AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 171 / 327

Plate 171 of 327 · Second World War · Jet flying-wing fighter-bomber (prototype)

Horten Ho 229

Ho 229 V3 (Ho IX V3) ‘T2-490’, painted as Horten Ho 229 V3 (Ho IX V3, Gotha Go 229 V3), the only surviving Ho 229, captured unfinished at Friedrichroda in April 1945 and held by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia: a single-seat jet flying wing with no fuselage or tail, a steel-tube centre section carrying two Junkers Jumo 004B turbojets buried either side of the cockpit with their intakes in the leading edge and their exhausts over the upper surface, a bubble canopy, swept plywood outer wings, and a tall tricycle undercarriage that holds it nose-up: shown assembled on its wheels, as it was put together at Freeman Field in 1945–46, with the centre section in its conserved, unrestored state of faded grey-green over light blue-grey with rust along the steel cowlings and seams, a white ‘T2-490’ on the engine cowling, a white outline swastika near the trailing point and a crazed, yellowed canopy, and the outer wings in faded grey with black-and-white crosses, as photographed at the Udvar-Hazy Center 2016–2021 (no Ho 229 is in a UK museum; the outer wings are displayed separately and the undercarriage legs carry no wheels today, so the wheels follow 1945 photographs; the starboard markings are assumed to match the photographed port side; shape from a Ho IX line drawing and a Ho 229 V3 three-view scaled to NASM’s dimensions).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as Horten Ho 229 V3 (Ho IX V3, Gotha Go 229 V3), the only surviving Ho 229, captured unfinished at Friedrichroda in April 1945 and held by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia: a single-seat jet flying wing with no fuselage or tail, a steel-tube centre section carrying two Junkers Jumo 004B turbojets buried either side of the cockpit with their intakes in the leading edge and their exhausts over the upper surface, a bubble canopy, swept plywood outer wings, and a tall tricycle undercarriage that holds it nose-up: shown assembled on its wheels, as it was put together at Freeman Field in 1945–46, with the centre section in its conserved, unrestored state of faded grey-green over light blue-grey with rust along the steel cowlings and seams, a white ‘T2-490’ on the engine cowling, a white outline swastika near the trailing point and a crazed, yellowed canopy, and the outer wings in faded grey with black-and-white crosses, as photographed at the Udvar-Hazy Center 2016–2021 (no Ho 229 is in a UK museum; the outer wings are displayed separately and the undercarriage legs carry no wheels today, so the wheels follow 1945 photographs; the starboard markings are assumed to match the photographed port side; shape from a Ho IX line drawing and a Ho 229 V3 three-view scaled to NASM’s dimensions). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (885 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (Ho IX V3 (Go 229)); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Ho 229 V3 (Ho IX V3) ‘T2-490’ modelled here.

History

The Ho 229

The brothers Walter and Reimar Horten had been building tailless gliders since the early 1930s, convinced that an aircraft with no fuselage or tail would carry the least drag for its lift. In 1943 Hermann Göring asked for a bomber that could carry 1,000 kg for 1,000 km at 1,000 km/h, and the Hortens answered with the H.IX, a jet-powered flying wing. Its centre section was a frame of welded steel tube holding the pilot and two Junkers Jumo 004 turbojets side by side, their intakes in the leading edge and their exhausts blowing over the upper surface; the outer wings were wooden, skinned in plywood. The first prototype, the H.IX V1, flew as an unpowered glider at Göttingen in early 1944.

The jet-powered H.IX V2 first flew from Oranienburg, north of Berlin, on 2 February 1945, with Leutnant Erwin Ziller at the controls, and it handled well. On 18 February, during a later test flight, one engine failed on the approach and the V2 crashed, killing Ziller. By then the design had been handed to the Gothaer Waggonfabrik for production as the Go 229, a fighter-bomber with two 30 mm cannon, but the factory was overrun before any production aircraft was finished.

American troops captured the nearly complete V3 at Gotha’s works at Friedrichroda in April 1945, together with parts of other airframes. It was shipped to the United States and examined as a possible pointer to future flying wings, but never flown. Much later the Ho 229 became famous as a supposed early stealth aircraft, a claim that rests on little more than its shape and wooden construction. Only the V3 survives, in the United States; no Ho 229 is in a UK museum.

This airframe

Ho 229 V3 (Ho IX V3) ‘T2-490’

T2-490The airframe modelled

The V3 was the third Horten flying-wing jet, the first built by Gotha and intended as the pattern for the production Go 229. It was close to completion when American troops reached Friedrichroda in April 1945. Shipped to the United States, it was given the foreign-equipment number FE-490, later T2-490, and was assembled for display at Freeman Field, Indiana, before passing to the Smithsonian. The National Air and Space Museum conserved the centre section, and since 2017 it has stood in the Boeing Aviation Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia, on its undercarriage legs in a steel cradle, with the two outer wings displayed separately beside it. The model shows the airframe assembled and on its wheels, as it was put together in 1945–46, and paints it as the conserved parts look today: the centre section in faded grey-green over light blue-grey, rusted along the steel cowlings and seams, with ‘T2-490’ in white on the engine cowling, a white outline swastika near the trailing point and a crazed, yellowed canopy, and the outer wings in faded grey with black-and-white crosses. Its shape comes from a Ho IX line drawing and a Ho 229 V3 three-view scaled to the museum’s dimensions and checked against photographs. The museum’s legs carry no wheels, so the wheels follow 1945 photographs, and the markings are photographed only on the port side, so the starboard side is assumed to match.

Where to see one

Not on charge

The unfinished third prototype is at the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.

All 327 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.