The Daily Mail has a fascinating article on Hitler's plans for a stealth bomber — decades before we developed radar absorbing coating with the A-12.
From "Hitler's stealth bomber: How the Nazis were first to design a plane to beat radar:"
Inventors Reimar and Walter Horten (at right) were inspired to build the Ho 2-29 by the deaths of thousands of Luftwaffe pilots in the Battle of Britain. They were convinced that with its drag and lack of wind resistance such a plane would meet Goering’s requirement. Construction on a prototype was begun in Goettingen in Germany in 1944. The centre pod was made from a welded steel tube, and was designed to be powered by a BMW 003 engine. The most important innovation was Reimar Horten’s idea to coat it in a mix of charcoal dust and wood glue.
A British engineering team has reconstructed the Horten Ho 2-29 from Third Reich blueprints, the model of which will appear in a documentary for National Geographic Television.
