Did the Horten flying wing ever fly?
Months passed while Horten redesigned the wing and the jet finally flew in mid-December 1944. Full of fuel and ready to fly, the Horten Ho 229 V2 weighed about nine tons and thus it resembled a medium-sized, multi-engine bomber such as the Heinkel He 111. Despite its advanced design, the Horten Ho 229 never saw combat during World War II, as only prototypes were completed before the end of the war. However, the aircraft underwent testing and evaluation by the Luftwaffe, demonstrating impressive performance characteristics, including high speed and agility.The only surviving Ho 229 airframe, the V3—and the only surviving Second World War-era German jet prototype still in existence—is on display in the main hall of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) alongside other WWII-era German aircraft.