set to replace many Cold War-era bombers by the end of the decade Air Force’s tradition of flying wing aircraft The first notable flying wing was the Horten Ho 229 -Although the jet fighter was incomplete by the war’s end its revolutionary design made it less visible to radar contributing to early stealth technology concepts -The Horten Ho 229 inspired later designs like Northrop’s experimental bombers and the B-2 Spirit influencing films like Raiders of the Lost Ark By the end of the decade, the United States Air Force will begin to phase out many of its Cold War-era bombers with the new Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider heavy-payload stealth intercontinental strategic bomber will be the latest U.S military aircraft to feature a flying wing design As development only began as Nazi Germany was already well on its way to losing the war progress was slow going – and even had it been built it likely would have done little to change the war’s outcome However, the aircraft has remained one of fascination due to its unique design Unlike many other Nazi “super weapons” that barely made it off the drawing board The first prototype was completed as glider the second and third were single-seat aircraft while and the fourth was intended to be a two-seater the aircraft wasn’t really all that high-tech According to a report from military aviation analysts at Jane’s “the sharply swept-back cantilever wing was of mixed construction with a welded steel-tube center-section wood outer sections and metal tips” and added “all control surfaces were on the outer wings Divided hinged surfaces were responsible for longitudinal and lateral control and spoilers for direction control.” The Horten Ho 229 is often classified as a “stealth aircraft,” and the Horten brothers had indeed been correct that the flying wing concept would make it less visible to radar than a conventional aircraft of its size It would have had only about 80 percent of the visibility presented by a fighter such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 despite having a larger wingspan “claims by Reimar Horten that he had mixed charcoal with the glue to bond the wood laminates of which the structure was made in an attempt to achieve a low reflection were rebuffed by a chemical analysis which showed there was no evidence of such a substance.” which would have significantly absorbed propagated radio waves was also to have been used in production versions Whether it could have further reduced the radar signature is one that will remain a matter of debate an experimental heavy bomber build for the United States Army Air Forces shortly after World War II Northrop’s pioneering all-wing design eventually lead Northrop Grumman to develop the advanced B-2 Spirit stealth bomber that entered service with the United States Air Force in the late 1980s Nearly a decade before the American public ever heard of the B-2 many saw a flying wing on screen in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark in which the Nazis planned to use an experimental aircraft to fly the Ark of the Covenant back to Germany It is never explained why the Nazis are using such a plane and the only apparent reason is that director Steven Spielberg liked the concept Ending critical mineral dependence will require more than the recently announced deal with Ukraine the United States and Ukraine finally signed a rare earth mineral… ensconced in their mountains in northern Yemen French Rafale fighter jets are in global demand This highlights an increased defense spending across Europe and the Middle East Stay in the know with The National Interest newsletter © Copyright 2025 Center for the National Interest We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below The cookies that are categorised as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic 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experience for the visitors Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customised advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyse the effectiveness of the ad campaigns The selection of works for the new Klimt ⇄ Warhol permanent exhibition was shaped by visitors to the Heidi Horten Collection as part of the innovative they had around nine months to vote for their favorite works in the collection and thus have a direct influence on the new permanent exhibition Highlights of 20th and 21st century art history have been brought together in an exhibition entitled Klimt to Warhol Different artistic trends and movements such as Vienna around 1900 European and American abstraction of the post-war period works by the Zero artists' group and contemporary positions are combined in a presentation that reveals the versatility of the Heidi Horten Collection The display of the collection presentation on the ground floor of the museum is being developed by the Austrian artist Markus Schinwald in close cooperation with the Heidi Horten Collection The aim is to present the collection's masterpieces in a unique way and to stand out from conventional museum exhibitions giving the Heidi Horten Collection a special unique selling point Schinwald's wall design creates a representative yet intimate atmosphere The allusions to bourgeois interiors reflect the private origins of the collection The design of the walls integrates around 50 selected works into an overall artistic setting in which art and visitors can enter into a free dialog with one another Two wall elements with portholes echo the design of the Tea Room and create new lines of sight and movement in the entrance area of the museum Among the two dozen or so individual models that have been built over the years only a few types have been produced in quantities of more than two or three and the small Horten HX-2 is a member of that exclusive group There are several reasons for the rarity of flying wings Airliner versions never caught on due to their size and overall footprint—a flying wing capable of carrying 50-plus passengers would generally be too large to utilize traditional taxiways Most passengers in the voluminous structure would be seated far away from the extremely limited number of windows effectively evacuating a large number of passengers from such an airframe presents several daunting challenges This leaves only a few categories in which flying wings make sense They’ve succeeded in a number of military applications as their unique advantages of internal volume and stealth benefits outweigh the negatives They’ve had some limited success in the glider and UAV categories And while they haven’t caught on in other applications they have potential in applications requiring smaller airframes and fewer seats itself part of the large Lindig Group based in Germany But unlike most other upstarts in aviation Horten has direct ties to early aviation pioneers—specifically including the jet-powered Ho-229 fighter/bomber Reimar contributed to the design of the HX-2’s predecessors in the late 1980s and early ’90s the two-seat HX-2 is a far cry from World War II-era bombers the basic stats place it in a category consisting of modern LSAs and legacy two-seaters like the Grumman AA-1 and Cessna 150 flying wing configuration offers some similarly unique advantages in a private GA application Efficiency is perhaps the most compelling attribute of the HX-2 Initial testing demonstrated a cruising speed of 87 mph while burning less than 2.65 gph Although internal volume is plentiful and could easily be utilized for cargo and baggage there would be very little center of gravity (CG) variance the HX-2 would be difficult or even impossible to load outside of the CG limits The flat profile has also reportedly demonstrated excellent handling qualities during crosswind takeoffs and landings When Horten actively marketed the HX-2 prior to 2020 the company presented it as the initial version of a family of aircraft buildable by individuals or in concert with the manufacturing facility the company envisioned a four-place version optimized for short-range air taxi operations A more distant goal was a hydrogen-powered version The voluminous design of the HX-2 was particularly suited to this as large-volume hydrogen storage has always been a significant hurdle for more traditional aircraft designs the aircraft would have been able to achieve a 1,000 nm range with hydrogen power One of the company’s most recent efforts was to position the HX-2 as an ideal platform for unmanned operations it could provide a range of 2,175 miles or an endurance of 20 hours Although Horten never actively marketed the HX-2 as a manned military aircraft it observed that the two-seater has sufficient internal space for the installation of a toilet and a bed When we visited Horten’s facilities adjacent to Lift Air near Eisenach the construction appeared to be first rate without sloppy details inherent in some prototype and proof-of-concept aircraft While visibility was decent in most directions a natural side effect of sitting within the wing Cockpit access was impossible without a ladder and one wonders how Horten might have developed stowable while the Horten website is still live and touts the HX-2 development and marketing efforts appear to have stalled since 2020 But the presence of the website nevertheless offers hope that with another round of investment the program could pick right back up from where it left off the convergence of funding and market conditions will breathe new life into the HX-2 so that it may take flight once again.  This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Curated by Roland Fischer-Briand and Rolf H the exhibition combines around 170 works by German and Austrian expressionists with masterpieces of expressionist film from the 1920s A cultural highlight that combines art and cinema in a unique way or Log In 27 Apr 2025 12:00:00 GMT?.css-1txiau5-AnswerContainer{color:var(--GlobalColorScheme-Text-secondaryText2);}Ørn Horten won 3–1 over Ready on Sun Predicted lineups are available for the match a few days in advance while the actual lineup will be available about an hour ahead of the match This is the first time the teams are playing against each other Haven't kept a clean sheet in 5 matches Have scored 8 goals in their last 5 matches Haven't kept a clean sheet in 11 matches Who won between Ready and Ørn Horten on Sun 27 Apr 2025 12:00:00 GMT?Ørn Horten won 3–1 over Ready on Sun 27 Apr 2025 12:00:00 GMT.InsightsHave scored 4 goals in their last 5 matches Ready is playing home against Ørn Horten on Sun LBV Magazine English Edition The NASM (National Air and Space Museum) is a Smithsonian Institute museum dedicated to the history and technology of aviation and spaceflight It’s a place that will delight any enthusiast who visits offering the chance to discover fascinating artifacts like the original prototype of the Horten Ho 229 an advanced jet-powered fighter-bomber built by Nazi Germany in the final stages of World War II it is believed to have potentially inspired the first documented UFO sightings in 1947 The reason this aircraft is preserved in the United States alongside attractions like the Wright brothers’ invention the Spirit of Saint Louis with which Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic the Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima the Bell X-1 used by Yeager to break the sound barrier the Apollo 11 module that first landed on the Moon and the Air Force One used by President Kennedy aimed to bring German scientists to the U.S who specialized in developing advanced weaponry that the Nazi regime had pushed from 1944 onward in a desperate attempt to turn the tide of the war The operation also sought their groundbreaking inventions any technological or medical advancement was highly coveted General Patton’s Third Army crossed the Rhine River while Task Force Baum—dispatched by the colorful Lieutenant General to free a prisoner-of-war camp holding his son-in-law—failed in its mission German resistance had significantly weakened troops began capturing thousands of German soldiers It was in this context that they stumbled upon a glider and a nearly completed prototype of the Horten Air Force had been working on jet aircraft for some time but the power generated by the Westinghouse J30 engine was inferior to that of the BMW 003A used in the Horten the Ho 229 V3 was transported to the Royal Aircraft Establishment where attempts were made to adapt its airframe to a British engine this proved impossible due to excessive differences between the components The Horten Ho 229 was the brainchild of Hermann Göring he had tasked engineers with developing a light bomber capable of meeting the so-called “3 x 1,000” requirement: carrying 1,000 kilograms of bombs and reaching a speed of 1,000 kilometers per hour While German aircraft could reach the British Isles they often suffered heavy losses to RAF fighters which had already been under development and were being applied to new Junkers models with Jumo 004 engines—a type of turbojet that met Göring’s specifications but had a major drawback: excessive fuel consumption A solution to this issue was found by adopting an innovative delta-wing airframe known as Nurflügel (Flying Wing) This idea originated with brothers Walter and Reimar Horten had built gliders with this shape (the Treaty of Versailles prohibited Germany from manufacturing powered aircraft) These early models were simple and aerodynamic but uncomfortable to operate as the pilot had to lie face down in a small cockpit The Horten brothers began World War II on the front lines piloting Messerschmitt Bf 109s; Walter even achieved nine victories during the Battle of Britain under the command of ace Adolf Galland while Reimar stopped flying in 1940 to focus on his mathematics doctorate (a third brother the Hortens’ work received little attention they were granted half a million Reichsmarks for their research From their efforts and imagination emerged two distinct but conceptually similar projects grouped under the common designation Horten HV: twin-engine aircraft that continued an earlier project the brothers had built in the late 1930s and early 1940s which itself was an evolution of their earlier glider Their main features included the delta-wing airframe the lightweight material (a resin that compensated for the limited power of the twin propeller engines) differentiated by the fact that in the second version the pilots no longer had to fly lying down as it crashed during takeoff on its maiden flight who survived by shutting down the engines and gliding although its construction was delayed until 1942 in favor of better alternatives nearly identical to its predecessor but equipped with more powerful engines and Walter piloted one in several test flights about twenty units were ordered; the H.VII V-3 was nearly completed at the Peschke factory (Minden Westphalia) when the arrival of Allied forces forced the work to halt and everything to be destroyed the Soviets took what remained of one unit to attempt to reconstruct it some flying saucer sightings might have actually been versions of the H.VII V-3 rebuilt in the USSR they could have been attempts made in the U.S known to have built a replica from the aircraft confiscated by Patton and conducted test flights in New Mexico the first documented sighting was by a pilot from Idaho named Kenneth Arnold who in 1947 claimed to have seen a formation of nine flying objects from his small aircraft while searching for a missing plane What is particularly interesting is that he described them as boomerang- or crescent-shaped although authorities dismissed them as merely reflections the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (Aviation Ministry) approved the Horten brothers’ proposal for a light bomber under the 3 x 1,000 concept and commissioned three HV units though they required the aircraft to be equipped with two 30 mm cannons to also exploit its speed for potential use as a fighter The manufacturing was entrusted to the Gothaer Waggonfabrik aerospace company compensating for the rejection of its own flying wing project was of mixed composition: the central section and pilot’s cockpit were constructed from steel tubing while the wings were made from plywood combined with sawdust and charcoal These materials were used due to the scarcity of lightweight alloys in Germany at that stage of the war the Horten brothers had experience with alternative fuselage designs and other advancements compared to the prototypes: the landing gear was retractable and a parachute could be deployed as a complementary brake during landing it was time to test with engines: the H.IX V2 equipped with a Jumo 004 because the designated engine not only ordered forty units but also entrusted the Horten brothers with another project: the Amerikabomber a long-range bomber capable of crossing the Atlantic and reaching the United States and returning The proposals until then were based on conventional multi-engine planes such as the Messerschmitt Me 264 and the Junkers Ju 390; there was also consideration of the possibility that a Heinkel He 177 could transport a Dornier Do 217 The Hortens radically changed all that by introducing their innovative delta wing concept The Ho XVIII was an intercontinental version of the Ho 229 larger and equipped with six Jumo 004 turbojets whose enormous fuel consumption was offset by the fact that the aircraft was made of wood bonded with a special carbon glue (which absorbed electromagnetic waves and It had two turrets with two 30 mm cannons each and could carry four tons of bombs introduced modifications such as the removal of defensive armament and the reduction of engines to four These changes did not have much significance because neither the Ho XVIIIa nor a variant developed exclusively by Junkers and Messerschmitt as production was scheduled to begin in the fall of 1945 and the war ended before the assembly of the first unit was completed did not attend the test flights conducted by Lieutenant Erwin Ziller who died during the third flight in February 1945 The pilot tried to restart the engine several times but was unsuccessful consumed by fire except for what was pulverized on impact as news arrived that the enemy had just launched Operation Lumberjack the Ho 229 was added to the Jäger-Notprogramm which was part of the desperate effort by the Nazi regime to halt the enemy the famous Wunderwaffe or “Wonder Weapons.” The facilities were moved to Friedrichroda finding the four prototypes along with a glider Reimar Horten attempted to negotiate its handover to the British and Chinese also delta-wing-shaped; it was never mass-produced due to delays caused by economic problems named for being a cargo plane intended to transport oranges; it had the same peculiar shape… and the same fate chose to stay in Germany and continued being part of the air force until 1951 Germans were authorized to build airplanes again; he then designed the Ho 33 glider to which a motor was permitted to be added in 1957 Both brothers continued designing aircraft until their deaths: Reimar in Argentina in 1994; Walter in Germany four years later Aside from ideology (they were members of the Nazi Party but mere rank-and-file members without responsibilities in it) the innovative aeronautical spirit they embodied survives through their masterpiece Garber Facility of the aforementioned American museum partially restored though somewhat lackluster with its wings separated from the central section This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on September 8, 2023: El insólito bombardero alemán de la Segunda Guerra Mundial con forma de ala delta, considerado posible causa del avistamiento de los primeros OVNIS Davis Myhra, Horten 229 Emily Schmitt, Desperate for victory, the Nazis built an aircraft that was all wing. It didn’t work Johannes Wehrmann, Gotha Go 229 – Horten Ho IX Wikipedia, Horten Ho 229 Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email Archaeologists from universities in the United States and Denmark found deep within the Actun Uayazba Kab cave in Belize two small stone tools dated between 250 and 900 AD that… men and women gathered to play a game called Cuju A team of researchers has succeeded in recreating for the first time in a laboratory experiment a phenomenon that until now only existed as a theory in the realm of… the Cantonal Archaeology of Aargau carried out a rescue excavation between early May 2024 and the end of March 2025 The Egyptian archaeological mission affiliated with the Supreme Council of Antiquities announced the discovery of a group of defensive structures and a system of moats that could indicate… In the southeastern area of the city of Rome archaeologists excavating inside the Triton Baths within the monumental complex of the Villa di Sette… Why did some animals from ancient eras become fossils while others simply disappeared without a trace A recent study on the cave paintings of the Altamira Cave in Santillana del Mar Cantabria (Spain) has concluded that some of the artworks it contains could be much older… A team of paleontologists from the University of Leicester has managed to decipher one of the many enigmas of the dinosaur era—the exact moment when pterosaurs Rome achieved numerous military victories that allowed it to grow and dominate nearly the entire known world in Antiquity Receive our news and articles in your email for free You can also support us with a monthly subscription and receive exclusive content updates and opinions across the legal sector Lawyer intelligence insight & analysis to inform your strategic planning comment and unrivalled data-rich analysis about the stories happening in the legal market by subscribing to The Lawyer today Experiment expressionism - Schiele meets Nosferatu is a comprehensive Important works from the Heidi Horten Collection act as a starting point of the exhibition that is curated by Roland Fischer-Briand and Rolf Johannsen In particular works by the Expressionist painters Erich Heckel These artists are shown in context with works by Austrian Expressionist painters like Herbert Boeckl the exhibition also focuses on silent film - the new if not leading medium of the time - which is illustrated in the exhibition with posters film stills and excerpts from classics such as Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari or Nosferatu – eine Symphonie des Grauens but also films less familiar to the general public such as Genuineor Der müde Tod the museum offers an evening program presenting silent films that will be shown for the first time in long version Your request appears similar to malicious requests sent by robots Please make sure JavaScript is enabled and then try loading this page again. If you continue to be blocked, please send an email to secruxurity@sizetedistrict.cVmwom with: This spring, Luxury at Christie’s brings you a calendar of brilliant events, exhibitions and auctions starting with an incredible edit of jewellery, watches, handbags and wines. Heidi Horten Collection, Foto © Rupert Steiner pictured with a Harry Winston necklace that sold for SFr6.3m ($7.1m) in May Christie’s has cancelled the remaining sales of jewellery from the estate of late Austrian art collector Heidi Horten after the auction house came under fire over the source of Horten’s wealth which was accumulated by her late husband in Nazi-era Germany by “Aryanising” Jewish companies The bulk of the collection was auctioned off in May over several sales in Geneva that grossed $202m (including fees) to become the most valuable single-owner jewellery collection to ever sell at auction Christie’s said Thursday (31 August) it would not proceed with further sales of property from Horten’s estate cancelling the sale of 300 additional jewels that were scheduled for an online auction in November “The sale of the Heidi Horten jewellery collection has provoked intense scrutiny and the reaction to it has deeply affected us and many others and we will continue to reflect on it,” Anthea Peers The previous sales raised money for “important support for philanthropic causes children’s welfare and access to the arts” Shortly after Christie’s announced the sale of Horten’s famed jewellery collection in March of this year the auction house faced a wave of criticism from observers who accused the auction house of underplaying how Horten’s late husband Helmut became a wealthy retail magnate partly by acquiring Jewish-owned department stores for sometimes below-market prices amid the “Aryanisation” of Germany when Jewish peoples’ property was seized and handed over to non-Jews Initial promotional materials from Christie’s described Helmut as “a German entrepreneur and philanthropist”. The auction house later amended their descriptions to include mention of his “well documented” business practices during the Nazi era “when he purchased Jewish businesses sold under duress” Horten died last year at age 81. Representatives of her collection did not immediately respond to a request for comment. one of three Cézanne paintings included in the sale was found to have been sold under duress after the Nazis took power in Germany archive1 January 1996Christie’s takes on sale of Jewish loot900 works of art looted from Vienna’s Jewish community and stored in a monastery since 1955 to be sold on its behalf - It may be a PR nightmare for the auctioneers news30 March 2023Paintings by Ed Ruscha, Philip Guston and others from major Chicago collection headed to auction at Christie’sA group of paintings and works on paper from the collection of Alan and Dorothy Press is estimated to fetch more than $50m across multiple sales in New York this spring HistoryNet Reimar Horten and his older brother Walter were German aircraft homebuilders. Their relatively short aircraft-building careers extended from 1933 until the end of World War II though they did some minor work in Argentina after the war as expatriate Nazis chances are they would have been busy members of an EAA chapter in Germany making a living selling kits for their high-performance flying-wing sailplanes.  proposed putting a pair of Germany’s new axial-flow jet engines into a Horten glider (Brother Reimar was the aero­dynami­cist and designer; Walter was the facilitator eventually holding an important Luftwaffe position that allowed him to divert government supplies staff and facilities for his brother.)  The jets were first going to be two BMW 003s but when they underperformed the Hortens switched to Junkers Jumo 004Bs or Test 2—the V1 was an unpowered research glider) officially flew three times crashing fatally at the end of the third flight when one of its two Jumos failed but the brothers had undeniably built and tested the world’s first turbojet flying wing more than three and a half years before Northrop’s eight-jet YB-49 flying-wing bomber took off the Hortens were well ahead of Jack Northrop and his engineers it was suggested to Northrop that he hire the brothers they’re just glider designers,” he said condescendingly The success of the Ho IX was pointed out to him but Northrop dismissed it as a Gotha design but the source of his confusion was the fact that the Luft­waffe knowing the tiny Horten garage operation could never mass-produce twin-engine jet fighter-bombers a large railroad car manufacturing company with aircraft-building experience the Horten jet has come down to us with a confusing suite of names The actual sole jet-powered wing that flew was the Ho IX V2 The German air ministry (Reichsluftfahrtministerium or RLM) gave the project an official make and model designation—Ho-229 some sources still refer to the airplane as a Go-229 Many Luftwaffe aircraft were built by a variety of manufacturers a Dornier a Do no matter who actually manufactured it The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum calls a major artifact in its collection that is about to undergo serious conservation a Horten 229 This despite the fact that no production Horten 229 ever existed; what the Smithsonian has is the never-completed Ho IX V3 built by Gotha It bears mentioning that neither Northrop nor the Hortens invented flying wings Both the concept and actual flying wings have been around since the 1910s there had been enough experiments with flying wings that the configu­ration was considered passé and both Jack Northrop and the Hortens were late to the party The Hortens have also been credited with designing and building the world’s first stealth fighter It’s a popular fiction in the “Hitler’s wonder weapons” community and it got a boost in a 2009 Northrop Grumman–sponsored film The doc tried to show that a modern replica of the National Air and Space Museum’s Ho IX V3 bombarded by microwaves revealed moderate radar-deflecting properties Northrop Grumman’s prototyping shop built the replica for $250,000 That’s a bargain for an hour-long video broadcast on the History Channel that is still being discussed by what some call the “Napkinwaffe”—a dig at where the plans for some of the Luftwaffe’s fantasy fighters were first sketched (Engineering drawings for the Horten jet reveal this to be not far from the truth.) Northrop Grumman built the Horten replica entirely of wood its plywood skins layered with radar-absorbent carbon-­impregnated glue Only the externally radar-visible instrument panel backing and first-stage compressor disks were metal Yet the Horten brothers’ original airplane also had an 11-foot-wide center section made of welded steel tubing Neither of these were part of the Northrop Grumman replica It could be argued that all this metal might have reflected at least some microwave energy that penetrated the plywood But Northrop Grumman felt that their special glue made the replica totally opaque to radar The replicators also left out the original Ho IX V3’s eight large aluminum fuel tanks Nor did Northrop Grumman include the underwing bombs that would have been necessary for any attack on a radar-defended target Externally racked ordnance destroys any semblance of stealth The Nat Geo film ended up suggesting that an all-wood Horten might have been able to do a fly-by of Britain’s by then obsolete Chain Home low-frequency radar array but it wouldn’t have been able to bomb anything Narration over the film says that it reveals “just how close Nazi engineers were to unleashing a jet that some say could have changed the course of the war.” Not bloody likely The heart of the Horten stealth assertion is a claim by the brothers that they indeed had intended to fasten the layers of the Ho-229’s plywood sheathing with glue mixed with radar-absorbing charcoal but the first mention of this plan came in a 1983 book written by Reimar stealth technology were becoming public knowledge There is no mention of any attempt to achieve stealthy properties for the Ho-229 by anybody involved in the actual fabrication of the prototypes NASM’s restoration facility ran extensive digital-microscopy X-ray diffraction and Fourier-transfer spectroscopy tests on the wooden structure of their Horten aircraft’s wing and found no evidence of any carbon or charcoal impregnation of the glue The black specks that Northrop Grumman had assumed were evidence of the Hortens’ attempt to create a radar blanket were found to be simply oxidized wood Reimar Horten originally planned to sheathe the Ho IX in aluminum, which hardly suggests that he had stealth as an objective. It was only when he discovered to his surprise that the Messerschmitt Me-163 rocket plane was covered in plywood that he realized high speed didn’t rule out using wood He then switched to more easily obtainable plywood veneer but for reasons that had nothing to do with its radar attenuation and everything to do with its availability.  It’s also worth noting that the Ho-229 was intended to be a day fighter as was true of so many Luftwaffe fantasy fighters it was to undertake a variety of other roles Walter Horten had originally advocated jet power because he wanted to build a better airplane than the Focke Wulf Fw-190 So why would stealth have been a criterion Hitler’s “stealth fighter” was simply intended to be Hitler’s aerodynamically efficient How did the Hitler’s stealth fighter myth take root Certainly there’s fertile ground upon which such legends can be sown among the model builders and war gamers who love nothing more than mysterious Luftwaffe wonder weapons that would have reversed the course of the war had it only lasted another month But none seem to understand the years-long prototyping/testing/production process that is a necessary part of bringing a sophisticated aircraft from napkin sketch to combat Exactly three years and a day passed between the Messerschmitt Me-262 twin-jet’s first flight and the beginning of its operational readiness the Ho-229 would have been ready for combat in early 1948 The V1 and V2 versions were built in what was essentially a three-car workshop out of largely unairworthy structural material The center section steel tubing was much like what today suffices for building trade electrical conduit and the Hortens were notorious for using household-grade ply­wood veneer for their airplanes’ external sheathing.  Walter Horten was assigned the job of calculating the V2’s center of gravity he never noticed that the first 10 centimeters of the tape had broken off so his false measurements determined that the airplane needed substantial ballast in the nose the test pilot assigned to the first flight found that he could barely keep the airplane aloft with full back stick and when he tried to flare for landing the airplane hit so hard that it badly damaged the gear And the Hortens’ fabricators welded and rewelded the V2’s center section as the engine choice flip-flopped between BMW and Junkers which created heat stresses that no experienced aircraft builder would have allowed Skilled welders would have cut out and rebuilt entire sections of the structure The Hortens also needed to adapt cast-off components to their Ho IX airframe The airplane’s main gear is fashioned from Me-109 parts tire and retraction mechanism from a Heinkel He-177 Greif The oversize nosewheel put the Ho IX at a 7-degree angle of incidence at rest which facilitated takeoff without requiring the forceful rotation other Horten designs had needed a number of Horten designs were examined by the Allies If any conspiracy theorists noticed the byline at the beginning of this article for the “Wilkinson Report,” written by a committee of British aviation authorities headed by soaring expert Kenneth Wilkinson was supposedly highly critical of the Hortens it is to the same degree that Henry and Harrison Ford are.)  wrote that the Wilkinson Report was “a way of helping to shield the reality of the Horten achievement so that greater powers could seize the ideas and keep them unseen for decades…[it] dismissed their ideas and works as apparent flights of fancy; stemming from what felt like a British attitude of the Hortens being men ‘without the proper background.'” The paper does point out that British engineers tended to trust wind-tunnel data more than they did inflight assessments but admits the Hortens had no access to such a tunnel It calls the Hortens’ careers “a remarkable record of progress in spite of [such] obstacles.” One thing that did baffle Wilkinson’s committee was that so little of Reimar Horten’s work was of the slightest use to the German war effort Reimar was far more interested in record-­setting and competition gliders and he continued to design and build them throughout the war think that he viewed the jet wing as a “flying résumé” that would help him get a job in the U.S Reimar would have loved to carry on his career in the States Despite membership in the Nazi Party and his work as a Luftwaffe assault-glider instructor he had first tried to emigrate to America in 1938 but had been refused an exit visa since he was thought to have had access to classified information   What’s wrong with the conventional designs that have served so well since the early 1900s Certainly there have been some useful variations—canards even Vin­cent Burnelli’s perennial lifting-fuselage concept—but the pure flying wing has always been an outlier the advantages of a flying wing are sub­stantial you name it—has wings that contribute lift despite inevitable induced and parasitic drag…plus a fuselage engine nacelle(s) and an empennage that contribute nothing but drag Indeed a conventional horizontal stabilizer often adds negative lift—down­force—to an airplane One of the major functions of a fuselage is to support the empennage that provides pitch and yaw control for a conventional airplane A flying wing totally eliminates the drag of an aft fuselage and empennage every part of a flying wing is a lifting surface An all-wing aircraft also allows for the efficiency of span-loading Much of a conventional airplane’s weight is concentrated near its centerline hence the videos of bendy-­wing Boeing Dream­liners looking as though they’re trying to clap hands above their fuselages The forces concentrated at the wing/fuselage juncture of a conventional airplane are enormous while a flying wing can spread the entire load from wingtip to wingtip thus allowing for a lighter and more efficient structure The weight is spread out where the lift is high-­aspect-ratio span without requiring a heavy framework to support it a true flying wing has a distinct advantage: It does away with all radar-reflective vertical surfaces plus its wooden construction and lack of radar-reflecting prop discs is what gave Northrop Grum­man’s Ho IX replica its comparatively small radar cross-­section The disadvantage of a flying wing is its natural instability with no tail to provide counterbalance in pitch and yaw The Hortens overcame much of this with enlightened wing but their airplanes still exhibited the classic flying-­wing waddle The Ho IX V2’s flights had already revealed moderate lateral instability It would have made the Ho-229 a dreadful gun platform as a fighter and a handful as a bomber (This was the characteristic that doomed the North­rop YB-49 flying wing in its competition with what became the Convair B-36; bomb-run accuracy was impossible to achieve when yaw/roll coupling determined the meandering flight path Nor did it help that one YB-49 went out of control and crashed fatally during stall testing in June 1948.) By the time Gotha took over the Ho-229 project the Hor­ten brothers had lost interest and moved on to their planned masterpiece—a six-turbojet flying wing “Amerika Bomber.” The Ho XVIII never was built but it filled another niche in the Napkinwaffe Some still say the Amerika Bomber (several German airframers were racing to build one) was intended to drop an atomic bomb on New York the Germans would never have been able to build such a weapon having lost their Norwegian deuterium source but they did have the capability to put together a dirty bomb—a large conventional bomb encased in strongly radioactive materi­al that would have polluted a wide area with radiation Though Northrop wanted nothing to do with the Horten brothers the company did acquire several of their gliders for research after WWII leading conspiracists to claim that Northrop stole the Hortens’ secrets for its own flying wings Northrop depicted an Ho VI glider in postwar avia­tion magazine ads as an example of “one of the Nazi attempts to adapt U.S flying-wing design for eventual mili­tary use.” The Smithsonian’s Ho IX V3 was brought to America as part of Operation Seahorse Navy counterpart to the better-known Operation Paperclip campaign to acquire as many interesting Luftwaffe aircraft as possible But it was never flown and in fact was only half-­completed It was first assessed at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Britain—the source of the Wilkinson Report data—and was then sent to both Wright and Freeman fields for Army Air Forces scrutiny The jet wing ended up stored outdoors in Chicago at a facility that was intended to become a national air museum In 1952 the Smithsonian acquired the airplane though it was by then badly beaten up by numerous moves and exposure to the weather It was moved once more to “a secret government warehouse,” according to published reports That warehouse was actually the Smithsonian’s quite unsecret Suit­land part of that time stored in an open wooden shed much of its plywood sheathing delaminated and rotting NASM has it on the short list for major work and the V3 can currently be seen at the museum’s restoration facility in the Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport That work will not be restoration but conservation: stopping the rot and corrosion cleaning up the airframe and assembling the center section and outer wings into a single unit Those wings may or may not have been part of the V3 and another was later found some distance from the Gotha shop.  The Hortens’ last hurrah took place without their participation there was a notorious occurrence at Roswell known forever after as the “Roswell Inci­dent.” It allegedly involved the crash of a flying saucer and the snatching by the Army Air Forces of the bodies of three aliens aboard it The Roswell Incident engendered decades’ worth of tabloids portraying the gourd-headed ETs perhaps still stored in freezers in a heavily guarded Area 51 hangar The government tried to explain away the crash by saying it had been a high-­altitude weather balloon; it was actually a secret surveillance balloon intended to keep track of Soviet atomic bomb testing But some observers with more specialized knowledge had an intriguing theory Reimar Horten decided that the ultimate flying-wing shape would be a parabola—a wing with a near-circular leading edge planform which would provide the minimum induced drag and maximum lift The Hortens built just one parabola-­wing glider but never flew it; the airplane was torched after warping and becoming unglued during winter storage there’s more: Supposedly the AAF found out about the Horten parabola wing and decided to build a powered version to secretly test Reimar’s theory looking uncannily like two-thirds of a flying saucer contributing editor Stephan Wilkinson recommends: The Horten Brothers and Their All-Wing Aircraft by David Myhra; and Horten Ho 229 Spirit of Thuringia: The Horten All-Wing Jet Fighter This feature originally appeared in the November 2016 issue of Aviation History Magazine Our 9 best-selling history titles feature in-depth storytelling and iconic imagery to engage and inform on the people and the events that shaped America and the world Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earhart’s disappearance how Wild Bill Donovan shaped the American intelligence community If you needed some motivation during the war years “History is a guide to navigation in perilous times History is who we are and why we are the way we are.” HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the world’s largest publisher of history magazines photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians sign me up! The exhibition Focus Franz West is a survey of the multifaceted work of Austrian artist Franz West who challenged and playfully subverted traditional genre concepts West’s creative universe is all-encompassing: his oeuvre includes drawings works dedicated to the principle of participation and an expanded concept of sculpture The centerpiece of the exhibition is a work that is a new addition to the collection: Franz West’s nine-part series of collages for the 1990 Biennale which takes an ironic look at the dialogue between artwork and viewer The series is a sequel to his earlier Passstücke (Adaptives) portable sculptures that function as a temporary extension of the human body and invite the recipient to interact with them The exhibition is further enhanced by works on loan from private collections including additional Passstücke and amorphous sculptures demonstrate West’s innovative approach to pushing the boundaries between art and life The exhibition offers visitors a unique opportunity to discover and experience Franz West’s distinct and innovative approach to sculpture ShareThe unrivalled jewellery collection of Heidi Horten: ‘these are the best of the best’In May 2023 Christie’s in Geneva will offer the largest and most valuable private collection of jewels ever to come to auction led by a curated selection from top 20th-century designers including Bulgari Heidi Horten (1941-2022) was one of the most important figures in the history of jewellery collecting Fine and decorative arts were among the many interests she pursued over the course of her lifetime but it was her unparalleled private collection of jewels that set her apart From May 2023, Christie’s will offer 700 lots from Horten’s collection across a series of auctions during Luxury Week in Geneva with a two-part live sale taking place on 10 and 12 May ‘Heidi was a sensitive and passionate collector with a deep appreciation for jewellery,’ says Max Fawcett, head of Jewellery at Christie’s in Geneva ‘She had a discerning eye and curated a sophisticated collection featuring some of the finest jewels ever to come to market.’ Heidi Horten (1941-2022) wearing the 90.38-carat ‘Briolette of India’ diamond necklace which will be offered in May 2023 at Christie’s in Geneva ‘What makes this collection particularly remarkable is the breadth and quality of the gemstones represented,’ says Fawcett. ‘You’ll find everything from costume jewellery and one-of-a-kind haute joaillerie  pieces to historic jewels with exceptional provenance.’ A unique Bulgari sapphire, coloured sapphire, emerald and diamond necklace Sold for CHF2,586,000 on 10 May 2023 at Christie’s in Geneva highlights from the collection will tour Christie’s showrooms across Asia With prices ranging from tens of thousands to tens of millions Fawcett expects the collection to draw bidders from all over the world ‘There’s something here for everyone,’ he says ‘It promises to be a spirited couple of nights in the saleroom.’ All of the estate’s proceeds will benefit The Heidi Horten Foundation — established in 2021 to support The Heidi Horten Collection as well as medical research and other philanthropic activities that she supported for many decades Christie’s will make a significant contribution from its final proceeds of the auction to an organisation that advances Holocaust research and education Heidi Horten (née Jelinek) was immersed in the arts from a young age Weeknights were often spent ice-skating or practising the piano while weekends were enjoyed at the opera or exploring the collections of the Kunsthistoriches Museum and the Austrian Gallery at the Belvedere Palace He enjoyed painting landscapes and portraits of his daughter some of which are now in The Heidi Horten Collection leaving a significant inheritance to Mrs Horten the source of which is a matter of public record The business practices of Mr Horten during the Nazi era when he purchased Jewish businesses sold under duress In 2018, Heidi Horten presented a selection of 175 artworks from her collection to the public for the first time. Curated by Agnes Husslein-Arco, WOW! The Heidi Horten Collection  at the Leopold Museum in Vienna became that institution’s most-visited show she was inspired to establish a permanent home for her art fulfilling her long-cherished wish to share her collection with a wider audience situated between the State Opera and the Burggarten in Vienna opened to the public on 2 June 2022, just 10 days before she passed away Leading the collection is a superb and extremely rare ruby and diamond ring by Cartier. The cushion-cut stone, known as ‘The Sunrise Ruby’, weighs 25.59 carats and has a saturated pigeon-blood red colour and fine purity. ‘The Sunrise Ruby’. A Cartier ruby and diamond ring. Sold for CHF13,055,000 on 10 May 2023 at Christie’s in Geneva ‘Heidi was genuinely passionate about her jewellery and bought for pleasure rather than investment purposes,’ says Fawcett, adding that each piece in the collection was meticulously documented and carefully stowed in a monogrammed ‘HH’ box. ‘She looked for beautiful and exquisitely crafted pieces that she wanted to wear.’ According to Fawcett, her Bulgari collection alone ranks as one of the top five Bulgari collections ever assembled. ‘The pieces she collected in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s are typical of Bulgari’s style of the period,’ he observes. ‘There’s a lot of yellow gold, bold colour combinations and cabochon cuts of sapphires, emeralds and rubies.’ Such Bulgari designs are today keenly competed for at auction. ‘They encapsulate the glamour and hedonism of la dolce vita,’ the specialist explains, adding that Sophia Loren, Princess Salimah Aga Khan and Elizabeth Taylor were among other regular Bulgari clients. ‘Collectors are looking for vintage pieces in excellent condition that epitomise the style of the era, and these are the best of the best.’ A Bulgari diamond, sapphire and emerald necklace Size/dimensions: inner circumference 38.5 cm Sold for CHF1,436,500 on 10 May 2023 at Christie’s in Geneva Among the star Bulgari pieces coming to auction is a diamond, sapphire and emerald necklace set with a 46.56-carat round brilliant-cut diamond at its centre Originally sold by Cartier in 1975 when it was set in a ring the diamond was later acquired by Harry Winston and subsequently refashioned into a necklace by Bulgari ‘The explosion of colour makes it a real “wow” piece,’ says Fawcett featuring baguette-cut diamonds and cabochon-cut sapphires and emeralds is instantly recognisable as Bulgari.’ ‘The Great Mogul’ Harry Winston emerald and diamond pendent necklace Size/dimensions: pendant 8.2 cm; necklace 65.6 cm Sold for CHF882,000 on 12 May 2023 at Christie’s in Geneva ‘To find a collection in Europe with such important jade is extremely rare,’ says Fawcett explaining that jade is usually favoured by Asian collectors for its associations with luck and prosperity ‘Heidi collected jade over a long period so it was clearly something she was very passionate about.’  Among many striking pieces is a jade necklace with a jade and diamond clasp colour and translucency of the 25 beads make it one of the most important jade necklaces ever offered at auction Another extraordinary piece is the magnificent 90.38-carat ‘Briolette of India’ diamond necklace by Harry Winston. According to jewellery historian Hans Nadelhoffer, the stone was cut into its distinctive shape in Paris and sold to Cartier in the early 20th century. The magnificent Harry Winston ‘Briolette of India’ diamond and diamond necklace Size/dimensions: 46.5 cm (excluding extensions); 17.0 cm (extensions) Sold for CHF6,337,000 on 10 May 2023 at Christie’s in Geneva The diamond was acquired in 1950 by Harry Winston who made it the centrepiece of a marquise and pear-shaped diamond necklace which he subsequently sold to Horten in 1971 Also by Winston is a three-strand necklace incorporating 175 natural saltwater pearls, embellished with a cushion-cut fancy light pink diamond clasp of 11.15 carats. ‘The pearls are incredibly large and have a lovely pink colour and an amazing lustre,’ says Fawcett. ‘It really is one of the best pearl necklaces we have ever offered at Christie’s.’ A sensational Harry Winston natural and cultured pearl and coloured diamond necklace Three strands of graduated natural pearls ranging approximately from 14.00 to 7.50 mm fancy light pink cushion modified brilliant-cut diamond of 11.15 carats Sold for CHF6,458,000 on 10 May 2023 at Christie’s in Geneva Another exceptional piece is a rare diamond, ruby, emerald and onyx Van Cleef & Arpels Egyptian Revival sautoir from 1924, which Horten acquired from Christie’s in Geneva in 2018. Jewellery production in the first quarter of the 20th century, particularly in the years after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, was marked by a fashion for ‘Egyptomania’. Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier, notes Fawcett, were pioneers of the style. An exceptionally rare Van Cleef & Arpels Art Deco Egyptian Revival multi-gem sautoir Size/dimensions: pendant 11.0 cm; necklace 75.5 cm Sold for CHF2,707,000 on 10 May 2023 at Christie’s in Geneva ‘It’s so rare to find Egyptian Revival jewels and this one — depicting a winged scarab with representing truth and harmony — is of museum quality,’ he says Only two necklaces of this design are known to have been made and the whereabouts of the other example are unknown ‘Although it’s not the most valuable lot in the sale jewellery collectors say that it’s one of their favourite pieces thanks to its rarity condition and quality,’ notes the specialist a weekly newsletter delivering our top stories and art market insights to your inbox Additional outstanding lots include a 47.58-carat diamond ring; a Bulgari coloured diamond and diamond brooch in the shape of a comet; and a diamond bracelet by Harry Winston that can also be worn as a tiara An employee of Christie’s displays the Great Mogul Emerald and Diamond Necklace by Harry Winston estimated between 450,000 - 640,000 CHF (Swiss Francs) during the preview of “The World of Heidi Horten” the 700 piece jewellery collection of the late Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten A 90.36 carat Briolette of India Diamond Necklace by Harry Winston estimated between 9,000,000 - 14,000,000 CHF (Swiss Francs) during a preview of “The World of Heidi Horten” the 700 piece jewellery collection of the late Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten Visitors look of the Bulgari jewels displayed in display case during the exhibition of “The World of Heidi Horten” the 700 piece jewellery collection of the late Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten The 25.59 carat Sunrise Ruby and Diamond ring by Cartier estimated between 14,000,000 - 18,000,000 CHF (Swiss Francs) GENEVA (AP) — Christie’s is auctioning a staggering 700 pieces of jewelry from the collection of the late Heidi Horten an Austrian heiress whose German husband built a retail empire starting in the 1930s — in part from department stores and other assets sold by desperate Jews as they fled Nazi Germany The auction house says the sale from “one of the greatest jewelry collections” is expected to reap some $150 million Proceeds are to benefit her Vienna art museum Christie’s — as criticism of the auction grew — said it planned to chip in some of its profits from the sale to Holocaust education but also takes place in-person in two parts on Wednesday and Friday at a ritzy Geneva hotel There’s a record-setting ruby ring that Heidi Horten bought for $30 million in 2015 A dazzling diamond necklace could fetch $15 million or more And the auction house says the sale features more Bulgari jewels than ever assembled for a single auction But the auction has been steeped in controversy: The Simon Wiesenthal Center a Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights group “demanded” that Christie’s withdraw the sale insisting that billions in riches that were amassed by Horten’s husband — Helmut Horten — were the “sum of profits from Nazi ‘Aryanization’ of Jewish department stores” under Nazi Germany.” He was commissioned by Heidi Horten to write an extensive study looking into her husband’s business empire Tens of thousands of Jewish-owned retail stores were “aryanized” — values were depressed by boycott measures and other pressures from the authorities in the 1930s Many Jews got no compensation; some received “hidden payments,” while most buyers — possibly like Horten — “profited” from persecution measures the Simon Wiesenthal Center called for the withdrawal of the auction — which has now already begun online — saying Horten helped build his business empire by buying “at a cut price” the department store where he worked as Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 from its Jewish owners owners of the Alsberg department store in Duisburg Their customers were also subjected to intimidation Testimonies indicated Helmut Horten had “tried to help” some Jews and he even “mocked” Nazi leaders at times but he also fired some Jewish employees to abide by Nazi race laws and was expelled seven years later — even getting arrested for a short time benefited from the circumstances of the tyranny of the Nazis,” Hoeres said in an interview “You can’t say Horten was part of the resistance against the dictatorship.” Hoeres’ study said Horten’s personal fortunes swelled during the war years It excerpted a document in English — attributed to the “Control Commission for Germany” under the postwar British authorities — which called Horten “a scoundrel of the worst type” and “a thoroughly depraved character” who should be brought to justice Horten was interned by the British for two years and lost a lot of his holdings he leveraged loans to create what would become the fourth-largest department store chain in Germany — riding in part on the brand name established during the Nazi period The businessman amassed a far greater fortune than he had built before or during the war Horten’s business activities during the Second World War are well-documented and that is something that Christie’s carefully considered when pitching for this collection,” said Max Fawcett head of the jewelry department at Christie’s Geneva “We took on this collection in the understanding that 100% of the final sale proceeds will go to philanthropic causes.” “We cannot erase history -- but hopefully the money from this sale will go to do good in the future,” Fawcett added but the riches that paid for it had their roots in the Nazi era Christie’s said the jewelry was all bought starting in the early 1970s — more than a quarter-century after the end of the war — up through last year Christie’s noted that he had “purchased Jewish businesses sold under duress.” The Christie’s catalog for the auction focuses entirely on Mrs she is shown smiling as she holds a baby chimpanzee in her arms it made no reference to her husband or the origins of his wealth Among standout pieces in the auction —- which features sapphires diamonds and much more — is the 90-carat “Briolette of India” diamond the centerpiece of a necklace adorned with smaller diamonds which has a pre-sale estimate of $10 million to $15 million The nearly 26-carat “Sunrise Ruby” also goes under the hammer: It fetched a record $30 million when Heidi Horten bought it at a Geneva auction eight years ago “Horten’s billions used to build this collection were also the sum of profits from Nazi ‘Aryanization’ of Jewish department stores,” wrote Shimon Samuels the Center’s director for international relations in a letter to Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti hope she didn’t die from covid … that would not have been so sudden and unexpected Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten died Sunday at the age of 81, the Heidi Horton Collection said in a statement days after she opened a private museum in Vienna featuring her nearly billion-dollar art collection Heidi Horten opened a private museum featuring her nearly billion-dollar art collection in Vienna Horten died early Sunday morning at her home at Lake Wörthersee, Austria, in what the museum called a “completely unexpected death.” which has more than 16,000 square feet of exhibition space and is devoted to emerging and mid-career artists The Heidi Horten Collection said it will commemorate its founder’s death with free admission for the next week starting Monday $2.9 billion. That was Horten’s net worth as of Sunday, making her the 1,040th wealthiest person on Earth, according to Forbes’ estimates a charitable foundation supporting medical research and health care institutions Anna KaplanFollowing Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts.  Forbes Community GuidelinesOur community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's Terms of Service.  We've summarized some of those key rules below Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain: User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in: Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's Terms of Service. 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EditorsApr 25, 2025Piece of the Week: Deborah Meyers Experience’s ‘The Birds’ EarringsDesigner Deborah Meyers created her birds from oxidized sterling silver, rose-cut diamond eyes, and Akoya Keshi pearl feathers. SourcingApr 25, 2025De Beers Sales, Production Fall in Q1 Amid UncertaintyThe company said it expects sightholders to remain “cautious” with their purchasing due to all the unknowns around the U.S. tariffs. Supplier BulletinApr 24, 2025Protect Your Customers and Your BusinessSponsored by the Gemological Institute of America This site uses cookies to give you the best online experience. By continuing to use & browse this site, we assume you agree to our Privacy Policy The striking Horten HX-2 flying wing that was unveiled in Friedrichshafen, Germany, at AERO in April 2018 has completed its initial stages of flight-testing and continues to progress through ground vibration and flutter testing at Horten headquarters near Eisenach, Germany. During the initial flight-tests, the HX-2 was flown at speeds up to 124 mph and has returned promising preliminary data. When flown at the long-range cruise speed of 87 mph, the HX-2’s 100-hp Rotax 912is engine demonstrated a fuel burn of 2.64 gallons per hour. With 64.4 gallons of fuel capacity, this translates into a preliminary range of 2,123 miles and an endurance of more than 24 hours. Horten predicts a maximum cruise speed of approximately 170 mph. One unique aspect of the aircraft is the CG calculation. Because it’s impossible to load any weight outside of the allowable center-of-gravity range, the weight-and-balance calculation consists of weight only. Though it would have to be proven in flight test, the four-seat version could theoretically follow suit. Presently, Horten is prioritizing the completion of the full flight test program and is also seeking out investors for a second round of financing to enable certification and production. While full certification is the ultimate goal, the company is considering a builder assistance program in which customers would spend two to three weeks working alongside Horten staff at their facilities in Germany to satisfy the FAA’s 51-percent rule before shipping their aircraft back home. In the meantime, the HX-2 is slated to enter the next stage of flight testing this spring, which will focus on expanding the flight envelope to higher speeds and refining low-speed flight characteristics. Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker © Hundven-Clements PhotographyThe school is idyllically located in the city park Lystlunden LINKs solution was to preserve as much of the park area as possible and develop the building in the least attractive area The building consists of four floors plus one floor below ground and technical rooms on the roof a solution that addressed challenges with logistics long walking distances and accessibility.-It’s a real pleasure to highlight and applaud the ‘best of the best’ buildings across the globe They reflect an exceptional commitment to sustainable construction in a variety of ways and epitomise the value that BREEAM certification brings to projects at all stages of a building’s lifecycle You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors If you have done all of this and still can't find the email The new museum is accessed via two lateral gateways in Hanuschgasse and Goethegasse. The entrance to the museum was created by cutting a story-high opening out of the corner of the northern side wing. This ensures that the entrance is protected yet easily visible from both sides. The golden-yellow rear wall with the words “Heidi Horten Collection” guides visitors into the foyer, where the ticket desk is located. © Lukas Schaller, Exhibition view OPEN 2022 Heidi Horten CollectionOne notable feature is the first-floor Tea Room which was created by the visual artist Markus Schinwald anodized aluminum by Hans Kupelwieser was specially commissioned for this space In creating this place of refuge with its particular charm and the two artists paid close attention to the wishes of the founder of the collection herself Surrounded by Heidi Horten’s “Kunstkammer” objects in the glass case that covers one wall visitors are invited to relax in the lounge-like atmosphere as they leaf through catalogs Part Two of Christie’s Heidi Horten Auction Brings in $42M A post shared by Christie's Jewellery (@christiesjewels) ShareSaveCommentLifestyleWatches & JewelryRubies Steal The Show At Controversial, Record-Breaking Heidi Horten AuctionByAnthony DeMarco, Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Anthony DeMarco reports on watches, jewels, lifestyle, art and cultureFollow AuthorMay 15, 2023, 03:15pm EDTShareSaveCommentThe 25.59-carat "Sunrise Ruby" fetched $14.6 million Rubies took the top lots of the two live auctions at Christie’s Geneva. The first sale held May 10 fetched more than 13 million Swiss francs ($14.6 million) for “The Sunrise Ruby,” a celebrated 25.59-carat Burmese gem. However, it failed to reach its low estimate of 14 million Swiss francs. The second sale of Horten’s jewels two days later saw “The Star of Africa,” by Harry Winston, centered with a 54.95-carat Mozambique ruby, fetch more than $3 million, well above its high estimate. A Harry Winston three-strand cultured and natural pearl necklace fetched $7.2 million The May 12 auction added 37.8 million Swiss francs ($42.4 million) to the total. The 12-day online sale of 152 lots of Horten’s jewels, which ended Monday, added another 3.7 million francs ($4.2 million) to the total. The top lot in the online sale was an 18k white gold and diamond watch by Piaget that fetched 100,000 francs ($111,590), more than double its high estimate. The approximate 300 jewels from the Horten collection that remains will be sold at another online auction scheduled for November. Harry Winston “The Briolette of India” necklace with 90.38-carat briolette-cut diamond fetched $7.1 ... More million The entire sale is also the subject of controversy because of the source of the money used by Horten to purchase the jewels. Heidi Horten’s late first husband, Helmut Horten, who was a member of the Nazi party, made his fortune owning department stores. It’s believed with credible evidence that his wealth was obtained through a practice known in Nazi Germany as “Aryanization,” purchasing businesses at a fraction of their value from Jews who were forced to sell to Aryans. This led Yoram Dvash, president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses, to issue a letter to Christie’s, which was made public, to either halt the auction or ensure that “the major portion of the proceeds be donated by Christie’s to charities supporting the welfare of Holocaust survivors, as well as commemoration and education,” and that the amount given be made public. Bulgari jadeite bead and diamond necklace fetched $5.4 million Christie’s in a public statement said all of the jewels in Horten’s collection are believed to be acquired legally through legitimate sellers. “The provenance of each of the 700 objects up for auction is well documented, with detailed indications of purchase, and none of these jewels come from a spoliation or a forced sale from a Jewish owner,” Christie’s said. The statement continues saying that it was Horten’s wishes to donate all proceeds of the sale to the Heidi Horten Collection, a museum of modern and contemporary art Horten founded in Vienna, as well as “medical research, child welfare and other philanthropic activities.” … “This charitable dimension was an essential element in Christie’s decision to take on the sale.” Christie’s continues in its statement, saying that it pledges to make a “significant contribution” from the auction proceeds to groups that promote Holocaust research and education. The auction house added, “It will be up to these organizations, if they wish, to communicate about these donations.” Bulgari multi-gem platinum brooch fetched $5.1 million In addition to the rubies, which topped all sales in the two live auctions, colored diamonds, diamonds, pearls and jadeite were among the top lots in the March 10 sale, which was by far the most successful of the three auctions. The number two lot was a 6.99-carat fancy, intense pink emerald-cut diamond mounted on a platinum ring with baguette-cut diamonds. It fetched more than 9.1 million francs ($10.2 million), more than double its high estimate. The number three lot was a Harry Winston necklace made with three strands of cultured and natural pearls along with an 11.15-carat fancy light pink cushion modified brilliant-cut diamond. It fetched 6.4 million francs ($7.2 million). This followed by another Harry Winston piece: “The Briolette of India” featuring a 90.38-carat briolette-cut diamond pendant with the platinum neck chain paved in marquise and pear-shaped diamonds. Two portions of the chain are detachable and to be worn as bracelets. It sold for 6.3 million Swiss francs ($7.1 million). The number five lot was a Bulgari necklace featuring 25 jadeite beads with an 18k white gold and diamond clasp fetched more than 4.8 million francs ($5.4 million). This was followed by a Bulgari platinum brooch with a 5.14-carat fancy orange pear shaped diamond, a 5-carat fancy intense purple-pink modified heart portrait-cut diamond, a 4.26-carat fancy blue marquise brilliant-cut diamond, and a 3.82-carat fancy intense yellow marquise brilliant-cut diamond. It fetched more than 4.5 million Swiss francs ($5.1 million). The number seven lot was an 18k gold ring centered with a 20.06-carat fancy pink pear modified brilliant-cut diamond. It fetched more than 4.2 million Swiss francs ($4.8 million). Other important Bulgari pieces in the March 10 sale were: Jadeite jewels accounted for seven pieces in the sale. In addition to the jadeite necklace among the top lots, other important pieces in the group included: After years of development, German aircraft manufacturer Horten Aircraft GmbH will show a prototype flying wing, which is already undergoing flight testing, at the upcoming Aero Friedrichshafen air show in Germany, next month. The Horten prototype is billed as a “highly modern, economical two-seat tailless light aircraft without a fuselage.” It will be displayed in public for the first time at the air show in Friedrichshafen. “Due to its low aerodynamic resistance, the flying wing flies farther and faster than a comparable aircraft with a fuselage,” says Bernhard Mattlener, managing director of the company, a part of the LIFT Air group. “The design of the airframe makes it easily adaptable for installing new propulsion technologies we anticipate will become available in the future.” He said Horten Aircraft plans further developments, such as unmanned or multi-seat versions of its current prototype. The aircraft will be built at the company’s headquarters at Kindel Airfield near Eisenach, Germany. The first designs for flying wings were made at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1910, Hugo Junkers received a patent for his work on flying wings. The company name honors the visionary aircraft designer Dr. Ing. Reimar Horten, who is regarded as a pioneer in the field of flying wings and made the most significant contributions to the development of the forerunner prototypes. You can’t leave all the unusual aircraft to Burt Rutan. So there’s the Horten HX-2 flying wing, which is slated to make its US debut at Oshkosh this summer. Powered by a Rotax 912 of 100 HP, the HX-2 is described as a “highly modern economical two-seat tailless light aircraft without a fuselage.” Which is a bit of a stretch since there clearly is a place for two humans to reside in side-by-side seating. We can confirm it doesn’t have a conventional tail. Details are sparse on the design, said to be three years in development. We know the wingspan is 30 feet, and it’s 13.5 feet long, and it carries 31 gallons of fuel. Performance numbers are not quoted for the prototype, though its speed should benefit from the retractable tricycle landing gear. The company says that “Due to its low aerodynamic resistance, the flying wing flies farther and faster than a comparable aircraft with a fuselage. The design of the airframe makes it easily adaptable for installing new propulsion technologies we anticipate will become available in the future.” The name comes from Reimar Horten, who, with his brother Walter, started developing tail-less gliders in the early 1930s in Germany. “Our company name honors the visionary aircraft designer Dr. Ing. Reimar Horten, regarded as a pioneer in the field of flying wings,” says the current-day Horten. WFDB Joins Those Objecting to Heidi Horten Auction at Christie’s Jewish organizations are calling on Christie’s to halt the auction or donate a greater portion of the proceeds to Holocaust education. This overall view of the Horten Ho 229 highlights the heavily rusted intake fairing on the left it was discovered that the left intake fairings were added in a later restoration the Nazis—clearly losing and in distress—proposed a host of seemingly bizarre projects in an effort to turn the tide in their favor One of these so-called German “wonder weapons” was the Horten Ho 229 A pair of white swastikas adorns the pointed tail of the Horten Ho 229 V3, an unfinished Nazi prototype aircraft that’s now on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly It’s the only remaining example of the world’s first all-wing jet aircraft constructed in extreme haste by brothers Reimar and Walter Horten in 1944 military recovered the Horten Ho 229 V3’s center section—two jet engines landing gear and other parts—inside a road maintenance building in Germany Its wing panels were found at a different location “They brought this aircraft and thousands of other pieces of equipment back from Germany and Japan after the war to study them,” says Russell Lee chair of the Aeronautics Department at the National Air and Space Museum “They wanted to find out secrets if it had any.” More than 70 years after it was built, the Horten Ho 229 V3 is still giving up secrets, most recently to Lee and a team of Smithsonian conservators and treatment specialists who restored the aircraft from 2015 to 2017 extreme temperature and humidity exacted a heavy toll on the plane’s layered plywood skin Conservators did a detailed study of the structure and conserved it where needed. They left it alone where there wasn’t any active corrosion, says Lee, who is the author of the book “Only the Wing: Reimar Horten’s Epic Quest to Stabilize and Control the All-Wing Aircraft.” Lee works in tandem with conservators and treatment specialists collaborating to determine how to treat and restore and conserve every artifact don’t scrape off all that history and repaint it.” the aircraft’s designers Reimar and Walter Horten began talking about a new all-wing fighter for Germany gave his official permission to the brothers to build and test several prototypes the next year The aircraft on display at the museum is the third iteration of the Horten Ho 229 series which informed the design and builds of the jet-propelled versions to come fifth and sixth prototypes were being developed as the war ended the museum’s conservation staff followed up on a story generated by Reimar Horten years after the war He claimed the Horten Ho 229 was to be the world’s first stealth airplane the result of a special exterior coating that contained charcoal In a detailed examination of the Horten Ho 229’s layered plywood surface Smithsonian conservators used an electron microscope and a variety of special devices “As the conservators started to take the aircraft apart and study every component and assess whether there was any deterioration they took off the belly panels underneath the engines,” Lee says They found a little cutout where maybe some duct would have been charred on both sides and also beneath both engines “About all we can conclude is that at some point Army Air Force personnel must have actually started the engines and run them,” Lee says The Horten Ho 229 ultimately was a “dead end,” Lee points out due to its limitations in lateral stability “You could argue that it took away resources from the Germans,” Lee says They needed many examples of things that already worked.” The Horten Ho 229 was one of the most unusual combat aircraft tested during World War II It may not have been a “wonder weapon,” but it did mark the introduction by Reimar and Walter Horten of a noteworthy and longstanding concept: bell-shaped lift distribution This concept is still being thoroughly studied and tested by aeronautics researchers the Hortens kept themselves away from the most dangerous aspect of the German war effort They were under a strict deadline to get their new plane into the air and working on it kept the Hortens and their employees off of the front lines where thousands of their countrymen were dying “Nazi politicians didn’t know aircraft or aerospace but if it looked cool and weird and they had a piece of paper that said it will go a thousand miles an hour and defeat the Allied bombers “So some of these designers stayed off the Eastern front and they kept their whole crews and crews’ families protected by doing this.” Lee found that some German scientists purposely sought to generate these new projects to stay off the front lines a story he wouldn’t have known without working on the Horten Ho 229 “No matter how long these artifacts have been here we’re still finding out new things about them,” Lee says We’re always seeking the truth about the artifacts and the stories we tease out are so entertaining and so interesting They say so much about where we’ve been and where we are and where we’re going.” Sign up for Smithsonian e-news the Horten HX–2 flying wing began with a dream CEO and co-founder of Horten Aircraft GmbH encountered one of Reimar Horten’s creations and was smitten He started to research the inventor and his experimental aircraft he contacted Horten to ask for his cooperation Mattlener eventually gave up his study of law to found a company to research and develop flying wings Together he and Horten developed the PUL 9 and the PUL 10; however Horten died in 1994 without seeing the latter fly continued the work on a blended-wing-body design where payload and fuel can be stored in the wing The proof-of-concept airplane was completed and pilot Ken Schuetter flew the wing from Eisenach to Aero Friedrichshafen albeit with the retractable landing gear extended He mentioned that he didn’t think crosswinds were an issue; as long as the aircraft is equipped with a free-castering nosewheel it will line itself up with the runway after landing who heads the company’s business development department and sales said that interest from countries like the United Arab Emirates and India was remarkable and would be explored Future incarnations of the Horten should include an electrically powered model as well as an unmanned and possibly a turbine version with applications for the airlines in the far future everyone involved emphasized the fact that right now it is important to perfect the current proof of concept 800.872.2672 AOPA is so passionate about supporting flight schools that we're offering you free countertop displays filled with our annual special issue This beginning pilots' resource guide explains what you can expect from your introductory flight through initial training—and how to turn your dream of flying into reality Get instant access to Flight Training's special issue titled You Can Fly: Your Path to Become a Pilot This beginning pilots' resource guide explains what you can expect from your introductory flight through initial training— and how to turn your dream of flying into reality Please review AOPA’s privacy policy to learn more about how your information is used. First Part of Christie’s Heidi Horten Jewelry Auction Garners $156M The first-day total topped the 2011 Elizabeth Taylor auction despite controversy surrounding the sale and the top lots underperforming. The Austrian collector Heidi Goëss-Horten has died, aged 81, days after her new private museum opened to the public. The Heidi Horten Collection museum in Vienna opened on 9 June with an inaugural exhibition designed to show off the new gallery space, as well as a selection of works by artists including Lucio Fontana, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst as well as new commissions from Constantin Luser and Andreas Duscha, among others. The director of the Heidi Horten Collection, Agnes Husslein-Arco says of Horten: “She was a generous, warm-hearted and visionary woman. She will be remembered for her manifold commitment, above all to the arts. We will continue to run the institution in the spirit of its founder." The recently opened Heidi Horten Collection museum Photo: Rupert Steiner, © Heidi Horten Collection Though increasingly sophisticated, the collection bears the hallmarks of Horten’s fondness for bright colours and animals, as seen in pieces such as John M Armleder’s Untitled (Target) (2001) and Lena Henke’s UR Mutter (2019). A raised public profile has brought scrutiny, and in January of this year a report commissioned by Horten from the historian Peter Hoeres, found that her husband “Helmut Horten benefited from the economic circumstances provided by the Nazi state” having made his fortune from department stores confiscated from Jewish owners. news14 January 2020Will new €50m Albertina Modern museum revolutionise Vienna’s contemporary art scene?Satellite venue of historic Albertina is to focus on Austrian and international art made after 1945 news28 November 2018Albertina Museum director defends landmark gift of Essl collectionKlaus Albrecht Schröder says contemporary art acquisitions will fill a gap in country’s public museums