Horten Ho 229 by Dragon

1/48 scale
Kit No. 5505
Price: Out of Production, can retail for $75.00 or higher
Decals: Two versions – Luftwaffe 1945
Comments: Engraved panel lines, recessed and raised rivet detail, photo etch details

History

On September 28, 1943, Walter and Reimar Horten had a momentous and long-sought-after meeting with Reichsmarchall Hermann Goering, Commander-in-Chief of the German Luftwaffe, at his Karinhall estate. The two brothers, who had experimented with flying wing designs since the early 1930’s and were strongly influenced by the work of Dr. Alexander Lippisch, creator of the Messerschmitt Me 163, were there to convince Goering to support the development of an all-wing jet fighter. The design had neither a fuselage nor a conventional tail, and only the pilot’s canopy and the exhaust ducts of the jet engines would protrude above the upper surface of the swept back wing.

The flying wing would have a steel tubular structure for the wing center section, and would employ sheet metal for the engine cowlings, firewalls, air intakes and undercarriage doors, but a great deal of the aircraft would be built of plywood, a non-strategic material. The Horten brothers spoke of a special glue that had been developed by Dynamit AG to to bond the wooden structures to plastic and metal parts. They talked of fuel capacity, bomb loads, maximum speed and the likely surface ceiling of the aircraft, and they had a sufficient track record of experiments with similar, smaller aircraft that they had built themselves. Goering was impressed and approved the project immediately.

Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch, in charge of procurement for the Luftwaffe, was present at the meeting and ordered by Goering to grant the Hortens a contract for the development of three prototypes. But Milch, who was preoccupied with the delivery of increasing numbers of fighters, tactical bombers and transport aircraft to support Germany’s war effort, would try to block the Horten program within a month, in a move that robbed it of its priority status, contrary to what Goering intended. Milch favored other jet projects much farther along in development, notably the Messerschmitt Me 262 and the Arado Ar 234 bomber.

The residue on the wing surface underscores why it is critical to wash models in warm water with a mild detergent before beginning to build them. Always.

Nonetheless, the Horten prototype was ready by March 1, 1944 and was towed aloft to make unpowered flights on March 5th and 23rd. Although BMW 003 turbojets were initially planned to power the Ho 229, in time it was announced their availability would be delayed indefinitely. Junkers Jumo 004B-1 turbojets would finally be delivered to the Hortens in April 1944, a month later than promised. These powerplants proved to be too large and would not fit within the Ho 229’s wing without modifications, which the RLM would not permit for reasons unknown. The Hortens set about re-designing the wing.

As Germany’s fortunes in the war worsened, the SS began to exert a greater degree of control over everything, including aircraft production. SS intervention got the RLM to change its tune, and on June 15, 1944 — 8 days after the Allied invasion of France — the RLM ordered immediate production of the Ho 229. Many problems had yet to be overcome, including the bombing on July 20, 1944 of the Gothaer Waggonfabrik factory to which most of the production had been moved. The GWF factory was 80% destroyed and production was subsequently scattered to several other facilities.

The Ho 229’s first powered flight occurred on February 18, 1945, an overcast day with a low cloud base, when Erwin Ziller boarded the H.IX V2 (the Hortens designation for the second prototype). Ziller disappeared through an opening in the clouds and was subsequently clocked by a team on the ground to be traveling at a speed of 795 kph (493 mph). The H.IX V2 reportedly displayed very good handling qualities, with only moderate lateral instability. After 45 minutes, Ziller emerged from the clouds with one engine dead, and began making a series of shallow dives in an attempt to re-start the engine. It was later suspected that engine fumes entered the cockpit and rendered him unconscious, for the aircraft began a series of circling turns with its gear and flaps down until it crashed. Erwin Ziller was killed and the V2 prototype was destroyed.

This blow to the program proved fatal. There were plans to move the entire Horten IX project to Brandis, where it was thought it would be safer from Allied bombing, but the damaged V1 prototype had never been repaired. At this point in the war, effective German resistance to the Allied onslaught on both the Eastern and Western fronts was crumbling, with the end only weeks away.

Immediately after the war, the Horton brothers cooperated with the Allies, sharing both their research and their data in the hope that they would be allowed to continue their work. They were interrogated in Germany by agents of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces Intelligence and in London by members of the Royal Aircraft Establishment. Their dream was not to be, but they built the world’s first nearly-operational flying wing jet fighter, a design which continues to intrigue aviation enthusiasts to this day.

The Kit

Dragon’s Horten Ho 229 is injection molded in pale grey-green plastic and consists of 111 parts, including six clear parts for the canopy, navigation lights and gunsight. There is also a small photo etch fret with an additional 17 metal parts, mostly for cockpit details. As this is a flying wing, the heart of the kit is the wing center section, which houses the cockpit, engines, landing gear and armament. The two large outer sections of the wings are cemented on in the latter stages of construction. A noteworthy item about the level of detail is the recessed rivets on the exterior surfaces, while there is raised rivet detail inside the wheel wells where there is no concern about drag.

The cockpit assembly is unusual in that it will require a small amount of scratch building, for the modeler is instructed to fashion seat straps out of paper, paint them light blue, then cement three photo etch detail parts to each one. The instructions include a paint guide calling out Gunze Sangyo, Mr. Color and Italeri colors. The cockpit is also unusual in that its assembly does not involve a tub but rather calls for the ejection seat (one of the first in history, although it was never operational) to be cemented between metal tube framing on either side that protrudes from the wing. There is a separately mounted control yoke and a main instrument panel sporting both raised detail for the dials, and a rarity, additional raised relief providing more detail within some of the dials. A gunsight is to be mounted atop the panel, supported by more metal tubing.

Construction actually begins with the two turbojet engines, which are highly detailed, each assembly comprised of 14 parts. These are later cemented into the nose center section, a part which is molded to include large apertures for the jet intakes. The kit includes two complete and detailed Rheinmetal 30mm cannon, complemented by ammunition trays. Often schematics for the Horten Ho 229 show that it was initially planned to be armed with four 30mm cannon in the nose, but with that configuration there was hardly any room for their ammunition. Finally, modelers will have the option to build the kit with one or both wings removed, since there are parts showing the inner framework of the wings, behind which the 30mm cannon and jet engines can be seen on either side. This was the condition in which American forces found a wingless Ho 229 resting on its landing gear at the Gothaer Waggonfabrik plant in the Spring of 1945.

Markings

Markings are provided for two speculative versions from 1945, without unit information, since the Ho 229 never entered Luftwaffe service. The decals were produced in-house by Dragon and appear fully in register with a nice, semi-gloss sheen, and include stencil details. The first version is for a camouflage scheme of Olive Drab and Dark Green over Hellblau, the second for a scheme of overall Dark Green over Hellblau. The tails of both aircraft bear two yellow stripes with one white stripe in between. The kit decals include the yellow stripes.

Conclusion

This is a remarkably detailed kit of a revolutionary flying wing design that took its lone flight in February 1945. Highly recommended. For those interested, while the Dragon version, first released in 1992, can be both difficult to find and expensive, Zoukei-Mura have released a more recent offering in 2015 (new tooling, not a re-box of the Dragon kit) that is both more detailed and more affordable.

Reference

Horten Ho 229: Spirit of Thuringia by Andrei Shepelev and Huib Ottens; Copyright 2015 Crecy Publishing Limited, Manchester.