I’ve seen this painting reproduced commonly enough, but usually the quality is at best “regrettable.” This depicts one version of the proposed Horten Ho-18 (or Ho-XVIII), a late WWII idea for a trans-Atlantic bomber capable of hitting New York from European bases. While the concept is confirmed as being a “real design,” in recent years it has kinda grown in the retelling, and is now often described as being intentionally radar-stealthy and being a dedicated platform for carrying a Nazi Nuke (even though the Nazis were so far from even the most basic understanding of the processes required for an atom bomb that they could have had not the slightest clue how to actually design one, how big it would be or how much it would weigh).
Note that most reconstructions of this design tend to get the cockpit pretty badly wrong, a result of the only available copies of this painting being poorly reproduced (and no three-views of any note being available). And even this copy, found in the Jay Miller collection, is obviously some distance from the original. Hopefully someday it’ll be brought to life in full Technicolor.
5 Responses to “Horten Ho-18A”
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It always looked underpowered to me; it was to be powered by six 004 jet engines so total thrust was only going to be 14,556 pounds.
For comparison, the YB-49 had a total thrust of 32,000 pounds.
The final design had it taking off of a trolley and landing on a belly skid (or just the belly itself) to save weight…I don’t think it was pressurized for the same reason, so the crew was probably going to have a long and not terribly comfortable flight if it was going to fly to New York and back at a altitude where the jets would be most efficient.
Although an atomic bomb is out as armament, I could see it carrying nerve gas bombs to New York, as the Germans were way ahead of the Allies in nerve gas development.
The project that’s hard to figure out is the big Ho-VIII prop-driven flying wing that was under construction as the war ended; according to the Horten brothers this was supposed to be a airliner, but I doubt that an airliner project would get funding at that phase of the war, so I assume it was either a bomber itself or a aerodynamic test bed for the Ho XVIII design: http://www.aviastar.org/air/germany/horten_ho-8.php
BTW, German secret aircraft fans just _need_ one of these to fly around on the weekends: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/277317296/Do_335_RC_airplane_EPO_TW_752.html
Or graft two together into a Do-635 and really baffle the crowds.
Do you have a High Quality version of this you would be able to add to the APR Drawing sets, or is it an image you found on the internet?
I found this as a “glossy” in Jay Miller’s physical collection of stuff. No plans on selling a higher-rez.
[…] as a followup to the post on the Horten Ho-18A, here’s the equivalent image of the B model. This design moved the engines to the underside, […]
Do you know the vintage of either of the drawings? Do they date from WWII, or are they post-war?
BTW, there’s a 1/72 scale model of a Ho-XVIII here:
http://www.internetmodeler.com/2000/december/aviation/horten.htm