Hitler's Stealth Bomber

[Bill]

Meet the "wonder weapon" that could have won the war for Hitler.

Called the Horten 229, the radical "flying wing" fighter-bomber looked and acted a lot like the U.S. Air Force's current B-2 — right down to the "stealth" radar-evading characteristics.

Fortunately for the world, the Ho 229 wasn't put into mass production before Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945.

But American researchers boxed up and shipped home the prototypes and partially-built planes that existed — and now the same company that builds the B-2 has rebuilt one.

Northrop Grumman Corp. spent its own time and money using the original German blueprints to replicate the wood-and-steel-tube bomber, right down to its unique metallic glue and paint, at its facility in El Segundo, Calif.

Using radar of the same type and frequency used by British coastal defenses in World War II, the engineers found that an Ho 229, flying a few dozen feet above the English Channel, would indeed have been "invisible" to the Royal Air Force — an advantage that arrived too late for the Nazis to exploit.

The National Geographic Channel will next air Jorgenson's documentary, "Hitler's Stealth Fighter," on Sunday, July 5.

[chud]

Hitler had a lot of great weapons available to him. German engineering back then was the best.
Fortunately for the world, Hitler was too stupid to take advantage of the great technological resources that he had.
The USA scooped up all those great German scientists after WWII and our space program and defense program reaped the benefits.

[Felipe Bidó]

Looks like the UFO Kenneth Arnold saw, and that started the whole "Flying Saucers" crazyness.

[Ian]

Hitler had a lot of great weapons available to him.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

the spoils of war in-situ

[Darth Rock&Roll]

Looks like the UFO Kenneth Arnold saw, and that started the whole "Flying Saucers" crazyness.

It gets better. Just give it a little while.
The "ufos" are quite real and quite human.

Has no one ever asked themselves : In grade 2 we were all shown the properties of reverse polarity using 2 small magnets whereby they repulsed each other. Earth is a huge electromagnetic orb. How difficult would it be to detect teh electromagnetic field below you and reverse the polarity of the field around you against it?

Answer: apparently not very.

The technology has been extant since prior to the 20th century and fully operable since the early 1950's with surfaces and composites improving over time as well as sensors and power systems and control systems.

In 1980 we got toe see the space shuttle for the first time.
It was under construction and being tested in the 50's.

What ever you can imagine that the military might have, you are 50 years behind.

true story.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

for another clue to where it's at: note that the fastest plane ever built was the sr-71 blackbird. It was completely operable in 1969. It was mothballed in the 90's and nothing was put forward as it's replacement.

You don't think there wasn't a replacement do you? lol

Besides the hundreds of geosynchronous high resolution imaging satellites littering earth orbit, the highest resolutions are attained inside the atmosphere using aircraft, some manned some unmanned. Most unknown.

[Bill]

I was once lucky enough to photograph a ufo that I saw.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

why is there a tampon in it?

[Andy_S]

Bill:

Very glad to see that this important piece of history has been dredged up and rebuilt.

One problem: How are they going to get it out of the door?

[Bill]

Those are movable panels where you see the men standing. They move sideways out of the way. The hallway to then get outside is quite wide and should handle that bird.
I know this because I spent many years working for Northrop and have been in that facility many times.

[Steve James]

Germany and Japan both had innovative wonder weapons. Otoh, many of them were invented by the Allies, but they did not develop them. English and American scientists were working on jet engines, but they didn't get support until the war was almost over. Rocket technology was really started by the American, Goddard. The tank suspension system that an American (I forget his name) developed was rejected by our army brass; but it was adopted famously by the Soviets and the Germans. Of course, we got the idea for an atomic bomb from the Germans.

Anyway, as far as the war goes, or went, it was always a production problem that Germany could not win. Even if they had produced more planes, they wouldn't have had the pilots to fly them. There were, for ex, far more Me262s (German jet fighters), but they didn't make much difference.

[fisherman]

I watched the Nat Geo thing. It was pretty interesting.

[Darth Rock&Roll]

Germany and Japan both had innovative wonder weapons. Otoh, many of them were invented by the Allies, but they did not develop them. English and American scientists were working on jet engines, but they didn't get support until the war was almost over. Rocket technology was really started by the American, Goddard. The tank suspension system that an American (I forget his name) developed was rejected by our army brass; but it was adopted famously by the Soviets and the Germans. Of course, we got the idea for an atomic bomb from the Germans.

Anyway, as far as the war goes, or went, it was always a production problem that Germany could not win. Even if they had produced more planes, they wouldn't have had the pilots to fly them. There were, for ex, far more Me262s (German jet fighters), but they didn't make much difference.

Tank prototype originally drawn up by Leonardo Da Vinci
Rocket technology discovered and implemented in China long before Goddard even got a notion.

True application of jets and rockets came from germany.

"We only see so far because we stand on the shoulders of Giants" ~Newton.

Credit, where credit is due.

The allies got to develop the technology (jet/rocket) only after they took it from the germans who had it at production readiness.
the Americans and british also adapted their nuclear studies using german technology as well.
Not taking away from the los alamos folks, but it was german experiments that really got the ball rolling and it was the british/canadian sir william stephenson who destroyed the german efforts and stole the info during the war that really helped the development and application of atomic weapons.

world war two had some fascinating stories within it's timeline that we shall never ever hear.

To this day, german ingenuity and Chinese industriousness is a reality.

[Steve James]

Tank prototype originally drawn up by Leonardo Da Vinci
Rocket technology discovered and implemented in China long before Goddard even got a notion.

Well, Da Vinci's tank didn't have treads, and the British were the first to use them in combat. Da Vinci also invented the parachute, but it was more of a concept than anything used. You're right about the use of rockets in combat, but it was the propulsion system that Goddard refined. The Germans were the first Europeans to develop a guidance system (best illustrated by the V2) that allowed rockets to be aimed. But, hey, no one's taking any credit away from German or Chinese ingenuity. The Germans had a more advanced military because they invested the most in military technology between the wars. If they hadn't scared away some of their best scientists, they'd have been even more advanced.

As for credit, the people who get the least has been the Soviets.

As for jets, two people are considered co-inventors... Ok, found this: "Dr. Hans von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle are both recognized as being the co-inventors of the jet engine. Each worked separately and knew nothing of the other's work. Hans von Ohain is considered the designer of the first operational turbojet engine. Frank Whittle was the first to register a patent for the turbojet engine in 1930. Hans von Ohain was granted a patent for his turbojet engine in 1936. However, Hans von Ohain's jet was the first to fly in 1939. Frank Whittle's jet first flew in in 1941."

There were some shows on a while back about "Secret Axis Super Weapons" (or something like that) which showed some really interesting stuff. There was the submarine aircraft carrier and other cool things. Maybe it'll be reshown on is on a torrent somewhere.