Horten Ho V

The H Va was built in 1936/37 in cooperation with the Dynamit AG in Troisdorf, near Cologne. A synthetic material (Trolitax) were used in the aircraft's construction. Use of this material resulted in a series of problems, even though the glider Hol's der Teufel had previously been built using this method. Several of the solutions to these problems were patented by the Dynamit company. The nose of the H V was covered in clear Cellon and the two pilots occupied prone positions. The aircraft was fitted with a tricycle undercarriage with faired main members (only the nosewheel was retractable), and the two Hirth HM-60-R engines drove two-bladed pusher propellers directly (no extension shafts). The propeller manufacturer Peter Kempel produced the propellers from Lignofol (beech wood impregnated with synthetic resin). The H Va introduced novel movable wingtip control surfaces.

The aircraft's only flight took place at Bonn-Hangelar in early 1937. In the aircraft were Walter and Reimar Horten. The extreme aft location of the engines made the aircraft unstable, and at its low takeoff speed the aircraft's controls were unable to overcome the resulting tail-heaviness at the moment of rotation. The H Va became airborne briefly, then crashed, damaging the aircraft seriously. The injuries sustained by the two men were relatively minor (Walter Horten knocked out his two upper front teeth). Following the accident the Dynamit AG collected the remains of the H Va to carry out tests on the materials used in its construction.

Horten Vb, W.-Nr. 9

The H Vb was a research aircraft built at Cologne-Ostheim using conventional construction methods (wood and steel tube) on instructions from Major Dinort with the approval of Ernst Udet. As a result of the accident with the H Va, the movable wingtip controls were dispensed with and the designers turned to more conventional elevons. The Hirth engines of the unlucky H Va were used again, but were positioned further forward and drove their propellers vla short extension shafts, resulting in a more favorable weight distribution. The H Vb's pilots sat upright next to each other and were provided with individual raised canopies. Like the H Va, the H Vb had a fixed tricycle undercarriage. The aircraft's first flight took place at Cologne-Ostheim in autumn 1937 with Walter Horten at the controls. From the beginning of the war in 1939 until 1941 the aircraft was parked in the open at Potsdam-Werder airfield, which was not altogether beneficial for an aircraft built largely of wood.

Horten Vc, W.-Nr. 27

Efforts by the Luftwaffe-Inspektion 3 (Lln 3, or Luftwaffe Inspectorate for Fighters, whose Technical Department Head was Walter Horten) succeeded in convincing Generalflugzeugmeister Ernst Udet that it was advisable to retum the H V to flying status. In August 1941 a special detachment of Lln 3 was formed in Minden to oversee the reconstruction of the aircraft by the Peschke Firm. Peschke, a former WW I fighter pilot, had established a flying school at Hangelar and later an aircraft repair facility at Minden, The latter facility repaired aircraft such as the Fw 44 Stieglitz, He 72 Kadett, Fi 156 Storch and the RK Schwalbe. Peschke and the Horten brothers knew each other from Hangelar. In charge of the Lln 3 detachment was Luftwaffe Leutnant Reimar Horten. His team consisted of three designing engineers and five other men, including Heinz Scheidhauer, an experienced all-wing glider specialist. Later the special detachment was moved to Gottingen and enlarged to thirty men (soldiers, engineers, craftsmen and so on).

The Horten Vc was converted from the H Vb, which had been badly damaged by the elements. In Minden the two-seat H Vb became a single-seat aircraft. The pilot was accommodated in a normal seated position. The H Va's Hirth engines were retained, as were its steel tube and wood construction and fixed undercarriage. As property of the military, it was finished in standard Luftwaffe camouflage and was assigned the code PE + HO (PE for Peschke and HO for Horten).

The H Vc made its first flight on May 26, 1942. Walter Horten later flew the machine to Gottingen, where Luftwaffenkommando IX was being formed.

Flugkapitan Prof. Dr. Josef Stuper, then Director of the Instituts fur Forschungsflugbetrieb und Flugwesen (Institute for Flight Research and Aviation) at the Aerodynamischen Versuchsanstalt (AVA) Gottingen (Gottingen Aerodynamic Research Institute), carried out test flights in the H Vc. Late in the summer of 1943 an incident occurred involving the H Vc. Stuper took off from the center of the airfield with the aircraft's flaps in the down position. The aircraft's under-carriage struck the roof of a hangar and the H Vc crashed. Stuper escaped without serious injury, but the aircraft was badly damaged. It was subsequently stored at Gottingen in anticipation of restoration following the end of the war. Events were to prove differently, however, as all of the aircraft held there were assembled at the edge of the airfield and burned following Germany's surrender. A projected glider tug based on the H Vc was not built.