The ULTIMATE in wing extension, the Ho 267! - DONE!

[Old Wombat]

Looks like it belongs mounted on the boot of a stretch limo.

 

It's almost the right size too! 

A Niche Market for you, Kit - you'd have to work in metal, but other than that...

I started my work career 'in metal' so I could probably manage it. Not sure I want to though, plastic is SO much easier to deal with. 

Plastic shouldn't be a problem, just needs some antenna wire through it to pick up a signal.

Besides, plastic eCars need to keep their weight down (more).

[Rick Lowe]

True.
And it would be easier to replace, from the inevitable 'Street Hooligan Mods.' 

[PR19_Kit]

The landing gear on the 267 is unbelievably fiddly and tiny! Lots of small, very thin bits, that are all meant to go together to make one landing gear leg. So far I've got the main gear legs assembled and painted and tried them in place on the airframe, but one end of that IMMENSE wing touches the ground!   

Looks like a little packing is needed under one leg before it's all glued up.

The nose gear, with that UGLY He-177 wheel, now has two smaller wheels and looks a lot better. Ironically they're Spitfire Mk VIII wheels, which the Hortons would have been most unlikely to come across in the RW, but this is WhiffWorld, right?

With luck the decals may go on tonight, which means after a coat of varnish it'll be sorted. 

[The Wooksta!]

Given the Germans were painstakingly salvaging Allied wrecks to offset their materials shortage, reusing Spitfire wheels is quite reasonable.

[PR19_Kit]

The VERY last part has been glued in place! 

Not before time either, that landing gear was driving me to drink! One last main gear link strut remains to be painted, but that's so that you can see how thin and fragile it is, otherwise it'd be lost in a sea of RLM Grau.

The starboard wheel leg had to be packed up about 2 mm to ensure that side wing tip wasn't resting on the ground. The dihedral angle on either side is slightly different, but with that ENORMOUS wing span a little bit of error makes a huge difference at the tips.

Just a bit of paint trimming, and then the decals and varnish to do now.

[The Wooksta!]

Take off the front door, slice it down the middle and attach the now two doors either side.
It acts as a dirty great airbrake and is the last thing you want when landing. It's only applicable to the V-2 prototype. The V-3 onwards had doors either side.

[PR19_Kit]

The V-3 onwards had doors either side.

Hmmm, I'll have to check the books I've got to see how that looks.

It'd be easy as the door keeps wanting to fall off anyway!

[The Wooksta!]

It's definitely referenced in the Classic book, I'll check it later.

Edit: definitely split front door, from the V-3 onwards.

[PR19_Kit]

It's sorted now, and looks a lot better.

Plus the wingtips are about the same distance from the ground, but only JUST clear.....................

Decals on later today.

[NARSES2]

Nose wheels certainly look better 

[PR19_Kit]

Don't they? That MONSTER He-117 wheel looked SO out of place! 


The decals are on now, so it'll be finished today. 

[PR19_Kit]

It's finished, at last.................. 

The decals are on, and it's been varnished to the absolute limit, 2 coats of Klear and one of matt acrylic, and that's it sorted.



The expected 3/4 top view, you can't have a side view 'cos it doesn't have a side!




And from the rear, sadly the flash failed so it's not as bright, sorry.




The complete underside view, showing the camera ports in the new bulged belly.




A close up of the landing gear and the camera ports.




A close up of the engines and cockpit area, carefully posed to minimise your view of the fogged canopy. 




And lastly a head-on view just to show how looooooow it is to the ground. The wingtips are maybe 3-4 mm clear of the surface, mainly because the wing is a) HUGE and b) swept a lot.

And now the backstory.................

The Horten Bros. plans for a serious entry for the RLM's 'Amerika Bomber' project resulted in the Horten Ho XVIII 6-jet tail-less design, and this was put forward along with the Junkers, Messerschmitt, Focke-Wulf and other designs, but was rejected almost right away. The RLM weren't too interested in such an advanced and avant garde approach and went for the more conventional, although very large, Me & Ju designs.

The Hortens, not being too worried about this, similar rejections having happened numerous times before, decided to tag along with the 'Amerika Bomber' plans by proposing a long range recconaissance aircraft for target identification prior to a raid and for post attack damage assessment. Their design was formed from the centre section of the Ho 229 twin jet fighter but with much longer spanned wings developed from their Ho IV glider design. The enlarged belly of the Ho 229 V6 prototype was used and the camera fit was located fore and aft of the main landing gear wells. The overall span of the Ho 267 as it was designated, was some 78 ft, making it the largest Horten design to ever be built.

The singular Ho 267, there never being a production order, flew during March 1945 and reached an altitude of 75000 ft during its test programme, more than confirming the brothers' belief in their design, but as WWII came to an end very soon afterwards the Ho 267 never became operational and the only prototype was totally destroyed during an 8th AF bombing raid later that year.

[Rick Lowe]

Nice. 

[Vulcan7]

Very cool, winner of the most impressive wingspan award         

[Gondor]

With the number 01 was it the Wing Leader's machine?   

Gondor