1:32 Horten Ho 229 B 2-seat Night Fighter

A flying wing that was meant to hunt at night

In the last months of the war the brothers Reimar and Walter Horten carried their enthusiasm for tailless gliders all the way to a jet combat aircraft. The Ho 229 first took off as an unpowered prototype, and in February 1945 a machine with a pair of Junkers Jumo 004 jet engines flew as well. Gothaer Waggonfabrik was to start production, but the end of the war got there first.

The two-seat B version

The letter B denoted the intended night fighter. A second crew member to operate the radar was planned, along with a lengthened center section and a wider landing gear track. The airframes under construction stayed unfinished at Gotha, so this variant never flew. The model therefore captures a project state rather than a machine with a unit, and that is exactly why it will take either a fantasy finish or a sober factory scheme.

How a Super Wing Series kit is built

The whole range starts from the idea that the modeler first assembles the internal structure, that is the spars, the bulkheads, the engine ducts, the landing gear bays and the cockpit, and only then closes it inside the skin. The finished machine can be left with the panels open and the interior shown. The center section of the subject was welded from steel tube and covered with plywood, and the outer parts of the wing were all-wood. When painting, fine shade transitions across the surface therefore look more convincing than sharply drawn panel lines.

What is left of the Hortens

The only surviving example of the family, the V3 prototype, came through the war in American hands and is today in the collection of the aviation museum in Washington. The shape of the center section and the arrangement of the landing gear bays can be checked against it, so a builder is not left relying on period drawings alone.