Horten HIII

The Horten H.III was a flying wing sailplane built by Walter and Reimar Horten in Germany from 1937 to 1944. It was designed to compete at the 1938 Rhön Gliding Competitions at the Wasserkuppe. The first two H IIIs, an IIIa, and an IIIc (w/n 10 & 11) were built in workshops at Cologne in 1938. Subsequent H.IIIs were built at various locations including Peschke Flugzeugban in Berlin, Fürth, Giebelstadt, Minden, Bonn and Göttingen. For various reasons the HII had a lack of a lacklustre showing, with a best placing of twenty-second by Heinz Scheidhauer, Geitner and Gotthold Peter representing the Luftwaffe. The HIIIc, to be flown by Werner Blech, was modified with a canard surface mounted above and in front of the cockpit to assist with pitch control at low speeds. Blech was later seen fluttering to the ground without its canopy and trailing a parachute bag.