HO-229 as a Soviet Stealth Bomber Idea

[Cobra]

Hey Guys,i was just doing some Research on Google when an Idea came to Me! What If the Soviets Captured the Blueprints for an HO-229 and Used them to Create an Early Stealth Bomber before the U.S.? think it would Work? if Anyone wants to do a Profile of it,Please,Be my Guest! What Say You? Thanks for looking. Dan

[pyro-manic]

"Stealth" wasn't really around at the time of the 229. That recent documentary was very misleading IMO. The goals for bomber designs were altitude and speed, to get out of reach of ground-based defences and interceptors.

However, a large flying-wing bomber (a la X/YB-35, YB-49) is a perfectly good idea, and could look very cool in red stars. Look at some of RussC's brilliant builds for more inspiration.

[frank2056]

The Wright Flyer is probably a "stealthy" aircraft, too. The Ho-229 was "stealthy" by accident, in part because the radars of the day weren't all that great and because the Horten Bros were most experienced working with plywood composites.

The easily visible engine fan blades would have made the Ho-229 obvious to radar.

A big advantage to a flying wing design is that they can be visually stealthy - just look at film of the B-49 in flight.

[Sensemann]

Yea but overall it was a sound design for stealth against the radar of the period. Would have showed up about the size of a flock of birds. IE filtered out as ground clutter. Also Nazi memos of the period also reflect a desire for stealth aircraft around the time of the radar networks becoming fully operational on the English costline.

[Burncycle]

Funny thing is IIRC it was a Soviet scientist that wrote a paper about reflection of EM waves via geometry which lead to the first purpose built stealth aircraft by US engineers. Wonder what would have happened if the Soviets had taken it and ran with it (and maybe kept the paper under wraps)