Posted on 06/24/2009 6:21:36 PM PDT by Windcatcher
This Sunday, June 28, National Geographic TV airs Hitler's Stealth Fighter. Set your TiVos or just kick the rest of the family off the TV, because this one should be good.
Back when stealth was very, very secret, a few people quietly advised me to take a look at the Horten Ho229, one of WW2 Germany's most advanced designs - a jet-powered flying wing made of wood. In a German book, a British documentary producer had found something even more interesting: the Horten brothers, Walter and Reimar, had planned to use a primitive radar absorbent structure (RAS) in the leading edges. They were to be made from a sandwich of plywood around a carbon-loaded filler. The only question: how well would it actually have worked?
Now, we know:
(Excerpt) Read more at aviationweek.com ...
ping
On the NatGeo site they have some teaser videos. I can’t wait to watch this on Sunday.
There was a documentary on the history channel about this plane several years ago. Hitler ordered it built in order to be able to take the A bomb that they were developing to New York. Then they realized its stealth capability. After the war we captured it with other technology and brought one here.
It was warehoused at the Air and Space Museum facility at Dulles and Lockheed engineers stumbled upon it and realized what it was, taking inspiration from it.
i’m far too suspicious to actually read the article.
But you guys should consider this...this thought that is screaming inside my brain. Why is the national geographic so interested in stealth technology from nazi germany?
Um, i know, I know, I know...
Because they are equating stealth technology and for that matter ALL military technology that gives america any meaningful tactical edge as being the same as nazis.
Do you think obama should keep spending money on stealth tech? Or defensive missile shield tech? Well, then you must be a nazi. National geographic says so.
Lol, if some idiot actually said that to me (or something equally inane, e.g. we should stop investing in space exploration because Wernher von Braun was a Nazi) I would be tempted to reply with a “Sieg, Heil”, just to piss him off.
(I have relatives on both sides who fought the Germans, in some cases on their home soil. That doesn’t mean I’ll buckle under when a Communist throws around the Nazi label to silence me. I know better than most who the Nazis really were and I know I’m not one of them).
That’s all fine and dandy, but that doesn’t change the fact that the throwing around of the nazi comparisons in MSM WORKS to scare people, by and large.
It’s a tactic used against us and we end up suffering from it one way or another.
Thanks for the ping. If I remember my ancient history, this bird either didn’t fly or didn’t fly very well.
The Go-229 was designed as a fighter.
Hitler might have ordered a plane built to take the non-existant German A-bomb to New York, but it wasn't the Go-229.
That's just what Hitler would say.
What about the claim that the Nazis shot a man into space in 1945 using an A-10 two stage rocket? He splashed down in the sea of Japan. He was 84 in 2000 and said he was the first n space. There was talk that Hitler was trying for an A-Bomb and even tested one before the end of the war. Hitler spoke of such things but he was quite mad at the time.
here's a pic lifted from the web:
On the other coast, at an airshow in Chino, CA (roughly 5 years ago, I guess) I got to see on of those small scale versions of Jack Northrop's flying wing... they had restored it to operation and it was flying. Really amazing.
I am only reporting what was said in the documentary as shown.
What you’re referring to was known as the Amerika Bomber. It was a four-engine flying wing, with the engines mounted low alongside the non-retractable landing gear. It did see design, but was never built.
You’re right, but there were further refinements on the drawing board. One of them was the 1000x1000x1000 tactical bomber: a 1000 kg. bombload, 1000 km tactical radius, 1000 kph top speed.
Others designs were strategic bombers designed to reach New York. The Germans actually flew some Me-264s within 200 miles of New York. However, the Germans never had the industrial capacity to pursue a real strategic bombing campaign. They were too busy fending off the Allied strategic bombers.
My point was that the Go-229 was not transoceanic atomic bomber. The plane was quite an accomplishment as it was, without need to exaggerate.
Accuracy trails entertainment value on almost all History/Discovery/Military/Science Channel shows. Take them all with a large grain of salt.
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