[edwest]

Originally Posted by Stephan Wilkinson

That has always been assumed. But the NASM rigorously analyzed the plywood covering of their artifact, with digital microscopes and spectrometers, and found there to be NO such material in the glue. The black flecks that were always regarded as carbon black mixed in with the glue to create a radar-absorbent material were simply very old, oxidized wood.

As for that dreadful National Geographic documentary featuring the Northrop "replica" of the imagined Ho 229, the replica was made entirely of wood, whereas the entire large centersection of the Ho !X V2 was in fact a cat's cradle of welded steel tubing. There also were no engines in the wooden replica. Should we be surprised that a large, engineless wooden airplane reflected no radar energy?

My own wooden airplane, a Falco (Stelio Frati design) didn't reflect radar either, until I flew close enough to a radar antenna (approach control, typically) for the energy to penetrate the airframe and paint the engine and landing gear. That usually happened at about nine miles distance.

I wouldn't have proposed that Northrop go to the effort of actually re-creating the Horten's welded-tube structure, but simply laying inside the wooden replica's structure a pile of tubing roughly equivalent to what made up the original's centersection would have sufficed. Plus roughly installing in the engine area a couple of run-out old axial-flow jets--I'm sure Northrop-Grumman had a few lying around in a hangar or warehouse somewhere--and THEN tell me how invisible to radar it is.

This reply defies logic. Why build a replica out of wood? To simply place it on display? No, I don't think so. I am fully aware of the internal construction of the original H IX.



Ed