Horten Flying Wings

[sagallacci]

Actually, you'll want to keep a fairly big wheel up front as the Horton will want to be "floaty" for landing, and not want to drop on the rear wheels right away, so will spend a lot of time (and a lot of weight) just on the nose wheel. On a simular note, the nose gear doors are split length-wise, not the big barn door on that illustration.

[K5054NZ]

I was flying an Ho.IX on Flight Simulator last night - yeah, I know, it sooo counts - and the big nosewheel frightened me a bit on landing! I was afraid I was gonna tip over! She does float a tad, and is slippery as anything.

I still really want a kit 

[Jeffry Fontaine]

I was flying an Ho.IX on Flight Simulator last night - yeah, I know, it sooo counts - and the big nosewheel frightened me a bit on landing! I was afraid I was gonna tip over! She does float a tad, and is slippery as anything.

I still really want a kit 

Perhaps the nose gear from an F-4 Phantom, Mirage III or an A-4 Skyhawk would work in place of that huge wheel on the Horten.  The big wheel up front always bugged me too since it looks so out of place on an aircraft of that size.  Reminds me of a big wheel tricycle with wings. 

[GTX]

If I remember part of the reasoning for the nose gear and wheel was to keep the engine intakes well away from the ground while operating from rough improvised airfields,as the bulk of germanys airfields were being pummeled at the time
"Panzer"

Oh, I realise the reasoning behind the nosewheel, but still in a whiff world where the Horten actually entered operational service (either with a more victorious Luftwaffe or even post-war), they may not have needed it.

Regards,

Greg

[Archibald]

What about a Lippish / Horten hybrid... a German "Flying Dorito" for example.
Lots of interesting ideas here.

I've toyed with Atar-9 exhausts and Revell 1/72 Ho-9 various times, but they really don't fit and would totally destroy the line.

Hmmm...a Dassault-Horten 9 powered by early Atar or french-build BMW-003 around 1945...

The picture in page 1 come from an odd comic called "Ailes de plombs" (wings of lead) the scenario aparently involve De Gaulle murder attempts by an hijacked Horten 9 prototype tested in Cazaux...

[GTX]

Something I found today:



Regards,

Greg

[Aircav]

I bought one of the Ravell kits in England last year (the first WWII German kit I've bought in 25 years) with the intention of making it a USAF bird in Korea or even Vietnam service.  I wasnt getting much modeling done back then so it never came to pass, but my plan is still for a USAF build.  Seeing that pic with Snakeyes just makes me want to jump on it again.

You'll have to do something about that nose wheel though, its far to big for a 50's-6o's jet

[AeroplaneDriver]

I bought one of the Ravell kits in England last year (the first WWII German kit I've bought in 25 years) with the intention of making it a USAF bird in Korea or even Vietnam service.  I wasnt getting much modeling done back then so it never came to pass, but my plan is still for a USAF build.  Seeing that pic with Snakeyes just makes me want to jump on it again.

You'll have to do something about that nose wheel though, its far to big for a 50's-6o's jet

YEah, I agree.  You'd think Horten nvented the wheel from the size of that thing.  Shame though, because the one in the kit really is a work of art.  In fact the whole kit looks superb.

[GTX]

Given all the talk of the nose wheel, I thought I'd try to see what one would look with a smaller one:



What do you think?  I decided to keep the nose high attitude to help with take off and to protect the engines from FOD.

Regards,

Greg

[Mossie]

It does look more in proportion. I think you could afford to lose some height on the nose wheel, shouldn't be anymore of FOD hoover than other aircaft of the time.  Keeping the attitude may help with AD's carrier bird though, take of at least, although landings may be tricky.

Thinking back to a US Horten & a USAF example, it'd look very nice as a recce bird in the gloss black with red markings of the RB-57s....

[GTX]

I've asked in the profiles thread, but will also ask here - does anyone have a decent line drawing of the two seat version of the Horten Ho-IX/Gotha Go 229/Ho 229?

Regards,

Greg

[AeroplaneDriver]

It does look more in proportion. I think you could afford to lose some height on the nose wheel, shouldn't be anymore of FOD hoover than other aircaft of the time.  Keeping the attitude may help with AD's carrier bird though, take of at least, although landings may be tricky.

Thinking back to a US Horten & a USAF example, it'd look very nice as a recce bird in the gloss black with red markings of the RB-57s....

I'm sticking an A-4 nosegear on mine, with the explanation that it is extendable for launch, but has a lower attitude for recovery.

[TsrJoe]

some scans from the October 1995 issue of the R&D, P&C, newsletter ...

[jcf]

Profile from the painting instructions for the 1/48 DML kit.

This is another one I'm redrawing as vector art in Illustrator, someday I'll get caught up with my projects. 

Jon

[Jeffry Fontaine]

Glad someone has the ability to scan images.  Appreciate the input. 

I have had a couple of ideas for the Horten wing that I guess I should share with you.  For quite some time, I had been stumped about how to incorporate a couple of drop tanks on the wings in place of the usual air to air missiles that come in the one DML/Dragon kit.  I kept looking for something that was German and WWII vintage but I guess that was part of the problem.  After seeing the image on the preceeding page with the Horten in flight and dropping bombs, I realized that my search for a suitable pylon to carry bombs or fuel tanks could be broadened to include something that was not German or WWII era. 

What I had originally had in mind was to use a pair of drop tanks from an Fw-190 or Me-109 with the appropraite pylon under the wings.  The drop tanks were those peculiar looking things that remind me of insect larvae due to the inverse ribbing feature that was used during construction.  Focusing on that type of drop tank with a suitable wing pylon had been a challenge since there are few opportunities to acquire these parts cheaply.  I had no desire to be seen in public purchasing a Messerschmidt or Focke-Wolfe since I have an accute disdain for most German aircraft of WWII and that left me with few options.  Now that I have been "enlightened" I can broaden my search for suitable tankage and stores pylons from other period aircraft such as the Panther, Hellcat, and Bearcat to find a suitable donor of parts.