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September 9, 1999 Last Saturday I was at the workshop and stores of the Deutsche Technikmuseum in Berlin where Prof. Dr. Dr. Holger Steinle and his team are restoring 4 Horten flying wings. We had a nice presentation from Mr. Steinle and from different model builders with some videos. Here are some of the photos I took during this event. Eric du Trieu de Terdonck |
(NOTE: Expanded pictures range in size from 24k to 44k)
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The Horten Ho IIL is in good condition. The central section is now in its rebuilding phase and the wings just need to be covered with fabric. On the right side of the central section photo, you can see Mr. Chris Wills of the Vintage Glider Club. He is also the son of Mr. Wills who was involved in the British evaluation team just after W.W.II. |
| The status is the same for the HoIIIf, but its central section is just cleaned. The seat underneath the section is the original one (prone position). | 
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Only the central section
of the HoIIIh was there. This is a twin seat in standard position. It is
still in not too bad of a condition and it seems that it will not be restored
but just preserved (as I understood with my poor knowledge of German).
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| The complete HoVI - V2 was on display. The work is not yet started and it is still in the condition as stored in the U.S.A. I was very surprised at the length of the wings. These wings are in 2 parts and the last part is in aluminium with "aileron" in wood. The cord at the end of the first part and all the last part is terribly small. I assume that the wing torsion problem was one major problem. The construction of the wings is very light. The ribs are made out of 1 mm multiplex with some reinforce- ments. I was expecting to find some special material (plastic, ...) in the HoVI, but I just found that it was built like the other Horten flying wings: in wood, steel tubes and some aluminium. Also, I was expecting to find it in very good condition, but I found that the wings are in bad condition. The wood cover is, in general, distorded and, sometimes cracked and, especially, the left wing is cut in two because it was rotten. The plexiglas and the metalic cover are also damaged but not too much. | .. .......
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11/23/00 |
