Posted on 07/01/2009 4:36:17 AM PDT by SonOfDarkSkies
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
No it couldn't have. Made it costlier for the Allies, maybe. Prolong the war a little bit, maybe. But it alone wasn't going to stop the several million troops converging on Berlin from both sides.
PHOTOS: "Hitler's Stealth Fighter"
I would like to see a compilation in one place of all the innovations that Nazi Germany came up with - the list must be staggering. Jets, Stealth, rocketry, this B2 like plane and many, many others.
Germany should thank God they didn’t this jet into operation, assuming it is stable. Germany would have been the second country to suffer a nuclear weapon detonation had they not already been destroyed.
Only if Hitler had gotten nuclear weapons could he have “won”.
There was a book that came out about ten years back titled: “How Hitler could have won”. It details a number of fatal Nazi mistakes & missed opportunities. In short:
— No declaration of war on America
— No invasion of Russia
— Expand operations in the Middle East. Seize the Arab oil fields.
I find this argument very compelling. If Hitler could have maintained his pact with the Soviet Union while gaining control of the Saudi oil fields, he might have won. Also, its not clear if America would have entered the war against Nazi Germany had Hitler not declared war on the US first. Short of these major strategic revisions, I really doubt there was any conventional weapon or technology that would have won the war for Hitler.
I recall seeing a much smaller version of a German flying wing at the Smithsonian’s “Silver Hill” facility. I’m not sure if that ever saw service, but it looked like a mean little machine.
Not likely. They would have had the same problems we had with the flying wing till computer technology caught up.
Hitler was insane, no if, ands or buts. His own people knew it.
Like most of the German late war fighters, great planes but not enough pilots or fuel. Our production over whelmed the Germans and we had an endless supply of pilot trainees, new jet prototypes, and lots of fuel. The only thing that might have saved them was their own A Bomb. By late 1944 the quality of their troops was dismal. The Army was spent and could not effectively sustain a counter attack. Whether a stealth airplane or the Trans Atlantic Bomber could do any damage by the time we hit the beaches of Normandy is doubtful. A former WW II German Officer once told me, “When the Americans landed in France, we knew the war was over.” (That from a former Capt. in the Waffen SS.)
This National Socialist stealth bomber would not have won the war for Hitler. In fact, it likely would have had no influence whatsoever. The problem is that it was not capable of carrying enough bombs to seriously damage the Allied war effort.
Unlike the Americans and British, National Socialist Germany never developed a heavy bomber like the B-17. The Luftwaffe was very good at tactical air support, but not strategic bombing, which required a large number of planes capable of carrying many bombs to rain on targets below. The Americans and British used long range bombers to wipe out Germany’s ability to wage war long before ground troops got anywhere near the Rhine. The results paid huge dividends for the Russians pn the Eastern front.
Edwards Air Force base is named after Glen Edwards who died while test flying a flying wing.
The only way Germany could have avoided defeat would have been to get rid of Hitler and Himmler, etc. The ME262 was an example of an advanced weapon that was squandered by the idiot Hitler in pointless uses. Same thing would have occurred with this plane.
Since the strategic bombing offensive had little to do with Germany’s defeat in the first place a stealthy interceptor would have encouraged the Allies to stop wasting lives and resources in minimally effective bombing raids.
I saw this jet on one of those wonder weapons of WWII that the History Channel did. It had the range to fly round trip to the US East Coast carrying a nuclear device.
Don’t forget we had the Nordon bomb sight.
Big talk about a plane that never flew (and still hasn't).
Hitler made the same mistake (pinning his hopes on wonder weapons that weren't ready, wouldn't work or were too complicated to produce and operate).
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