Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!mailrus!purdue!gatech!amdcad!military
From: garth!dole@unix.sri.com (Harry Dole)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: History of stealth technology
Message-ID: <27532@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Date: 28 Sep 89 07:12:55 GMT
References: <27110@amdcad.AMD.COM>
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Organization: INTERGRAPH (APD) -- Palo Alto, CA
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Approved: military@amdcad.amd.com



From: garth!dole@unix.sri.com (Harry Dole)

In article <27110@amdcad.AMD.COM> willey@arrakis.nevada.edu (James Willey) writes:
>------    The design dates back to 1945, when
>two brothers, Walter and Reimar Horten, who worked with the secret
>Luftwaffe group Sonderkommando 9, set out to build a "super-Mosquito"
>to counter the stealth capabilities of the British Mosquito.  The
>British Mosquito was constructed out of plywood, spruce,and balsa,
>which added to its speed and its small radar signature.  The German
>design was a flying wing powered by two jet engines.  The only
>prototype to fly crashed in early 1945 when an engine failed.  A
>prototype that never flew currently resides at the National Air and
>Space Museum's storage complex at Silver Hill, Md.  

The Chino air museum near LA has a WWII German flying wing hanging from
their ceiling.  I had thought that plane had flown but am not sure.
Also, I do not recall it being a two engine model as it was quite small.
There was no landing gear but a landing skid made of wood.

Other items of interest are a Japanese rocket plane modelled after a German
plane (Komet, I believe) and a combination jet and propellor plane, circa
late 40's.

All info here is subject to memory failure as it is not derived from written
sources.