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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1331.PDF
sCU-^- made from 400 yd., but gradually the range was closed until as close as 150 yd. Approach is often made from the rear, and the 20 mm. cannon fire either wrecks the jet engine, puts the gyro pilot out of commissi6n, or ex plodes the bomb. When the air tor pedo is shot down and explodes on the ground, the pilots say they can see a ring of blast as it spreads out ward from the explosion. If the torpedo is exploded in the air, the attacking aircraft has to fly through the blast. Almost invariably the pilot finds himself upside down on the other side, with the fabric burnt off the Tempest's rudder. The pilots say that when one is exploded in the air it appears as if the sky erupts in a great orange and black flash. Obviously the blast waves are travel- ^•J*7Tng at a speed greater than that of EDUCTi ENGINE PNEUMATIC SERVO MECHANISM OPERATING RUDDER & ELEVATORS OMATjC PILOT : R-DRiVEN GYROS : HT & RANGE SETTING CONTROLS 'ING RIBS STEEL WING COVERING OFF THE SECRET LIST : Examining the remains of a piiotless ai.craft shot down over the south of England. sound, and it is only because modern fighters are stressed to withstand compressibility effects that so little damage occurs. Meeting the explosion head-on also presents a much smaller area to be affected. As we stated in our issue of last week, there are definitely two distinct types. There is the normal square-winged type with an average speed in the neighbourhood of 350 m.p.h., and also a rather bigger aircraft which has curved apd swept-back wings. This second type is some 35-60 m.p.h. faster. The square-winged type is 21ft. ioin. long, with a maxi mum width of 2ft. 8Jin., while the overall length of the missile is 25ft. 4Jin. and the wing span 16ft. The range of the type at present in use is about 150 miles, the speed in level flight between 300 and 350 miles an hour, and the explosive power equivalent to a 1,000 kilogramme German bomb. The explosive is carried in the war-head, mounted in a thin casing in the front part of the fuselage. Constructed almost entirely of steel, the projec tile is coloured with the usual type of German camouflage —dark green on top and light blue underneath. Gyro-Controlled It is not radio-controlled, but operated by an automatic pilot, set before the take-off. Once the missile has been launched, therefore, the enemy has no control over its further movements. It has a rudder and elevators but no ailerons. The wings are set at about 8 degrees of dihedral. It is not possible to assess the power loading but the wing loading is in the region of 80-100 lb. per square foot. When all is working properly, the air torpedo flies a straight and level course, but if anything untoward—such as a 20mm. shell—happens to the automatic pilot gyros, the weirdest evolutions are performed. This has occa sionally happened in air combat and the Tempest, for all its manoeuvrability, has been quite unable to cope with a mechanism gone mad. These air attacks were planned to take place many months ago, in order to divert the impact of the Allied Air Forces on German communications and industry, and to raise the morale of the German people. Nearly a year ago all German propaganda stated that it would be launched quite soon. Measures were promptly taken to counter this threat. The German experimental station at Peenemunde, for example, was attacked by the R.A.F. Bomber Com mand on August I7th-i8th, 1943, and the serious damage and many casualties inflicted caused a severe setback to the highly important activities being undertaken there. Moreover, factories and plants manufacturing special weapons, notably works at Friedrichshafen, were power fully attacked and damaged. Heavy assaults were also made by R.A.F. Bomber Command and by the United States 8th and 9th Air Forces on the enemy's war produc-
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