Saphroneth
Banned
They researched it.
They were nowhere close to a working model, and indeed the closest thing they had to a viable nuke (just the one) would have required the Silbervogel to be expanded yet more.
Worst Idea In Military Aviation
- Thread starter oldironside
- Start date
They were nowhere close to a working model, and indeed the closest thing they had to a viable nuke (just the one) would have required the Silbervogel to be expanded yet more.
And here's an American entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aphrodite
I'll conceived, badly executed, and may have changed US poltical history, top that!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aphrodite
I'll conceived, badly executed, and may have changed US poltical history, top that!
Driftless
Donor
Apart from center of gravity questions, how long before the pilot goes completely deaf - 10 seconds? Probably wouldn't matter as basic survival would be in doubt....
Driftless
Donor
I'm not sure what you mean. All I can think of is this. The XF-85 Goblin.
For a parasite fighter, I think I'd prefer my chances with the much earlier Curtis F9C Sparrowhawk....
Insider
Banned
And Silbervogel never left drawing board. If the Allies would leave the Reich be, I think the plane would be operational no sooner than in early sixties. Late fifties if rushed. As well as bomb, it required a lot of research and experiments. If the bomb would be build by the Reich I think it would be just a few years earlier.
It is long development project like american B 36 - ordered before the war even started, and delivered long after it ended. Still it was nothing inherently wrong with it.
The Defiant was a good design, it met the criteria laid down for an unescorted bomber destroyer ... unfortunately the enemy decided to move their fighters within range of the targets and blew the whole unescorted bomber theory out of the water.
Driftless
Donor
As practical planes - Thank goodness they never went into production and service
The idea of experimenting with different VTOL configurations wasn't a bad idea. In the days before effective computer simulation, sometimes prototypes needed to be tested, however unlikely....
I think it was the serial "Bulldog Drummond" where the bad guys aircraft had flamethrowers mounted in the tails. Premise of the movie is setting up an airline across Mongolia using Boeing 314 Flying Clippers. Or it might have been "Red Barry". Both of them can be found on-line
I was just reading about a proposed anti-bomber design that was a single shot parasite fighter with only 45 rounds in a 20mm cannon. The pilot had to lie down and his feet were kept away from the engine (I believe the same as a komet) by a few inches of wood.
I was reading it and just thinking, "Jesus Christ the Germans were desperate at the end"
I was reading it and just thinking, "Jesus Christ the Germans were desperate at the end"
Swordman
Banned
How about the 'Project: Pluto' nuclear-powered cruise missile? As if the payload of thermonuclear weapons wasn't bad enough, the weapon was designed to fly around over enemy territory after the weapons were expended and contaminate the ground below with its radioactive exhaust.....
Mike Garrity
Mike Garrity
In the role it was intended to perform ... against unescorted bombers, yes.
Cryhavoc101
Donor
My thanks to Saphroneth who gave me the idea for this. Can anyone come up with a worse OTL concept that this?
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?
Pretty much anything that was a 'tail sitter'
And pretty much any VTOL Jet plane that is not either associated with the Kestral/Harrier or F35 B
Oh and this (apologies for the cheesy narration) - even though it sort of worked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Lu6LEQ0zo
The Silbervogel was actually quite badly flawed, though understandably so--it was betrayed by a poor understanding of the upper atmosphere and hypersonic flight, an understanding which simply did not exist until the 1950s when missiles and hypersonic wind tunnels could start probing the area. American research into high-altitude hypersonic bombers in the 1950s concluded that the "skip" profile would impose excessive thermal and structural loads on the aircraft and that a "boost-glide" profile (or outright ballistic flight) were superior, for example. Similarly, those elegant thin wings would have burned away at the hypersonic speeds necessary to circle the globe.
In the end, a practical intercontinental rocket-bomber would need a quite different design than the Silbervogel, though the underlying concept was sound enough.