I swear I read someplace a few months ago, I think it was Air and Space Magazine, that Northrup, or whatever they're called now-a-days, was building one of these, new, just for the heck of it. To see if it would live up to expectations as designed.
Haven't been able to find the article since nor any reference to it.
wrongway
Northrop reproduction
Engineers of the Northrop-Grumman Corporation had long been interested in the Ho-229, and several of them visited the Smithsonian facility in Silver Hill, Maryland in the early 1980s to study the V3 airframe. In early 2008, Northrop-Grumman paired up with award-winning TV documentary producer Michael Jorgensen, another long-time fan of the aircraft, and the National Geographic Channel to produce a documentary to determine whether the Ho-229 was in fact the world's first true "stealth" fighter-bomber.[1]
A team of engineers from Northrop-Grumman ran electromagnetic tests on the V3's multilayer wooden center-section nose cones. The cones are three-fourths of an inch thick and made up of thin sheets of veneer. The team concluded that there was indeed some form of conducting element in the glue, as the radar signal slowed down considerably as it passed through the cone.[1]
In an experiment to determine the stealth characteristics of the design, Northrop-Grumman built a full-size replica of the V3 incorporating a duplicate glue mixture in the nose section. After an expenditure of about $250,000 and 2,500 man-hours Northrop's Ho-229 replica was tested at the company's classified radar cross-section (RCS) test range at Tejon, California, where it was placed on a 50-foot articulating pole and exposed to electromagnetic energy sources from various angles, duplicating the same three frequences used by the Chain Home radar network of the British in the early 1940s. RCS testing showed that an Ho-229 approaching the English Coast from France flying at 550 mph at 50 to 100 feet above the water would not have been visible to Chain Home radar, while an Me 109 or Fw 190 was visible up to 80 miles away.[1]
With testing complete, the replica will be donated by Northrop-Grumman to a yet-to-be-determined aviation museum, while the TV special will air in late June 2009 on the National Geographic Channel.[1]
