"The German design is well known -- it's a great achievement in Aeronautics;  however, it wasn't a stealth plane.  The wing, while it's true provides a great shape for building stealth aircraft, the Germans didn't have this in mind, as radar was new and they didn't know much about it. A baseless assertion contradicted by the evidence.  Generaloberst Martini was listening for British radar transmissions in early 1939.  It's why he sent the Graf von Zeppelin zeppelin on a trip around the British Isles that year.  He was listening for it because the Germans already had it.  The Freya radar was introduced as standard production equipment in 1939.  It's a certainty the Germans developed this independently from the British.

I admit it's possible Dr. Horten exaggerated.  That doesn't explain his recurrent postwar collaborations with Jack Northrop and Northrop Aircraft up through the B-2 project. Doktor Horten said he knew of the flying wing's low radar cross section in 1943.  It also doesn't explain why the Hortens included a charcoal and glue layer in the H0-229 lamination.  There also weren't any fuel tanks in the wing.  The wing itself was built as a tank and coated with kerosene-proof glue on the inside of the first plywood layer.

www.faem.com/adlib/2001/b0123.htm

When on February the 18^th, Leutnant Erwing Ziller got into the cockpit of the Horten IX V2, he couldn't imagine that was going to be his last flight.

The aircraft had been repaired after a previous hard landing and Ziller had received instructions to cancel all flights until one of the Horten brothers could witness the testing. 

Why he decided to disobey these orders is something we don't know. What is true is that he got the plane to the air and after a 45 minutes flight Ziller got into trouble. He had to push the aircraft down from 800 meter high to 400 and then pulled out the landing gear. One of the jet engines had suddenly stopped!! 

The wing slipped into a right side turn and begun to spin towards the ground. Finally it hit the ground killing his pilot in the crash. 

In spite of the accident and the destruction of the only powered prototype (the V2) the existing fellowship between Hermann Göering and the Horten brothers made possible that the Horten flying wing was included in the Jägernotprogramm or "Emergency Fighter Program."  

A report on the accident written by Walter Rosler was sent to the RLM (Reich's Air Ministry). As accidents in test aircraft were habitual there was no following investigation and the incident was closed. Besides, the end of the war was close and the available material and human resources couldn't be wasted in theses accident research activities. 

Production was assigned to the Gothaer Waggon Fabrik, which main facilities were placed in the city of Gotha. An initial contract for 20 pre-production aircraft was awarded to the firm and works begun. The Gotha engineers introduced several and extensive modifications to adapt the design to the series production.  

The construction was subcontracted to the Ortlepp Möbel Fabrik at Friedrichroda. This was a logical solution as the GWF facilities had all their capabilities compromised in the production of parts for other aircraft manufacturers. Besides its management was pushing the RLM to adopt their flying wing designs and this way cancel the Horten IX series production. The Gotha designs were known as the Gotha P-60 with three different versions A, B and C. 

 When the Ortlepp Works at Friedrichsroda were overrun by troops of the American 3rd Army’s VII Corps on April 14, 1945 they found inside of the building three FW in different construction stages:

The V3 was nearly complete. The jet engines were installed and most part of the works on the skin had finished.

The Ortlepp building still exists and now is used by a car sale firm.  

And here begins the confusion. After the end of the war, the V4 and V5 disappeared. In some reports they are briefly mentioned but it's quite likely that they were scrapped. The V1, the non-powered prototype, was also destroyed and last seen at Kassel Rothwesten airfield. 

We do not know where in Europe the V3 was taken, where it was crated and loaded in a ship. According to the NASM the HMS Reaper packing list is not known, but there were other vessels with war booty that left Europe. What is sure is that the V3 was shipped to the USA and arrived by train to Freeman. 

The pictures now owned by the museum, are laser copies of the originals taken by Howard Furst and donated to the Freeman Air Museum three years ago. Unfortunately, we have been unable to get in touch with him so he could tell us about his story and that of those pictures.

After this, in November 1945, the aircraft was exhibited in one of the Freeman Field hangars to the press and general public. The same building there was shared at least with a Me-163, a He-162, an Ar-234, a Bachem Natter, a Horten II glider, a FL-282 and different engines.

In other moment during the stay of the Horten IX V3 at Freeman, it was taken out for a walk around photo session. This seemed to be a usual practice as some other sets of pictures of this kind exist. Five pictures were taken:

After some time on exhibition, the wing was taken as the other captured aircraft to Park Ridge, Illinois and stored in a war time facility belonging to the Douglas Aircraft company. These aircraft were the nucleus of the today NASM aircraft collection. Unfortunately, no picture of the aircraft at this place is known. 

With the beginning of the Korean war, the plant was again reactivated and the aircraft had to be moved. Today, the Horten IX V3 is in store at the Garber Building 22 awaiting a restoration that will never come. It has to be said that the actual status is at least pitiful.

Raul Escapa, Spain
raul_escapa@yahoo.com