Horten Ho VII

The Luftwaffe wanted a test aircraft for their new Schmitt-Argus pulse jet engine, and inquired about using the Ho V. As the thrust of the engine was in excess of what the aircraft could handle, a new, heavier aircraft with similar features was proposed. This would be the Ho VII, a fully acrobatic two seater, with provisions for the jet engine between its two pusher propellers. The fuselage was in dural and the wings in wood.

Horten VII, W.-Nr. 29

Construction of the H VII took place at the Gottingen Bureau. The aircraft's wings, which were of wooden construction, were built by the Lln 3 workshop, while the center section, which was of welded tube steel construction with Dural skinning, was manufactured by the Peschke Firm in Minden. The aircraft made its first flight in May 1943 with Heinz Scheidhauer and Walter Horten on board. The aircraft had originally been conceived as a flying test-bed for the Argus-Schmidt pulse-jet engine after the H V had proved unsuitable for the role. When this plan was abandoned it was proposed as a fighter training aircraft. The H VII was powered by two Argus AS-10-SC engines drivinq two-bladed constant-speed propellers via extension shafts. The aircraft featured a fully retractable twin nosewheel under-carriage. So-called "wingtip rudders" were used in place of a conventional rudder. The aircraft was assigned the RLM-Number 8-226. The aircraft's pilots were Heinz Scheidhauer, Erwin Ziller and Walter Horten. In autumn 1944 Oberst Knemeyer demonstrated the H VII to Hermann Goring at Oranienburg, after the Reichsmarschall had expressed a desire to see a Horten aircraft in action.

Knemeyer was the RLM flight-test chief and was favorably disposed toward the aircraft developed by the Horten brothers. Goring, a former WW I fighter pilot, had not participated in the later gliding boom and was unfamiliar with the aircraft which emerged from the program. He wanted to see the aircraft fly on one engine, which Heinz Scheidhauer did without any hesitation. The Reichsmarschall was impressed; the Peschke Firm received an order for twenty examples.

Construction of the H VII V2 began in 1944, but the aircraft had not been completed when the war ended. The V3, which was to see the "wingtip rudders" replaced by spoilers above and below the wings, as on the H IX, progressed no farther than the manufacturing of various components.

In February 1945 Heinz Scheidhauer flew the H VII to Gottingen. Hydraulic failure prevented him from extending the aircraft's undercarriage, and he was forced to make a belly landing. The resulting damage had not been repaired when, on April 7, 1945, US troops occupied the airfield. The aircraft presumably suffered the same fate as the H V and was burned.

Specifications

Usage	Combat Trainer
Fuselage Construction	Dural (aluminum alloy)
Wing Construction	Wood
Capacity	Instructor and Student
Motor type	Two Argus As 10 engines
Power	2 x 176 kW (2 x 236 HP)
Span	16.0 m
Sweep Angle	40 degrees
Taper Ratio	8.0
Wing Root Thickness	16% chord
Wing Root Depth	5.5 m
Rib Spacing	0.4 m (0.2 meters at the leading edge)
Wing Area	44.0 m2
Aspect Ratio	5.8
Pilot position	Seated
Mid-section width	4.0 m
Cockpit width	0.80 m
Cockpit height (from seat)	1.1 m
Empty weight	1550 kg
Ballast	water
Additional payload	160 kg
Fuel	290 kg
Maximum weight	2000 kg
Wing loading	45.5 kg/m2
Engine loading	5.7 kg/kW
Stall speed	77 km/h
Landing speed	77 km/h
Cruise speed	300 km/h
Maximum speed (horizontal)	350 km/h
Maximum speed	550 km/h