WI: The 'Death Rocket' goes into production?

Zachariah

Banned
On 30 January 1927, this appeal went out:

"The Interplanetary Section of the Association of Inventors calls your attention to an exhibition which will be held on 10 February 1927 at the Association of Inventors Building, 68 Tverskaya, Moscow. This is the world's first exhibition of models and mechanism of interplanetary vehicles constructed by inventors of different countries. The Association knows of your work on the problem of cosmic flights and believes you will not refuse to participate in our exhibition by submitting copies of manuscripts or published works in addition to sketches, models, diagrams and tables. Many inventors have already sent us material, among them the esteemed K. E. Tsiolkovsky, and from abroad we expect to hear soon from Robert Goddard of the United States, Esnault-Pelterie of France, Max Valier of Germany, Hermann Oberth of Rumania and [Ernest] Welsh of England. We would appreciate your material well in advance of the opening, but if for some reason this is not possible, please notify us."

Mr Ernest Welsh, a resident of North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, could hardly be included among the ranks of Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, Esnault-Pelterie, and Oberth, since he had neither devised a peaceable spaceship nor conceived a theoretical advance in space travel. Instead, he had invented a terrifying "death rocket" that would throw out a shower of molten metal pellets against attacking air forces. The rocket, he claimed, could climb to a height of 8 km (5 miles), and records indicate that it was successfully tested before the British authorities at Hull in the summer of 1924. The British were impressed, as were the French and Americans; an American Chemical Warfare service officer, Major Atkinson, was present for the trial launch, and promised to transport one of the smaller rockets back to the United States via steamship.

However, Atkinson met with difficulties in persuading the vessel's owners to transport such a dangerous cargo, and the purchase had to be cancelled. Nothing further ever was heard of Welsh's "death rocket", though the Russians did manage to obtain a model of his supposed "rocketship", proposed in 1922 and propelled by melonite detonating in compressed air. This was proudly displayed at the 1927 exhibition in the Association of Inventors building on Tverskaya Street, but apparently with no hint or indeed any clue that it was actually a functional ground-to-air weapon rather than a concept test prototype for an interplanetary vehicle.

So then, what if Major Atkinson had managed to convince a cargo vessel to transport one of Ernest Welsh's "Death Rockets" to the United States, and managed to impress the military brass back in the USA enough to start producing them? Or if the British and/or the French had been convinced to invest in Welsh's anti-air flak rockets, or if the Russians had actually found out that the rocket which they had on display at the 1927 exhibition was actually the world's first functioning SAM and confiscated it for their military? How big an impact could Welsh's Death Rockets, and any subsequent developments of new standardized designs following on from them, have potentially had on the course of history?
 

Zachariah

Banned
I have no idea what might have happened under the scenarios you mention (I simply don't know enough about the viability of Welsh's design), but there was apparently also to be an air-to-ground or air-to-air version.
Thanks for the link to the historical article- it was very helpful. But if, as was apparently stated in 1924, the rocket was indeed tested in front of British military observers in Hull in 1924 and found to be both viable and effective, then how much of an impact might it have had in all of these roles? As a surface to air unguided missile, an air-to-ground unguided missile, and an air-to-air unguided missile, with the possibility to be introduced fifteen years prior to OTL's scheduled Battle of Britain and to be improved upon further for all of that time?
 

Zachariah

Banned
Massed bomber formations become a lot more vulnerable leading to the earlier development of fast bombers with guided munitions.
Including perhaps those carrying radio-guided versions of these rockets themselves, in the air-to-ground role, as incendiary weapons?
 
In 1918 the US Army had a Goddard designed shoulder fired rocket weapon ready for production. The warhead was adapted from the rifle grenade of the era. The intent was to use this weapon in the infantry regiment heavy weapons companies to either replace or supplement the French 37mm cannon. One has to wonder where this would lead had it been included in the US Armies R & D of the 1920s.
 
Zachariah wrote:
So then, what if Major Atkinson had managed to convince a cargo vessel to transport one of Ernest Welsh's "Death Rockets" to the United States, and managed to impress the military brass back in the USA enough to start producing them? Or if the British and/or the French had been convinced to invest in Welsh's anti-air flak rockets, or if the Russians had actually found out that the rocket which they had on display at the 1927 exhibition was actually the world's first functioning SAM and confiscated it for their military? How big an impact could Welsh's Death Rockets, and any subsequent developments of new standardized designs following on from them, have potentially had on the course of history?

"Impressed" doesn't mean it will end up be practical which is the more important metric. A "shower of burning/molten metal pellets" sound impressive but it's actually not. The metal quickly cools and/or burns out and while performance would be rather 'impressive' against cloth laminated aircraft with wooden structure a metal skin aircraft, (already in production by 1924) is going to pretty much shrug it off, and '100 square yards' in NOT a lot of coverage. There's a rather obvious reason why neither the French nor British took up this idea either as this would work GREAT against Zepplins and airships it's not going to be very effective against aircraft even in a barrage

They DID take this up in a way with anti-aircraft rockets but replaced the limited incendiary charge with a bursting charge and high velocity shrapnel. This is the earliest version of WWII anti-aircraft and aircraft rockets but it wasn't going to be a 'world-changer' without a seriously more powerful propellant and bursting charge/warhead. White Phosphorus, (Willie Pete as we knew it) was already being used as a warhead and would have probably been more effective even at this point in time than 'burning metal pellets'. Large flak bursting charges spread high velocity shrapnel in similar sized 'danger zones' as described here and it did not end the use of tight formations of mutually supporting bombers.

That took both a change of weapons, (atomic "area effect" weapons) and a change in doctrine, (lone bombers on multiple axis of attack at low altitude to saturate enemy air defense) to do that.

Randy
 

Delta Force

Banned
I thought this was going to be about Project Pluto, the atomic powered cruise missile from the 1960s. It even featured a burning/molten metal attack in that it was intended for the missile to crash into the ground and shower debris from its reactor all over the enemy after expending its payload of nuclear bombs.
 
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