"Only the Wing: Reimar Horten's Epic Quest..."

[Firebee]

I've been interested in the Horten (and all other flying wings) for a long while. This upcoming book about the Horten wings looks as if it may be very interesting.

From the publisher:

"In the late 1920s, Reimar Horton started experimenting with flying models equipped with fuselages, stabilizers, rudders, and elevators, but his life's work involved systematically removing these components from the models until he could achieve flight with only the wing. Not only were the pure wings more difficult to design with the stability and control needed to fly, they were harder to place in practical roles not already filled by conventional aircraft operating for less support and operational costs. Always seeking to increase performance and efficiency, Reimar adopted a multi-disciplinary approach after flying his first piloted wing in 1933, eventually breaking new ground in cockpit design and construction materials. His most important innovation was the unique pattern he developed to distribute the lift over his wings, the result of his efforts to refine the aerodynamic control of all-wing aircraft, often while working alone and in difficult circumstances. Two days after he passed away in 1993, the Royal Aeronautical Society awarded Reimar Horten the British Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Aeronautics.

About the Author
Russell E. Lee is curator in the Aeronautics Division at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum."

$39.95 Cloth 1-9356230-3-6 / 978-1-9356230-3-8 April 28, 2011

Publisher website:

rlpgbooks.com

I've been lurking on the board for a while now. Finally joined up. Thanks, everyone!

 

[Retrofit]

Welcome Firebee and thank you very much for Russell Lee's book info.

 

[overscan (PaulMM)]

Fixed the original link.

 

[Johnbr]

Table of Contents for
Only the Wing: Reimar Horten's Epic Quest to Stabilize and Control the All-Wing Aircraft

Introduction

Chapter 1. From Flying Models to Piloting a Wing

Chapter 2. Freedom of Flight

Chapter 3. Competition Wings

Chapter 4. Jet Wings

Chapter 5. End and Beginning

Chapter 6. Winglets and More Wings

Appendix 1. Horten Aircraft Type Data

Appendix 2. Horten Aircraft Performance Characteristics

Appendix 3. Horten Aircraft Airframe Data

Notes

Glossary

References

Index

 

[Dagger]

The original hardcover book is now out of print and a used copy is extremely expensive, but it seems there is a new paperback reprint:



Available as of september 1st (if you believe that) for 25 dollar or 23 euro or 19 pounds:

https://www.amazon.com/Only-Wing-Stabilize-All-Wing-Introduction/dp/194446638X/

Only the Wing: Reimar Horten's Epic Quest to Stabilize and Control the All-Wing Aircraft / With a New Introduction: Amazon.de: Lee, Russell E.: Fremdsprachige Bücher

Only the Wing: Reimar Horten's Epic Quest to Stabilize and Control the All-Wing Aircraft / With a New Introduction | Lee, Russell E. | ISBN: 9781944466381 | Kostenloser Versand für alle Bücher mit Versand und Verkauf duch Amazon.

www.amazon.de

Only the Wing: Reimar Horten's Epic Quest to Stabilize and Control the All-Wing Aircraft - with a New Introduction: Amazon.co.uk: Russell E. Lee: 9781944466381: Books

Buy Only the Wing: Reimar Horten's Epic Quest to Stabilize and Control the All-Wing Aircraft - with a New Introduction New by Russell E. Lee (ISBN: 9781944466381) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

www.amazon.co.uk

Reviews of the original book can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/product-revi...dpproductdetail_text?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

 

[edwest4]

I wonder what new information this book might contain. The book Nurflügel by Reimar Horten and Peter F. Selinger is quite comprehensive. The text is in German and English.

 

[Dagger]

Just to be clear:
This book is a paperback reprint of Russell E. Lee's 2012 book "Only the Wing ......" with the same text. only a new Introduction.
I never saw the original book so I can't comment on its contents.

It is a different book than the Nurflügel book of Horten & Selinger.

 

[edwest4]

In that case, I have no interest.

 

[steelpillow]

This book is massively better than the "recycled disinterest" posts above suggest. Having just bought a copy of the new paperback edition and barely flipped through it, I am already keen to get deeply stuck in.

Russell E. Lee is the Smithsonian curator who arranged for several Horten aircraft in their collection to go to Germany for preservation and restoration. This edition is published under their institutional imprint and its primary motivation from their perspective is to air the original research which Lee and others have been undertaking. So it has impeccable academic credentials - a carbon-copy of Reimar's own writings it is not!

The book covers the whole of Reimar's aeronautical career, not just his German designs. Extensively and expertly researched, it is as much about Reimar and the forces acting on him as it is about his theories, while the aircraft themselves are relegated to coat-stands for the main discussion - at least they get a well-researched pile of stats at the end. I agree wholeheartedly with Lee that you cannot understand the aeronautics unless you understand the man and his place, and that is what this book is all about.

The new Introduction is far more than just fluff, it is a substantial chapter in its own right, covering work which has been carried out since the first edition was published, such as NASA's PRANDTL-D and the Smithsonian's forensic examination of their 229. It also provides more of the historical context necessary for a full appreciation (though those who know me will not be surprised if I carp at its shallow and folklore-ridden knowledge of JW Dunne's achievements). The original content has also obviously been updated, though I cannot say by how much.

I don't know how much overlap it has with Horten's own co-authored book, but it cites that as a reference - and since that one is also twice the price, I shall probably never know.

 

[steelpillow]

Now finished it.
Lee is at his best as a historical researcher. He does the job properly, taking nobody's word for it but cross-referencing and looking for contradictions between sources, then asking what their motives were.
And there are plenty of contradictions! Not least from Reimar himself on different occasions.
But Lee is evidently not an aeronautical expert; his technical discussions appear based on his sources rather than his own knowledge, and as a result he sometimes seems to vacillate between judgements. For example he declares both that Reimar did not design in proverse yaw, and that he did but kept it as his own little trade secret.
And plenty of facts. I had no idea so many Horten wings have been built and flown by other pilots. Nor did I know that Lippisch studied Prandtl's bell-shaped lift curve and published a simplified scheme for the less mathematical sailplane designers to use; this was the scheme that Reimar initially adopted.
All in all, he really illuminates why all the different Horten wings were the way they were, and why the things that happened to them did happen that way. He is less clear on what Reimar really knew about the technologies he was developing and what he deliberately designed in to each type, but then so was Reimar.
But some things are missing, such as the work for the British when he was returned to Germany in 1945, and which Dan Sharp has been rediscovering and writing about. And of course his treatment of JW Dunne is woefully full of erroneous folklore and totally misses the fact that Dunne patented and lectured on a lot of the technical advances he ascribes to later investigators.
Still, well worth the read.

 

[Pierre TIAN]

Pierre TIAN replying.
in 1998 I visited my good friend Fransisco San Martin, son of General Brigadier Juan Ignacio San Martin, fore Cordoba City Head during Peron years. We met also el senor Tasschi, former collaborator of Reimar Horten, that after WWII, let the family coal mines business in the hands of his brother Walter in Germany and emigrate to Argentina, a little pushed by Germany got to nothing and encouraged by Willy Kurt Tank from later FW and TA in Bad Eilsen Kom , Mann, wer bleibt ihre Abenteuer Mut .
Reimar Horten married ihre Translatorin Gisela Nickel, and with his brother in law and Escuela Technica y Institec de Cordoba, empezo de construir algunos alas volantes de ocio y desporte, fighter projects as Pulqui III delta prone and seated fighter and a ogival winged twin tj Pulqui IV supersonic interceptor. Plus a quite burdensome flying wing freighter IAe 48 propelled by 4 x350 cv El Gaucho 7 cilinders motors, later to be replaced by 450 cv El Indio.
Reimar Horten was professor at Institec, but most of his incomes came from his oranges trees cultivating in the surroundings of Cordoba, so he has planned to bring fresh oranges at the daily fruit and veggies market of Buenos Aires.
There was always some academical scratches between Karl Nickel and Reimar Horten, nickel adding always some vertical fenders, and Horten taking them out, told me Tasschi.
In Reunion, I still have the originals of the Piernifero 1952 photografs with Tasschi at the controls in the hills , for Cordoba is surrounded by a sort of WasserKuppe, great domain for soaring. Tasschi garage was housing the Pienifero frame and dog Haro was sniffing the fresh build wood and peeing on Reimar Horten flying wing. Very funny

 

[steelpillow]

Pierre TIAN replying.

Thank you for your interesting post. Lee writes about the plan to fly in oranges but does not seem to know that they were to be Horten's oranges. Also, the arguments between Nickel and Horten about vertical fins is interesting. It would be useful to know more about the technical details they threw at each other.

Look after those photographs, and I hope that one day you will be willing to publish them.

 

[weirc]

Steelpillow,
Have you seen 'Tailless Aircraft in Theory and Practice' by Karl Nickel and Michael Wohlfahrt. It contains many of Nickel's ideas and explanations.
Colin

 

[steelpillow]

Steelpillow,
'Tailless Aircraft in Theory and Practice' by Karl Nickel and Michael Wohlfahrt.

Thanks, sounds like I should get hold of a copy. Lee also mentions it in passing. But it sounds like the kind of thing that hides behind huge paywalls, so um...