Horten HIIIf
The first prone Horten glider
DON'T FORGET THE HORTEN SECTIONS MENTIONED IN RIGHT CORNER. ->
The Horten HIII has many many conversions. One of them was their first effort to install a prone pilot. The pilot was laying on its stomack. The benefit of prone pilot position are easy to understand. Here it is a perfect way to fit the pilot INSIDE the wing. Doing this the glider becomes more sleek.
Admit it ...looks sexy! :)
The pilot had a bubble on the top of the wing to get some side view. Parts of the nose were transparant to give him excellent view forwards and downwards. The spar was constructed around the pilot.
Just look at the landing gear. Just two skids. Nothing more. It might have been tricky to land this glider with the little ground clearance it had at the wingtips. But ...when looking at the SWIFT hangglider (the well known modern hangglider of Aeriane), you can see it does not have much ground clearance too due to its negative dihedral.
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