VGC News/Newsletters - Lakes Gliding Club

twin engined Ho 7 which could have been a training aircraft.
In 1944, two prone piloted Ho 3fs were built, which WaIter
said was the "closest thing to a balloon that we ever managed
to produce". Then followed 3 more Ho 4as, 6 Ho 4b which
used a downed Mustang's laminar profile that could only be
stabilized in pitch with massive wingtip wash out. The
Mustang needed at least 8,000 ft to recover from a spin. Thus,
tbe Ho 4b prototype could F10t be "own ,faster than 85 kph
because of he performance falling off due to drag from the tip
washout, or slower than 75 kph because of the stall. The
young Hermann Strebel, whio had flown a Morten 4a for I J
hours over the Wasserkuppe on one day (and '~hen was fresh
enough to go out for the evening) was kiUed in the first Ho 4b,
because he eloud flew it and had not connected the static line
of his parachute when he baled out after it started ,to come
apart from flutter. The RLM forbade any further Ho 4bs from
being finished. However, it did pioneer plastic construction as
its wing Leading Edges were preformed in 2 metre lengths,
The D-boxes were a sandwich of thin plywood outside with a
core of resin impregnated cardboaiCd. The preformed components
were g"l~d on to the front of the main spar using only a
few ribs. Thl~ 'method of construction was to prepare for a
high speed delta project which they were keeping secret.The
Ho 4a had proved itself to have a flight performance considerably
better than the best of the conventional gliders (with
tails). It only had to be compared still with ,the 0.30 "Cirrus"
that, with a proved max.LlD of over I :37, was the most efficient
aircraft in the world. In 1943, the Ho 4a was flown by
Scheidhauer, with his dog Polten on board, and the D.30 was
flown by Hans Zacher. The Horten 4 's Aspect ratio was 21.3;
the D.30s was 33. The outcome was that the 0.30 was better.
Reimar wanted to prove that his flying wings with the same
aspect ratios as aircraft with tails would have 15% better performances.
Thus he decided not to go on with the Horten 4a
but to try to beat the 0-30 by using a laminar wing profile, as
the Ho 4b used, or by extending the Ho 4a's wing to the same
Aspect ratio as that of the 0.30. Both projects were completed
and 2 Ho. 6s were flown during 1944/45. The Ho 6 was found
to have an improved performance over that of the Ho 4a,
similar to the improvement of the 4a over that of the best conventional
sailplanes. At this time .efforts were being made to
design and build a 9 ton jet fighter, for which Reimar obtained
materials, including two Jumo 004 'urbo jets. This was the Ho
9. As Waiter's requisition notes were causing suspicion, he
made them out for a Sonderkommando 9 and nobody dared to
ask what the said Kommando did. The jetfighter did finally
receive official sanction and two of them were finished, the
first as a glider and the second was powered. Reimar did
mention that he hoped he could beat Lippisch to 1000 kph !
The Ho 9 V.2 (the second prototype) did receive good test
reports but it only had 3 flights. On the 18th Feb. 1945, the
famous record glider pilot Erwin Ziller (from Grunau) suffered
a failure of one of the turbojets and fatally crashed just
short of the runway of the Oranienburg airfield.
They had designed and built 25 aircraft from 1939-1945.
There were more which had been designed and not built,
which were of the greatest interest. After 1945, both brothers
tried fOr employment in England but when this was impossible,
they emigrated to the Argentine where, with support from
the Argentillian Government, tl1ey were able to design and
build 2 Horten 15 single seaters named Glen Antu (Sunbeams),
3 tandem two seater Ho 15s and 4 side by side 2
seaters (named Urubu). (4 more of these were built in postwar
Germany. These were 3-piece aircraft and their centre sections
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