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It's unlikely that this is the case. There were flying wing designs on the drawing board in the US in the WW2 era, and it appears that the stealth characteristi

It's unlikely that this is the case. There were flying wing designs on the drawing board in the US in the WW2 era, and it appears that the stealth characteristics of the plane itself are due primarily to its construction out of wood. The similarity seems to be skin deep, like comparing a V2 to a Saturn V or something along those lines. (I realize that the same people were involved in both the V2 and the Saturn V, but that's not really the point.) [edit] It may also be worth mentioning that NGC apparently overplayed the "stored in a secret government facility" aspect. From what I can tell, it was stored at one of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum warehouses around DC.

joeyo 17y ago
You picked a really strange counter-example with the V2 / Saturn V comparison. If there were ever a set of rockets that shared a lineage would be those. Von Braun was brought to the US specifically for his rocketry expertise and he designed the Saturn V. It's ludicrous to claim that the similarities were only skin deep. Regarding the flying wing, I note that the replica was built by engineers at Northrop, who as it happens also designed the B-2 bomber. So it seems Northrop was at least aware of the plane, and they probably did not discover it recently. The lag between WW2 and the introduction of the B-2 (wikipedia claims a first flight in 1989) can be explained by the need for advances in control for the flying wing design (thrust vectoring, fly-by-wire, etc). Edit. Compare also the YB-49, designed by Northrop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-49 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-49) and first flown in 1947 and the YB-35 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-35 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-35). Given Jack Northrop's interest in flying wing designs, I'd be very surprised if he was not aware and perhaps influenced by this plane.
- smhinsey 17y ago
  I concede it's not a great example, but the larger point was that the V2 is related in type to the Saturn V in the same way that the Ho-299 is related to the B-2. In other words, I don't think there was much to discover about the 299 aside from historical novelty. For what it's worth, Jack Northrop was interested in flying wings as early the late 30s with the N1-M.
anigbrowl 17y ago
This will still keep the professional conspiracy theorists in pizza and beer for at least a year. I suspect the documentary will play up the secrecy angle at the expense of the science :-/
- smhinsey 17y ago
  It wasn't awful, but they did exaggerate on the warehouse. Instead of calling it what it was (again, as far as I can tell - I haven't been there or anything) they made it out like the DC version of Groom Lake, a "heavily guarded government facility."

joeyo 17y ago

You picked a really strange counter-example with the V2 / Saturn V comparison. If there were ever a set of rockets that shared a lineage would be those. Von Braun was brought to the US specifically for his rocketry expertise and he designed the Saturn V. It's ludicrous to claim that the similarities were only skin deep. Regarding the flying wing, I note that the replica was built by engineers at Northrop, who as it happens also designed the B-2 bomber. So it seems Northrop was at least aware of the plane, and they probably did not discover it recently. The lag between WW2 and the introduction of the B-2 (wikipedia claims a first flight in 1989) can be explained by the need for advances in control for the flying wing design (thrust vectoring, fly-by-wire, etc). Edit. Compare also the YB-49, designed by Northrop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-49 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-49) and first flown in 1947 and the YB-35 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-35 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-35). Given Jack Northrop's interest in flying wing designs, I'd be very surprised if he was not aware and perhaps influenced by this plane.

smhinsey 17y ago
I concede it's not a great example, but the larger point was that the V2 is related in type to the Saturn V in the same way that the Ho-299 is related to the B-2. In other words, I don't think there was much to discover about the 299 aside from historical novelty. For what it's worth, Jack Northrop was interested in flying wings as early the late 30s with the N1-M.

anigbrowl 17y ago

This will still keep the professional conspiracy theorists in pizza and beer for at least a year. I suspect the documentary will play up the secrecy angle at the expense of the science :-/

smhinsey 17y ago
It wasn't awful, but they did exaggerate on the warehouse. Instead of calling it what it was (again, as far as I can tell - I haven't been there or anything) they made it out like the DC version of Groom Lake, a "heavily guarded government facility."