Worst Idea In Military Aviation

oldironside

oldironside

My thanks to Saphroneth who gave me the idea for this. Can anyone come up with a worse OTL concept that this?

Slide18_zpseee7fd21.jpg

This is an Me262 towing a 250kg bomb on a rigid tow bar. The idea was that it would dive towards the target, separate the bomb from the plane with explosive bolts and the bomb would continue towards the target as the plane made its escape.

Can anyone else think of a more ridiculous, dangerous idea than this?
 

Saphroneth

Banned
The Me 163 Komet. An aircraft with fuels that were highly acidic, which could basically dissolve the pilot... stored in ceramic fuel containers... the fuels were hypergolic, so would explode if combined...
And the takeoff run was done with detachable wheels that could bounce up and hit the fuselage, while the landing run was done with skids.





Or, alternatively, the whole concept of a submarine aircraft carrier.
 

Shaby

Apart from Okka, nope. Maybe the piloted version of V1...

And maybe the US parasite fighter jet that was supposed to shed its wheels upon launch and land on belly.

The flying man contraption in any form, from jetpack to flying platform would prolly be more stupid/dangerous but I am not sure if these qualify as aviation per se.
 

Saphroneth

Banned
The Weser WP 1001. A tiltrotor in the 1940s? Get real.


The M1932 flying tank. Not armoured enough to be a tank, not much cop as an aircraft either. It could genuinely fly, though, there is that.


And the Daimler-Benz carrier-parasite rocket system. A parasite suicide rocket. (Well, there was an escape hatch - you pulled a lever and the cockpit floor fell out. Given the rockets could hit nearly mach one...)

It's hard to come up with a target that justifies sacrificing a jet engine and a trained pilot in return for hitting it with a single three-ton bomb.
 
oldironside

oldironside

Saphroneth said:
The Weser WP 1001. A tiltrotor in the 1940s? Get real.


The M1932 flying tank. Not armoured enough to be a tank, not much cop as an aircraft either. It could genuinely fly, though, there is that.


And the Daimler-Benz carrier-parasite rocket system. A parasite suicide rocket. (Well, there was an escape hatch - you pulled a lever and the cockpit floor fell out. Given the rockets could hit nearly mach one...)

It's hard to come up with a target that justifies sacrificing a jet engine and a trained pilot in return for hitting it with a single three-ton bomb.
Click to expand...

It's a shame there don't seem to be any pictures of the Weser or the Daimler Benz.

I'll make up for that with this.

8670199359841706c0d610e2f5c4ac55a659fecd.jpg
 

Saphroneth

Banned
oldironside said:
It's a shame there don't seem to be any pictures of the Weser or the Daimler Benz.

I'll make up for that with this.
Click to expand...


My Tank Is Fight! has concept pictures of both. Actually, it has a lot of crazy projects that never made it, like the Fledermaus or the amphibious U-boat.





What about the Silbervogel? Expend the resources needed for a 1940s space launch on dropping a single bomb on the US, land in Japan.
Actually, does the space mirror death ray count as aviation?
 
Insider

Insider

Banned
oldironside said:
It's a shame there don't seem to be any pictures of the Weser or the Daimler Benz.

I'll make up for that with this. <huge picture>
Click to expand...

I like the officer who is walking away like "Screw you, I won't pilot it" :p

Saphroneth said:
What about the Silbervogel? Expend the resources needed for a 1940s space launch on dropping a single bomb on the US, land in Japan.
Click to expand...

Actually the idea wasn't worst. If it was it wouldn't be pursued by both americans with dynasoar, and USSR with Keldysh Bomber and Spiral. Above it's time, certainly. But not the worst.
 

Saphroneth

Banned
Insider said:
Actually the idea wasn't worst. If it was it wouldn't be pursued by both americans with dynasoar, and USSR with Keldysh Bomber and Spiral. Above it's time, certainly. But not the worst.
Click to expand...
They had nukes, making it basically one launch for one nuclear bomb delivery.
The Germans did not, making it one launch to drop a single 3.6 ton bomb somewhere in the US.
 

Gunnarnz

oldironside said:
I have no idea. Care to elaborate?
Click to expand...

There's been a few threads lately about terrible aircraft, and in each one I've seen something that makes me want to scream "WTF?!?" at my laptop screen. This looks like a distillation of those threads, with a delightful frisson of frustration added because it isn't restricted to WW2.
 

RodentRevolution

Banned
Gunnarnz said:
There's been a few threads lately about terrible aircraft, and in each one I've seen something that makes me want to scream "WTF?!?" at my laptop screen. This looks like a distillation of those threads, with a delightful frisson of frustration added because it isn't restricted to WW2.
Click to expand...

From time to time we encourage designers to think outside the box, threads like these serve to remind us why we have the box :D
 

Ian Hathaway

How's about bombers mounted with flame throwers to protect against closing attacks from fighters ... if memory serves me correct on 15th September 1940 at least one He111 mounted a flamethrower (experimentally) ... all that happened was that the Fighter Command pilots thought the aircraft was on fire and focused more on it's destruction than they would have without the flamethrower.
 
Insider

Insider

Banned
Saphroneth said:
They had nukes, making it basically one launch for one nuclear bomb delivery.
The Germans did not, making it one launch to drop a single 3.6 ton bomb somewhere in the US.
Click to expand...
We all know that the Germans researched the bomb as well, are we? It is prudent to have delivery system developed together with weapon.
 
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