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Hitler's Stealth Fighter on National Geographic Channel This Sunday

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Astroboy

Illegitimate Clone
This Sunday 6/28/09 on the National Geographic Channel at 9pm a team of aeronautical engineers recreate WWII Germany's Horton 2-29 flying wing in full scale from the original blueprints to see if it really has stealth capabilities decades ahead of time. I know some of you think this is what Kenneth Arnold saw or maybe the explanation for Roswell so it should be an interesting program to watch.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090625-hitlers-stealth-fighter-plane.html
 
Well, it stands to reason. After the war, the Russians got their NAZIS. We got our NAZIS. Why shouldn't the Roswell aliens have gotten their NAZIS?
 
Saw the episode. Some interesting stuff like it did reduce radar signature by 20%. Not as much as I would have thought.

What was more compelling is that the flying wing could out maneuver and fly faster than the ME-262 jet fighter. They shared the same engine too.

The Germans never did overcome the reliability issues of early jet engines though. ME-262s could only stay aloft for 60 to 90 minutes tops and the engine had to be replaced every 12 hours. Interesting note: one of the kills by legendary pilot Chuck Yeager, who is credited with breaking the sound barrier officially, was of a ME-262 jet with his P51-Mustang during the jets descent toward landing.

I really enjoyed watching the old timers of Skunkworks working on the project. I loved the heating of the plexiglass in the oven and hand pressing it to a form to make the canopy. Successful only after several tries. That, sir, is old school. The full size mock-up looked gorgeous though.

You could get the sense from these guys that they took quiet pride in their work and would be pretty good at keeping their mouths shut about the type of secret projects they've worked on thoughout the years.
 
threed said:
Well, it stands to reason. After the war, the Russians got their NAZIS. We got our NAZIS. Why shouldn't the Roswell aliens have gotten their NAZIS?
Click to expand...

Makes sense to me. Brazil got their Nazis, Argentina got their Nazis, and Stella got her groove back. :D
 
Astroboy said:
The Germans never did overcome the reliability issues of early jet engines though. ME-262s could only stay aloft for 60 to 90 minutes tops and the engine had to be replaced every 12 hours.
Click to expand...

This was typical of most early jets. The Soviet MiG-15 could fly for only about thirty minutes. And the initial charging process was just about as bad as winding up a rubberband. Likewise, the engine had to be frequently changed.

I suspect a lot of it had to do with the poor quality metals. No doubt the turbine fins would quickly fracture and risk disintegration of the engine.
 
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