Horten 229 flying wing doc on Freevee

[JonChalk]

Went back a bit and couldn't see a thread on this, but apologies if a repeat post, but there's a not too bad doc on Amazon's Freevee channel on the wooden (more or less), jet-engined Horten 229 flying wing bomber, and establishing whether it was radar-stealthy.

Not very deep, (and also not very new - 2009 - but only just popped up on Freevee I think) but pretty interesting, as it's a WW2 plane I wasn't really aware of, as most of the wunderwaffe docs focus on the rocket-powered planes, V-weapons and stupid-sized tanks.

[JonChalk]

tracer.smart said:

I watched this last night - quite interesting. It’s a shame they didn’t do a deeper documentary on the real 229 which is undergoing conservation at the moment.

Also came across a show on the Me 323 Gigant wreck that was found off the coast of Sardinia when I browsed ‘Customers also viewed’. Worth a watch, made in 2013 but still veterans and eyewitnesses around to interview back then.

Found that now - thanks for the tip. Added to Watchlist.

[JonChalk]

annodomini2 said:

Shuvi said:

Simpo Two said:

I suspect that any reduced radar signature was because it was largely made from wood - because they'd run out of metal.

I'm not sure if the programme I saw was the same one, but it seemed that the stealth aspect was pushed to make it a bit more 'woo'. A couple of Americans made a big wooden box and put some fan blades in it - was that the one?

As with other German designs, remarkable ideas but a decade too early to work well.

I haven't seen any show about this, but then I haven't watched TV in about 15yrs. Northrop tested big flying wings years before the 229. I guess no one shouts 'stealth' when they see that because it doesn't resemble the B2 quite as much.
I'm not sure that the stealth thing came up until recently.

There was a program about 10yrs ago, they put a mock up on a radar cross section test stand.

They claimed that the radar cross section, combined with the speed of the aircraft and with the radar technology available at the time would have given them the edge against the response time for the RAF, to potentially attack the radar stations in the south of England and bug out before the RAF could scramble and intercept them.

Are they stealth as we would know it today, no.

But had they been available earlier in the war, e.g. Battle of Britain, they may have changed the result.

...and......we're back to that start of the thread - that's this film.