Did Germany develop Stealth Technology During WWII? It Appears it Did.

A contempory model constructed from the 1944 blueprints below. Many more photos and information on the weblink below.

England's 'Daily Mail' has a very interesting report on a stealth jet developed by the Germans in World War Two. I must admit this is outside my area of knowledge. I ran the article past Maurice Rockett, who was a B-17 bombardier in the war, and he commented: "It seems it was two or three weeks ago, on TV, the stealth bomber was discussed in depth. One had to be spellbound by the accomplishment of the Germans who were so far ahead of us. Once again little we realize how close we came to be manhandled by the Germans with their weaponry. As for this writeup, there are a couple of changes to be made as far as I can remember. First of all, it is stated that the flying wing never got beyond the blue print stage. Not true, because on the TV special, they showed the plane in flight, and acknowledge the pilot by name who died in the process of test flying. On the next point I am a lettle secure, but it seems to me the body was essentally made of plywood."

For a link to the Daily Mail article, click here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1198112/Sleek-swift-deadly--Hitlers-stealth-bomber-turned-tide-Britain.html#comments

Funny Story about the U.S.'s first Jet Aircraft

This seems to be Britain and Commonwealth week at the Untold Valor Blog. My friend Marilyn sent me a copy of an email she got from a former RCAF airmen with a funny story, which I'm going to quote exactly below.

"USA's First Jet Aircraft --A well kept secret indeed!

This was America's first Jet airplane - the P-59-- first flown in Oct. 1942. Volunteers have spent the last 10 years restoring this extremely historic and very rare airplane, and they put the wings back on just last weekend ...and just in time to be on static display at an air show this weekend. In 1942, this was a Top Secret project located at Edwards AFB in California. When the dry lake flooded, they had to transport it by road ......so it was disguised with a dummy wooden propeller on the front and covered with a shroud.

There is also a story behind the derby hats the fellows are wearing in the photo below. On one test flight this Top Secret aircraft was spotted by some pilots getting checked out in their P-38's that were operating from Van Nuys Airport in 1942. When the P-38 pilots then reported seeing a strange airplane with no propeller, their account met with some obvious skepticism. But the story kept circulating, so on a subsequent flight the test pilot of the P-59 dressed up in a gorilla mask, put on a derby hat, and smoked a cigar. He then made a point to fly next to the P-38 pilots and waved at them. When the P-38 pilots got back to the base, they told everyone about the plane with no propeller.....being flown by a gorilla wearing a derby and smoking a cigar. The result of their report was total disbelief .....so the airplane remained a secret until after the war."