Quote:
Originally Posted by ElAurens
Stealth by accident, not by intent.
The Northrop flying wings were the same. Very hard to see on radar at the time, but no one gave much thought to that aspect of their design then.
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Just that Northrop up to the B2 hardly ever build a pure flying wing, but always used some kind of vertical stabilizers directly or in form of their engine setup. One of the great two pioneers (Northrop, Horten) nevertheless.
The thing about intentional stealth is debateable.
On the one hand, Germany did experiment with radar absorbing materials, U-Boats for example got a special coating for just that purpose. It's not far fetched to think that the Luftwaffe had their own interests in this regard and observed that development. The paint on the original Horton also has some Radar absorbing tendencies.
On the other hand, neither any documents from that period (those few left), nor direct testimony of the Horton brothers ever gave evidence over the Horten Bother's intention in that direction. This makes the whole debate purely speculative.