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! Zi \ U N\ ies | Top left: Forward view of the largely completed Horten Ho 9 V3 flying wing jet fighter, which had almost been completed when it was discovered by members of the US 3rd Army VII Corps on 14th April 1945 at the Gotha works at Friederichsroda. The Ho9 V3 (also known as the Gotha Go 229) was assigned the reference T2-490 and shipped by sea to the United States with other captured aircraft of interest. It was eventually passed to the National Air & Space Museum by the USAF. USAF Top right: Rear view of the Horten Ho 9 V3 (Go 229) discovered by US forces at the Gotha works in an advanced stage of assembly. Had the war in Europe lasted longer, these aircraft would have entered service with I/JG 400 at Brandis, replacing their Me 163B Komet rocket fighters. USAF Right: The Horten Ho 9 V3 prototype flying wing jet fighter (minus its wings), which was discovered with several other partly completed Horten prototypes by US forces at the Gotha works on 14th April 1945. USAF bombers and the current Northrop-Grum- man B-2A Spirit. After the design had been submitted in February 1945, Reichsmarschall Goering gave his immediate approval and assigned Junkers to begin construction at the earliest possibility. Following further design revisions, the Hortens completed blueprints for the Ho XV111B and it was decided that assembly of the first two prototypes would start immedi- ately in massive underground facilities near Kala, where new runways for the aircraft were already being built. While it seems that this project progressed no further, there have been reports that engineers started work on the first airframe. Few Horten aircraft sur- vived the War and ground staff intentionally destroyed most examples. However, some Go 229 variants in various stages of assembly were found at the Gotha factory near Friedrichsroda, which was initially secured by US forces and then passed to the Russians. The Americans managed to remove Go 229 V3 before the handover took place and this aircraft is currently stored at the National Air & Space Museum, where it has been allowed to seriously deteriorate. At least two other Horten jets were shipped to Russia, along with large quantities of components and technical information. There have been many allegations that the Hortens were heavily involved in the devel- opment of circular-winged aircraft. The brothers were certainly responsible for the design and construction of a_parabola- shaped glider, but it never flew and was finally scrapped. However, it is possible that a secret (and still unacknowledged) develop- ment of the parabola design was undertaken during the War. Slight evidence of this came to light in 2004 when several apparently genuine declassi- fied USAF documents from 1948 were located. They are marked MOIC Headquar- ters, CIC Region 1, File 1-1606 and mention is made of Operation HARASS. Crude drawings show a very advanced rocket-powered fighter, which is almost horseshoe-shaped and the design is attributed to the Horten Brothers. It seems reasonable to assume that the aircraft was intended to be a supersonic high-altitude interceptor. The aircraft was configured to carry a prone pilot in a central capsule with rocket engines at each wingtip. The overall length of the aircraft was 68ft 10in (21.0m), it had a span of 46ft (14.0m) and it would land on a central extended skid. 51 German Wartime Flying Discs