation, the US uncovered German plans and prototypes to build a fleet of stealth fighter jets that could evade Britain’s Chain Home radar system. Though the development of the Horton Ho 229 was barely out of the prototype stage, the technological triumph of launching the world’s first jet-powered flying wing was remarkable.
The Ho 229 was powered by twin jet engines located on either side of the cockpit. It had a maximum range of 650 miles, was armed with 4 30 mm cannons, and was capable of delivering a payload of 2 500 kg bombs. Designed in complete secret, the Ho 229 underwent test flights in early 1945, reportedly participating in a simulated dogfight against a Messerschmitt Me 262, the world’s first jet-powered aircraft. Though tailless aircraft have notorious in-flight stability issues, the Ho 229 exceeded all expectations and even won the rumored dogfight. The Germans suffered a setback when one of their prototypes crashed when attempting to land, but they pressed forward.
The aircraft was green-lighted for production in March of 1945, but only variations (most were prototypes) were actually completed before the factories were captured by Allied forces. A completed Ho 229 was shipped back to the United States and given to the Northrup Corporation. While the Ho 229 was being developed, Northrup was working on its own series of flying wing-style aircraft. While it’s unclear how much the 229 influenced US aviation, it wouldn’t be until the invention of computers and their ability to make rapid adjustments to flight dynamics that flying wings would truly emerge as a viable weapon platform.
Stealth aircraft based on the flying wing concept wouldn’t enter modern air forces until the 1980s, when the United States would successfully deploy the B-2 stealth bomber and the F-117 stealth fighter. Both of these aircraft would rely on sophisticated computers to keep them stable while in flight and neither would become the true dogfighting jet aircraft that the Nazis had envisioned when they first commissioned the Ho 229.
In 2008, Northrup Grumman built a scale replica of the Ho 229 and bombarded it with radar signals similar to those the aircraft would have found over England. These tests found that the German innovations reduced the aircraft’s radar signature by nearly 60% compared to the Messerschmitt BF 109, the most widely used German aircraft at the time. With a lower radar signature and a high top speed thanks to its jet engines, the Ho 229 may have been able to evade Britain’s air defences and resumed the bombardment of London and other cities on the coast.
What does that mean for Germany? Could this weapon have turned the war around? It’s unlikely. Only one Horton was produced during the war and it crashed during a test flight. Given the deteriorating conditions inside Germany, the shrinking industrial capacity, and the difficulty in obtaining raw materials and competent workers, it seems highly unlikely that the Germans could have armed the Luftwaffe with enough Horton stealth aircraft to make a difference. The war had already swung too far in the Allies’ favour and German needs were too great to be spent on a plane with questionable tactical practicality. So, while it is fun and fascinating to look at what the Nazis were working on during the latter days of the war, anything short of their own nuclear bomb wouldn’t have been able to shift the balance of power enough to impact the end of the war.
If this was stealth of the 40`s, why anyone doubts Iran can make the Qaher-313 today, let us say it is a 4th generation stealth fighter bomber.
