Did the Nazis have a stealth bomber?
Two of my many interests are aviation and history, so I was drawn to a recent television programme about an aircraft developed in Nazi German called the Horten 229. This ‘bat wing’ aircraft utilised amazingly advanced design and technology which effectively made it the world’s first stealth aircraft. As the war was ending, American troops found an example of the Horten 229 and it was shipped back to the United States where it remains hidden from the public.
But, for this National Geographic programme, specialist staff at the Northrop-Grumman Corporation were given access to the German airframe and constructed a full-scale replica which was then tested with the radar technologies used by the RAF in the war. The Horten 229 was found to have only 40% of the radar signature of the Messerschmitt 109 which, together with its much greater speed, would have given the RAF no time to scramble fighters against it.