Hoarding H II
| Hoarding H II | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Type: | Test aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: |
Horten brothers |
| First flight: |
1935 |
| Production time: |
1935-1938 |
| Number of pieces: |
1 × H II M + 3 × H II L |
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The Horten H II was the first self-supporting motorized flying wing in history. Apart from the shaft tunnel for the pressure screw and the rear wheel fairing, nothing interfered with the flow and all parts were used to generate lift.
history
After the Horten H1 was demonstrated at the 1934 Rhön competition , the Horten brothers received a design prize of 600 Reichsmarks. So some money was available to build an improved version. The H1 was towed to the Rhön as the brothers had no other means of transport. After the competition, there was no possibility of storing them or bringing them back to Bonn. So she was scrapped on site.
After the experiences that the Horten brothers had made with the H1 glider, the H II motor glider was built in 1935. The pilot was accommodated in a slightly supine position in the fully glazed middle section of the wing. For the first time, according to a theory published by Ludwig Prandtl in 1932 , the so-called bell-shaped lift distribution was used. Here, the strong twisting of the outer wing forces a strongly sub-elliptical basic distribution of lift, which has roughly the shape of a bell. The motor glider H II m was powered by a four-cylinder Hirth HM 60 engine with 75 hp.
H II L
The successful flight tests of the H II m led to the construction of three pure sailors for the Rhön competition in 1937. These machines had a small glassed head attachment for the pilot to allow a better view to the side and to the rear. Two of these machines, called H II L, took part in the 1937 Rhön competition for Fliegergruppe Köln. The third (D-11-187) was only used in 1938 for the Fliegergruppe Fürth / Bay, where long-distance flights up to 240 km in length had already been successful. The pilot Kurt Hieckman crashed with her in March 1939, after the cabin paneling had probably come off during an aerobatic demonstration.
The other Cologne machine was converted into a test vehicle in 1944 in order to be able to research the flow conditions in and around the air inlets of the planned night fighter version of the Ho IX / Go 229 . For this purpose, the air ducts to the later engines were partially transparent and provided with woolen threads on the inside. This enabled the pilot to observe the flow conditions in the tubes during the flight. The transparent nose cover was extended to the front, as it was intended for the Go 229 V6.
construction
The wingspan was 16.5 m and the control of all H II was carried out by elevons and brake rudders (nosepiece flaps) on the wing tips. Flaps were built into the inner wing as landing aids. The middle section was made of welded tubular steel, the outer wings were made of classic wood construction. The nose landing gear was partially retractable, the stern wheel steerable.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| crew | 1 |
| length | |
| span | 16.5 m |
| height | |
| Wing area | 32 m² |
| Wing extension | 8.5 |
| Glide ratio | ~ 24 at 75 km / h |
| Empty mass | 250 kg |
| Max. Takeoff mass | 330 kg |
| Wing loading | 10.3 kg / m² |
| Top speed | 240 km / h |
Preserved copies
- H II L, D 10-125, German Museum of Technology Berlin
See also
literature
- Reimar Horten, Peter F. Selinger: Nurflügel, the history of the Horten aircraft 1933-1960. H. Weishaupt Verlag, Graz, ISBN 3-900310-09-2 .
- Karl Nickel , Michael Wohlfahrt: Tailless Airplanes. Their design and properties. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel et al. 1990, ISBN 3-7643-2502-X
