OT- The day Steven Spielberg broke my heart...

[Hauksbee]

For me, the high point of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was when Indiana Jones came within a whisker of highjacking that gorgeous flying wing bomber, only to have it go up in smoke. I really wanted to see that fly. After that, it all went downhill. Still a good film, but, DAMN!, what an elegant escape that would have been. A few years later, a buddy stopped by the house and handed me a book called "Northrop Flying Wings" (by Edward Maloney). Said that he'd been poking around in a used book store and thought I'd like it. When I got into it, I was shocked to find the exact same plane sitting on the ground at Muroc AFB (1940) It wasn't a German flying wing after all. They had jazzed it up for the movie with a heavier, more modern undercarriage, and added a MG turret. Other than that, it was the same plane, right down to the bent wingtips. It was designated the N1M "Jeep". (the 'Jeep' was a koala-looking character from the old 'Popeye' comic strips in the newspapers, and later gave his name again to the WWII vehicle) The plane was powered by two 90hp Lycoming engines, later replaced with 120hp Franklins...and painted bright yellow.

[+Olham]

Well, it was actually a German design, as you may see in these pictures (compiled in a sketchy manner here).

It was meant to be jet-propelled, but the early test prototypes had to use pushing props.

There were the types by Horten and by Gotha - not sure, if they worked together.

 

 

PS: it never saw service, as far as I know, so the video with the Mustang is most likely bullsh*t.

[+Hasse Wind]

The Ho 229 (Go 229) never saw service, like you said. It was designed by the Horten brothers and Gotha was chosen to manufacture them in numbers, but that never happened.

 

It's fascinating how futuristic some of those 1930s and 1940s designs were.

[Flyby PC]

Thin ice, and not sure of my facts, but I think the Go 299 was very close to entering service, -as in complete aircraft were found on the ground by advancing allied troops.

[+Hasse Wind]

Maybe the flying wings people occasionally spot during night time are actually N9Ms.

[+Olham]

I guess that a "flying wing" was surely one possible design several people must have thought of.

Even the jet engine was built parallel in Germany AND in England.

 

Good detail there, Hauksbee.

[UK_Widowmaker]

of course, many German engineers and scientists went to America after the War.

Many were involved in the NASA Rocket developments in the 60's...It would not surprise me in the slightest, if guys working on the flying wings of nazi Germany...continued with their careers in companies like Northrop

[+Olham]

... It would not surprise me in the slightest, if guys working on the flying wings of nazi Germany...continued with their careers in companies like Northrop

Well, we all know, what Wernher von Braun had in his plastered arm.

It could often even be simpler.

Even if the engineers didn't cross over, the US Army and the Air Force

had all those prototypes shipped over to America.

Well, we all know, what Werner von Braun had in his plastered arm.

Edited September 12, 2011 by Olham

[UK_Widowmaker]

Well, we all know, what Wernher von Braun had in his plastered arm.

 

 

i dont

[+Olham]

All the micro films with the important data of his rocket projects.

The Americans had offered to him and other important scientists and engineers,

that they could come to any American sentry and only just say the word

"paperclip".

From there he would get passed on to safety.

Edited September 12, 2011 by Olham

[+Olham]

Here is a funny craft without any wings at all (I wish I could understand the physics of that).

It is a Northrop M2-F2, which was tested in the sixties.

The craft had a nasty accident, which was used in the intro of the TV-series

"The Six-Million-Dollar Man"

 

Does anyone here know that series?

 

 

[Shiloh]

Big Six Million Dollar Man fan when I was a kid. "Gentleman we can rebuild him....we have the technology." Here's the intro and he was an astronaut so maybe this is considered more of a rocket?

 

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=HofoK_QQxGc

Edited September 12, 2011 by Shiloh

[MAKO69]

The lifting body program.

 

WIKI NASA Lifting Body

 

They created lift by the crazy shape of the aircraft.

[UK_Widowmaker]

All the micro films with the important data of his rocket projects.

The Americans had offered to him and other important scientists and engineers,

that they could come to any American sentry and only just say the word

"paperclip".

From there he would get passed on to safety.

 

Thanks Olham..I never knew that!

[+Olham]

Here's English Wikipedia about "Operation Paperclip", Widow - cheers!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

[Hauksbee]

Thanks Olham..I never knew that!

Nor did I.

[Hauksbee]

The lifting body program.

WIKI NASA Lifting Body

They created lift by the crazy shape of the aircraft.

Here's an outstanding book on the development of lifting bodies. It's "The Deltoid Pumpkinseed" by John McPhee. I just looked it up on Amazon.com and bought a copy for $0.25 (well...$4.75, with postage. Still a deal) Here's the blurb for it from Amazon.

 

Since the explosion of the Hindenburg in Lakehurst, New Jersey, energy-efficient, lighter-than-air ships have given way to gas-guzzling jet aircraft. But in the 1960s, an unusual band of inventors, engineers and investors, again in New Jersey, created the Aereon, a strange, wingless hybrid airplane/dirigible. The Aereon--the Deltoid Pumpkin Seed-- promised to be a safe workhorse of the skies, capable of carrying the payload of entire freight trains with minimal cost. In this exquisitely crafted tale of back-to-the-drawing-board perseverance, McPhee tells the story not only of the Aereon, but of any product development team. He astutely delineates the team members' personalities and interactions, delves back in time to the origins of lighter-than-air craft and the history of propellers, and in the end, makes us wonder why this promising technology hasn't been perfected.