Horten Flying Wing Fighter Pilot

The Horten Ho 229 (often erroneously called Gotha Go 229 due to the identity of the chosen manufacturer of the aircraft) was a late-World War II flying wing fighter aircraft, designed by the Horten brothers and built by the Gothaer Waggonfabrik. It was a personal favourite of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, and was the only plane to be able to meet his performance requirements.


In the 1930s the Horten brothers had become interested in the all-wing design as a method of improving the performance of gliders. The all-wing layout removes any "unneeded" surfaces and –in theory at least– leads to the lowest possible drag. For a glider low drag is very important, with a more conventional layout you have to go to extremes to reduce drag and you will end up with long and more fragile wings. If you can get the same performance with a wing-only configuration, you end up with a similarly performing glider with wings that are shorter and thus sturdier.


Years later, in 1943 Reichsmarschall Göring issued a request for design proposals to produce a bomber that was capable of carrying a 1000 kg load over 1000 km at 1000 km/h; the so called 1000/1000/1000 rule. Conventional German bombers could reach Allied command centers in England, but were suffering devastating losses, as allied fighter planes were faster than the German bombers. At the time there was simply no way to meet these goals; the new Jumo 004B jet engines could give the speed that was required, but swallowed fuel at such a rate that they would never be able to match the range requirement.

The Hortens felt that the low-drag all-wing design could meet all of the goals – by reducing the drag, cruise power could be lowered to the point where the range requirement could be met. They put forward their current private (and jealously guarded) project, the Ho IX, as the basis for the bomber. The Government Air Ministry (Reichsluftfahrtministerium) approved the Horten proposal, but ordered the addition of two 30MM cannon, as they felt the aircraft would also be useful as a fighter due to its estimated top speed being significantly higher than any allied aircraft.

Reichsmarschall Göring believed in the design and ordered the aircraft into production at Gotha as the RLM designation of Ho 229 before it had taken to the air under jet power. Flight testing of the Ho IX/Ho 229 prototypes began in December 1944, and the aircraft proved to be even better than expected. There were a number of minor handling problems but otherwise the performance was outstanding.

Gotha appeared to be somewhat upset about being ordered to build a design from two "unknowns" and made a number of changes to the design, as well as offering up a number of versions for different roles. Several more prototypes, including those for a two-seat "Nacht-Jäger" night fighter, were under construction when the Gotha plant was overrun by the American troops in April of 1945.

The Ho 229 A-0 pre-production aircraft were to be powered by two Junkers Jumo 004B turbojets with 1,962 lbf (8.7 kN) thrust each. The maximum speed was estimated at an excellent 590 mph (950 km/h) at sea level and 607 mph (977 km/h) at 39,370 ft (12,000 m). Maximum ceiling was to be 52,500 ft (16,000 m), although it is unlikely this could be met. Maximum range was estimated at 1180 miles (1,900 km), and the initial climb rate was to be 4330 ft/min (22 m/s). It was to be armed with two 30 mm MK 108 cannon, and could also carry either two 500 kg bombs, or twenty-four R4M rockets.