History Picks Its Path

Thought for the day:  When you come to a fork in the road, take it.  [Yogi Berra]

Sometimes, it seems like life is a labyrinth of choices, doesn't it? With a leap of faith, we pause at each fork in the road, and then choose one path after another as we make our way through the maze. As we continue our journey forward, we try not to waste too much time pondering the what ifs of the paths not taken.

Not today. Nope. Today, we're purposely gonna waste some time pondering a few historical what ifs. Hold your hand eye-level, with your thumb and forefinger separated by about an inch. That's how close the following historical events came to taking an entirely different path...

What if... Abraham Lincoln were assassinated before he even took office? Didja know he received thousands and thousands of death threats during his presidency? Didja know he came (hold up that thumb and forefinger again) this close to being assassinated before his inauguration even took place? The plot hinged on creating a distraction by staging a riot when he was passing through Baltimore en route to the inauguration, and then shooting him during the ensuing chaos. Luckily, Lincoln's head of security Allan Pinkerton (ring a bell?) uncovered the plot, and successfully thwarted it by changing to a circuitous travel route, and putting Lincoln in disguise.

What if... LBJ were killed the same day as JFK? He came... this close. Fourteen hours after Kennedy's death, when everyone's senses were on heightened alert, a Secret Service man spotted a dark figure walking on the Johnson property that night. Allegedly, with his finger on the trigger, Agent Gerald Blaine aimed his machine gun at the unknown figure. Luckily, he recognized Johnson before pulling that trigger.

What if... Germany had air superiority during World War II? After all, the country already had a stellar reputation for its technological ability. What if... Germany had a stealth bomber?

Believe it or not, they came this close...

You may have already known about Lincoln and Johnson, but I wonder how many of you know about this... how many of you know about Germany's stealth bomber? AKA the Horton HO 2-29.

Hermann Goering ordered German designers to come up with a bomber that could carry 1000 kg over 1000 km flying 1000 km per hour.  Two pilot brothers, Reimar and Walter Horton, came up with a flying wing design, and the first of only three prototypes was built and tested in March, 1944. The planes were built primarily out of wood, powered by jet engines, and coated with a mixture of charcoal dust and wood glue. Top speed was 970 km per hour.

Before Germany could begin producing the plane on an industrial scale, the Allied troops invaded, and captured the blueprints and what was left of the only remaining prototype.

Those remains are now at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., where they have undergone extensive testing, and hopefully, will some day be put on display.

Analysis determined the canopy to be made from a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) plastic, which chemists developed a decade earlier.

 In 2008, following the original blueprint, and using only materials that were available in 1944, Northrup-Grumnan built a full-scale replica of the Horton HO 2-29. They also tested the stealth capability of the original charcoal dust and wood glue mixture, and determined that it would have provided a 20% reduction in radar detection. The Horton replica is currently on display at the San Diego Air and Space Museum.

So, tell me. Was this what if  revelation about the first stealth bomber... a flying wing, no less... as startling to you as it was to me? Know of any other what if that came this close to changing the course of history?

                                   Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

                               The Road Not Taken

                                         Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
                                         And sorry I could not travel both
                                         And be one traveler, long I stood
                                        And looked down one as far as I could
                                        To where it bent in the undergrowth;

                                        Then took the other, as just as fair,
                                       And having perhaps the better claim
                                       Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
                                       Though as for that the passing there
                                       Had worn them really about the same,

                                       And both that morning equally lay
                                       In leaves no step had trodden black.
                                       Oh, I kept the first for another day!
                                       Yet knowing how way leads on to way
                                        I doubted if I should ever come back.

                                       I shall be telling this with a sigh
                                      Somewhere ages and ages hence:
                                      Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
                                      I took the one less traveled by,
                                     And that has made all the difference.

                                                  [Robert Frost]

[Images courtesy of Wikipedia, morguefile, and the National Archives]