Horten Ho X

Hoarding Ho X Stories

Horten Ho X (10) continues the Horten brothers' love of the flying wing concept. This concept was significantly consolidated in their famous Ho 229 flying-wing fighter and eventually embodied in the modern stealth bomber Northrop B-2 Spirit.

The Ho 229 itself was completed at the end of the war, but never entered mass production and was eventually captured by the US military. One of the only completed examples was evaluated in the United States and is still in a museum in Washington, D.C.

The Ho X was developed in response to the RLM's requirement for an inexpensive, easy-to-build fighter that could be used in large numbers for Germany's ultimate defense.

For Hitler and his mighty German war machine, the war began to disintegrate from all sides, and there was only vicious defense between the country and the total conquest of the Allied forces in the West or the Soviet Union in the East. Allied bombers destroyed German infrastructure and created a logistical nightmare. Allied fighters now found the range to escort their heavily armored comrades in and out of German areas, and Luftwaffe casualties facilitated the defense of key target areas. So desperate times call for equally desperate measures, and German aircraft engineers did not disappoint.

The RLM requirements also stipulate that the performance quality of the new fighter should match (or exceed) that of any equipment that the Allies could deploy at the time. The best-performing Allied fighters in Europe at the end of the war were the British Supernavy Spitfire and the American North American P-51 Mustang, while mounts such as the American Republic P-47 Thunderbolt were also notable.

The German project was launched on September 8, 1944, under the name "Volksjager" (meaning "people's warrior"), and several companies received requests.

The Ho X has a wingspan of 45 feet 11 inches and a length of 23 feet 8 inches. Her height is 7 feet 6 inches. The maximum weight is listed as 13,393 pounds. Her engine is estimated to have a service ceiling of 49,212 feet and a range of 1,243 miles.

An optimistic top speed of 684 mph is envisaged, which is better than the original RLM requirement.

The war is progressing too fast for Ho X to see completion. While several scale models were eventually produced, a full-scale engineless glider was never completed. The war against Germany ended in June 1945, and the Ho X went down in history.

Among the companies participating in the Volksjager program, Heinkel was the winner with the He 162 "Volksjager" single-seat jet fighter. The aircraft had a turbojet engine mounted on top of the fuselage and was constructed from available mass-produced building materials. Furthermore, it is envisaged that the He 162 could be piloted with little training, allowing the small fighter to be thrown into the air in large numbers. More than 250 are believed to have been built before the war ended, but how many of them were actually in service is a matter of debate.

Another 600 were found incomplete on the assembly line. The He 162 did see limited combat action against the Allies starting on April 19, 1945. Like the Ho 229, the He 162 was offered to the Americans (as well as Britain, the Soviet Union and France) for postwar evaluation.

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