The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) failed to preserve this aircraft and although now stabilised it is in poor condition.
"There had been little interest in the Horten until claims about its supposed stealth capabilities surfaced in popular media. Public pressure to remove the aircraft from deep storage and put it on display prompted the conservation department’s involvement"
"The Horten was never completed and it has never flown. NASM acquired the Horten in 1952, seventeen years after it had been captured in Germany by the Allied forces near the end of the war. At this time NASM had a shortage of storage facilities, and the museum had not been built. Consequently, it sat outdoors in wooden crates from 1952 until 1974, and this is where most of its current condition issues originate."
http://www.conservation-us.org/docs/...).pdf?sfvrsn=2
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