Horten Brothers HO-IX Bomber:

 

During the last days of World War II, German military bases and manufacturing plants were raided and plundered by both Allied forces and the Russians. It is known that the U. S. acquired at least one of these uniquely shaped jet bombers. The Russians may have gotten their hands on some of the flying disk technology that had been under development by the Germans durng the late 1930's and early 1940's, such as those designed by Victor Shauberger (1885-1958).

ABOVE: Rare remains of the tail section of a real Horten bomber.

One of the great advantages of this design was its extremely low radar cross section (RCS). Unfortunately, as with most pre-computer flying wing designs, development was stunted by the fact that the flying wing designs were inherently difficult to control. One was known to have been tested and achieved successful flight in the U.S. some time after WWII, but that project could hardly have accounted for UFO reports like the landmark sighting reported by pilot Kenneth Arnold in late June, 1947, as many skeptical aviation buffs claim. It seems highly unlikely that the HO-IX could have been reproduced so quickly at that time to account for Arnold's description of nine (9) shiny, batlike crescent shapes flying near Mt. Ranier, only two years after the Allies scored the one original HO-IX from the leftover German technology stash. (see below)

LEFT: A [slightly inaccurate] model of the HO-IX.
RIGHT: A drawing by Kenneth Arnold of one of the 9 objects he saw from the cockpit of his plane flying in formation near Mt. Ranier on June 24, 1947.