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The Horten Ho 229 (often erroneously called '''Gotha Go 229''' due to the identity of the chosen manufacturer of the aircraft) was a late- World War II Flying Wing Fighter /bomber, designed by the Horten Brothers and built by Gothaer Waggonfabrik . It was a personal favourite of German Luftwaffe chief Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring , and was the only plane to come close to meeting his infamous performance requirements. In the early 1930s the Horten brothers had become interested in the all-wing design as a method of improving the performance of gliders. The German government was funding glider clubs at the time, as powered aircraft production was forbidden by the 'Treaty of Vesailles' after WW1. The all-wing layout removes any "unneeded" surfaces and, in theory at least, leads to the lowest possible drag. For any aircraft low drag is important, but with gliders it is essential. A more conventional layout also necessitates longer and more fragile wings. A wing-only configuration allows a similarly performing glider with wings that are shorter and thus sturdier, without the added drag of a fuselage. Years later, in 1943, Reichsmarschall Göring issued a request for design proposals to produce a bomber that was capable of carrying a 1000 kg load over 1000 km at 1000 km/h; the so called ''1000/1000/1000 rule''. Conventional German bombers could reach Allied command centres in England, but were suffering devastating losses, as Allied fighter planes were faster than the German bombers. At the time there was simply no way to meet these goals; the new Jumo 004B Jet Engine s could give the speed that was required, but used fuel at such a rate that they would never be able to match the range requirement. The Hortens felt that the low-drag all-wing design could meet all of the goals; by reducing the drag, cruise power could be lowered to the point where the range requirement could be met. They put forward their current private (and jealously guarded) project, the Ho IX, as the basis for the bomber. The Government Air Ministry ( Reichsluftfahrtministerium ) approved the Horten proposal, but ordered the addition of two 30 mm cannon, as they felt the aircraft would also be useful as a fighter due to its estimated top speed being significantly higher than any allied aircraft. At about this time, roughly mid-1944, Goring took the program underground to avoid interference from Hitler or the SS. So secretly, and without any word to the powers that be, the Horten flying wing disappeared from the annals of Nazi Germany. From that time on, the Luftwaffe funded everything Horten, keeping separate notes and test results that never made it into mainstream German aircraft testing. What little is known of this aircraft has been from a very few surviving documents, pictures and oral testimony. Almost no real time test data exists, and the speculation that swirled with rumor and facts, are as good as anything written. Reichsmarschall Göring believed in the design and ordered the aircraft into production at Gotha with the RLM designation of Ho 229 before it had taken to the air under jet power. Flight testing of the Ho IX/Ho 229 prototypes began in December 1944, and the aircraft proved to be even better than expected. There were a number of minor handling problems but otherwise the performance was outstanding. Gotha appeared to be somewhat upset about being ordered to build a design from two "unknowns" and made a number of changes to the design, as well as offering a number of versions for different roles. Several more prototypes, including those for a two-seat radar-equipped "Nacht-Jäger" Night Fighter , were under construction when the Gotha plant was overrun by Allied troops in April of 1945. The Ho 229 A-0 pre-production aircraft were to be powered by two Junkers Jumo 004 B turbojets with 1,962 lbf (8.7 kN) thrust each. The maximum speed was estimated at an excellent 590 mph (950 km/h) at sea level and 607 mph (977 km/h) at 39,370 ft (12,000 m). Maximum ceiling was to be 52,500 ft (16,000 m), although it is unlikely this could be met. Maximum range was estimated at 1180 miles (1,900 km), and the initial climb rate was to be 4330 ft/min (22 m/s). It was to be armed with two 30 mm MK 108 Cannon , and could also carry either two 500 kg bombs, or twenty-four R4M Rocket s. It was the only design to come close to meeting the 1000/1000/1000 rule, and that would have remained true even for a number of years after the war. But like many of the late war German designs, the production was started far too late for the plane to have any effect. In this case none saw combat. The US military initiated " Operation Paperclip " which was an effort by the U.S. Army in the last weeks of the war to capture as much advanced German weapons research as possible, and also to deny that research to advancing Soviet troops. A Horten glider and the Ho-229 number V3 were secured and sent to Northrop Aviation in the United States for evaluation. Northrop was chosen because of their experience with flying wings. Inspired by the Horten brothers' record-setting glider, Jack Northrop had been building flying wings since the 1939 N-1M , and during WWII had progressed to the large XB-35 bomber. Northrop's small one-man prototype ( N9M-B ) and a Horten wing-only glider are located in the Chino Air Museum in Southern California. The only existing Ho-229 airframe to be preserved was V3, and it is located at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Washington D.C. The airframe V1 was an engine-less test glider, and the Jumo-004B powered V2 crashed on approach due to a hydraulic failure. Several partial airframes found on the assembly line were destroyed by U.S. troops to prevent them from being captured by advancing Soviet forces. It is said there were 6 prototypes in all, 2 of which were used for flight testing. Most of these flight tests occurred in the early 1945. SPECIFICATIONS (HORTEN HO 229 V2, V3)
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