Horten H III f

Reimar Horten continued to refine his line of all-wing sailplanes by building at least 18 examples of the Horten III beginning in 1938. Horten fitted this example, called the Horten III f, with a flat-prone couch for the pilot and he probably assigned Werk Nr. 32 to the sailplane when he finished it in 1944 at Göttingen. This Horten III f, the Horten VI V2, and the Wright brothers 1903 Flyer are the only airplanes in NASM collections configured for prone pilotage. To mount the aircraft, a pilot stretched flat on his stomach, bent slightly at the waist and knees, and rested his feet on rudder pedals hinged above his heels. A padded chin rest supported his head which projected into the leading edge of the wing. Clear plastic panels formed the leading edge for several feet above, below, and to either side of the pilot. Visibility was excellent and drag greatly reduced.Details about the operational history of this glider remain unknown. One month after the war ended, a team of aviation experts working for the C. I. O. S. (Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee) found both the NASM H III f and the H III h. The gliders were recovered "in perfect condition in trailers, with a [sic] full set of instruments" at Rottweil, Germany, on the Neckar River, approximately 60 miles (100 km) southwest of Stuttgart on June 11, 1945. In January 1994, NASM shipped the Horten glider collection (Horten II L, 'III f, 'III h, and the 'VI V2) to the Museum für Verkehr und Technik Berlin, now called the Deutsches Technikmuseum (DTM), and that organization worked until 2004 to restore and preserve these artifacts.