Horten H.I

Horten H.1
Role	Glider
National origin	Germany
Manufacturer	Horten brothers
Designer	Walter Horten and Reimar Horten
First flight	July 1933
Number built	1

The Horten H.1 was a German flying wing glider built by Walter and Reimar Horten in 1933.

History

The first aircraft of the Horten brothers was created with considerable effort in 1933 in their parents' apartment in Bonn. Reimar Horten designed and built the machine and learned to fly it. Flight testing started in July 1933 at the Bonn-Hangelar airport, and Walter Horten, only 20 years old, made the first cautious hops in the aircraft on the end of a bungee cord, resulting in glides of 150 to 300 feet at altitudes of six feet or less. After a few small changes, the H.I had overcome the biggest teething troubles, and the brothers took it to the Wasserkuppe competition the following year. It attracted much interest, gaining a DM600 Construction Prize, but was hard to control and made only one competitive flight. Since they had no return transport for the glider, Reimar burned the H.I on the slopes of the Wasserkuppe.

In 1951, an Argentine glider club (the Club de Planeadores Otto Ballod) and Reimar Horten built a new version of the H.I. This machine, called the H.Ib, had a more modern profile and the control was accomplished only by elevons located on the outer wing. The inner wing flaps were completely omitted. As a rudder, Schempp-Hirth flaps were installed on the wingtips, which also served as a landing aid when both flaps were activated together. This machine had better handling characteristics and was flown far into the seventies by the club. At the turn of the millennium, the members of the club restored their long-serving flying-wing to "better than new" condition.

The H.Ib was the only Horten flying wing that was still flyable, until the first flight in Germany in 2016 of the newly-built H.IV.