Transcript week5-totx

From Clubs and Spears to the Invisible Cloak, the Role of
Technology in Weaponry
Looking at the historical development, usage and technology related to
weapons from 3.5 billions years ago till present.
**************************************************
Week 1, Nature, the maestro..(3.5 billions years to a few millions years)
Week 2, Pre-historic and Ancient (Up to 500 AD)
Week 3, Medieval to WW I (500 AD to 1914)
Week 4, WW I (1914 to 1918)
Week 5,
WW II (1939 to 1945)
Week 6, Post war, Present, Future.. (1945 to present and future)
Last week’s business
Question of the week
• In 2003 Congress officially renamed
the menu item in Congressional
cafeterias in response to France's
opposition to the proposed invasion
of Iraq.
• What was the new name for French
Fries?
And the winner is..
• Week 5, WW II (1939 to 1945)
How to get copy of the course.
• 1 Bringing Flash Drive next week
• 2 thru “dropbox”
Flash Drive
–4 gig for all the lessons
–8 gig for extra stuff
(goulash!)
Dropbox
• If you already have an account,
you can login and download.
• If you like to get an account,
please e-mail me.
• If you don’t want to open an
account, I’ll give you my user and
pass.
Recommended site
http://www.atomicheritage.org/
WW2 firsts
• The deadliest and some believe
the most important device, the
atomic bomb.
Nuclear Fission
Interesting facts about Manhattan Project
• Cost of the Manhattan Project (through August
1945): $20,000,000,000.
• Box 1663, Santa Fe, NM was the "blind" address
used for all correspondence to and from Los
Alamos.
• The actual name Los Alamos was prohibited from
showing up on any letters or parcels - coming or
going!
• The address shown on the birth certificates of the
children born at the Los Alamos Engineers
Hospital during the war years indicated a simple
"Box 1663".
Interesting facts about Manhattan Project
• More than 140,000 civilians, all passing
rigorous background checks, worked at
various locations on the Manhattan Project.
• No formal record exists of their participation,
let alone what they did.
• no more than a dozen men in the entire
country knew the full meaning of the
Manhattan Project.
•In Japan, the Committee on Research in the
Application of Nuclear Physics concluded in
1943 that while an atomic bomb was, in
principle, feasible, "it would probably be
difficult even for the United States to realize
the application of atomic power during the
war".
•This caused the Navy to lose interest and to
concentrate instead on research into radar.
Question of the week
True or False?
The Exploratorium is the creation
of Oppenheimer, the same person
who was the director of Manhattan
project.
Prize
The “Chicago Pile” was built
under the abandoned west
stands of the stadium, at the
University of Chicago.
• Fermi himself described the
apparatus as "a crude pile of
black bricks and wooden
timbers.“
Nuclear
Reactor
Fission Chain Reaction
• A critical mass is the smallest amount of
fissile material needed for a sustained
nuclear chain reaction.
• The half-life, is the time taken for the
activity of a given amount of a
radioactive substance to decay to half of
its initial value
• U-235
– Critical mass = 15 Kg.
– Half life = 159,200 Y
• Pu-239
– Critical mass = 10 Kg.
– Half life = 24,110 Y
• Unlike most reactors that have been built
since, this first one had no radiation shielding
and no cooling system of any kind.
• Fermi had convinced everyone that his
calculations were reliable enough to rule out a
runaway chain reaction or an explosion.
• As the official historians of the Atomic Energy
Commission later noted, the "gamble"
remained in conducting "a possibly
catastrophic experiment in one of the most
densely populated areas of the nation!"
During the peak years of its operation,
the Clinton Engineer Works (later known
as Oak Ridge) consumed 1/7 of the total
electrical output of the United States.
• Trinity was the code name of the
first detonation of a nuclear device.
• 20 kilotons of TNT.
• The official technical report on the
history of the Trinity test was not
released until May 1976.
• It left a crater of radioactive glass in the desert
10 feet (3 m) deep and 1,100 feet (330 m)
wide.
• Trinitite The name given to the radioactive
glass substance formed from super-heated
sand in the blast crater during the Trinity Test.
The Hiroshima bomb
• Little Boy (using uranium-235)
• 16 kilotons of TNT
• 600 to 860 milligrams of matter in the bomb was
converted into the active energy.
• “Gun Method” was used.
The Nagasaki bomb
• Fat Man (using plutonium-239)
• The original target for the bomb was the city
of Kokura, but obscuring clouds necessitated
changing course to the alternative target,
Nagasaki.
• 21 kilotons of TNT.
• Some of the most
important devices were not
a weapon:
–Radar
–Proximity switches
Radar
• A means of detecting and tracking distant
objects by transmitting waves and then
measuring the reflections.
• Radar in World War II was used to track
attacking bombers, for airplane-toairplane combat, to guide bombers to
their targets, to direct gunfire, even to
follow mortar shells back to their
sources.
Radar
• RAdio Detection And Ranging
• Radar is an object detection
system which uses radio waves to
determine the range, altitude,
direction, or speed of objects.
• Radar was secretly developed by several
nations before and during World War II.
• By the time of the Battle of Britain in mid1940, the Royal Air Force (RAF) had
incorporated RDF (Range and Direction
Finding)stations as vital elements in Britain's
air defense capabilities.
• In February 1940, researchers in Great Britain
developed the resonant-cavity magnetron,
capable of producing microwave power in the
kilowatt range, opening the path to secondgeneration radar systems.
Today every house has one!
• In the microwave oven.
Proximity Fuse
• Considered to be one the most important
inventions effecting WWII outcome.
• One of the first practical proximity fuzes was
codenamed the VT fuse, an acronym of
"Variable Time fuse", as deliberate camouflage
for its operating principle.
• It was said, that shooting
down an aircraft at night was
‘‘like shooting a fly in a
darkened room with a pea
shooter''.
• The concept in the context of
artillery shells originated in the
UK with British researchers.
• It was developed under the
direction of physicist Merle A.
Tuve at The Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Lab
How does it work?
Jet Fighter
• A military fighter airplane that is
powered by turbines, rather than
propellers.
• Jet engines (Turbo Engine)
create forward thrust by taking
in a large amount of air and
discharging it as a high-speed
jet of gas.
• Turbo Engine
Turbo
• In a jet engine, these four actions
all happen simultaneously.
• The exhaust phase provides the
thrust that moves the engine
(and the airplane) forward.
• The jet engine does not require
valves, pistons and dozens of other
moving parts to control and change
the movement of the air within the
machine.
• As long as there is air flowing
through the engine, and fuel to burn,
it keeps running.
• Gas turbine engines have a great
power-to-weight ratio
• Gas turbine engines are smaller
• The main disadvantage of gas
turbines is that they are
expensive.
• Because they spin at such high speeds and
because of the high operating temperatures,
designing and manufacturing gas turbines is a
tough problem from both the engineering and
materials standpoint.
• Gas turbines also tend to use more fuel when
they are idling, and they prefer a constant
rather than a fluctuating load.
• That makes gas turbines great for things like
transcontinental jet aircraft and power plants,
Jet Planes in WW2
• Before World War II, in 1939, jet engines
primarily existed in labs.
• Germany developed the world's first jet plane.
Its first flight was on August 27, 1939.
• The Jet Plane spent a significant amount of
time on the ground due to its high
consumption of fuel.
• It was often described as a “sitting duck for
Allied attacks.”
Axis, Germany
• Messerschmitt Me 262 - first operational jetpowered fighter.
• Heinkel He 162 - Second jet fighter
Axis, Germany
• Arado Ar 234 - first jet-powered bomber and
reconnaissance aircraft.
Axis , Japan
• Kuugisho/Yokosuka MXY7 - "Ohka" Suicide
Attacker - prototype jet version of rocketpowered kamikaze aircraft was constructed
but never entered service.
2 Axis, Italy
• Experimental
Allies, United Kingdom
• Gloster Meteor - First operational Allied jet
fighter, entered Service July 27 1944
• De Havilland Vampire - Production aircraft
entered service in April 1945.
Allies , United States
• Bell P-59 Airacomet first Air Forces jet to fly,
never saw operational service, contract
terminated after 66 built.
Allies , United States
• Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star - first operational
USAAF jet fighter in 1945, grounded due to
problems until after the war. Did not see the
combat
Allies , United States
• Ryan FR Fireball - mixed prop and jet aircraft
for US Navy, first flew on June 25, 1944, but
never saw combat. 66 delivered.
Allies, Soviet Union
Mikoyan-Gurevich I-250 - mixed power fighter using
a motor jet engine creating jet thrust at the rear
and also turning a propeller at the front. 10-20
estimated built. Overtaken by pure jet aircraft.
Things moved very fast after WWII
• 1948 First turbojet breaks sound
barrier.
• 1949 First use of turbojet for
commercial service.
• 1955 First use of reheat (afterburner
) to increase thrust of turbojet for
supersonic military jet.
Aircraft Carriers
• In 1918, HMS Argus (British Royal Navy)
became the world's first carrier capable of
launching and landing naval aircraft.
• She was converted from an ocean liner that
was under construction when the First World
War began.
• Lacking the firepower of other warships,
carriers by themselves are considered
vulnerable to attack by other ships,
aircraft, submarines, or missiles.
• Therefore, aircraft carriers are generally
accompanied by a number of other ships
to provide protection for the relatively
unwieldy carrier, to carry supplies, and to
provide additional offensive capabilities.
Types of Carriers
• A fleet carrier is intended to operate
with the main fleet and usually
provides an offensive capability.
• Carries: fighter squadron, torpedo
bomber squadron, and a dive
bomber squadron.
Types of Carriers
• Escort carriers were developed to
provide defense for convoys of ships.
• They were typically half the length of
fleet carriers.
• In the Atlantic, the escort carriers
were used to protect convoys against
U-boats.
Types of Carriers
• Light aircraft carriers were carriers
that were fast enough to operate
with the fleet but of smaller size with
reduced aircraft capacity.
• Intended for higher speeds to be
deployed alongside fleet carriers.
• At the beginning of the war, the
Royal Navy had 7 aircraft carriers at
the start of the war as neither the
Germans nor the Italians had carriers
of their own.
Aircraft Carriers
• construction or
conversion of several
aircraft carriers, but
with the exception of
the nearly-finished Graf
Zeppelin, no ship was
launched.
• Japan started the war with 10 aircraft
carriers, the largest and most
modern carrier fleet in the world at
that time.
• By the end of the war, Japan had 31
carriers.
• There were 7 American aircraft
carriers at the beginning of the
hostilities, although only three of
them were operating in the Pacific.
• By the end of the war US had 119.
Launching and landing on the carrier
Tailhook
• The pilot's goal is to snag the
tailhook on one of four arresting
wires, sturdy cables woven from
high-tensile steel wire.
• The arresting wires are stretched
across the deck and are attached on
both ends to hydraulic cylinders
below deck.
• If the tailhook snags an arresting
wire, it pulls the wire out, and the
hydraulic cylinder system absorbs the
energy to bring the plane to a stop.
• The arresting wire system can stop a
54,000-pound aircraft travelling 150
miles per hour in only two seconds,
in a 315-foot landing area.
• There are four parallel arresting wires, spaced
about 50 feet part, to expand the target area
for the pilot.
• Pilots are aiming for the third wire, as it's the
safest and most effective target.
• The landing procedure starts when the various
returning planes "stack up" in a huge oval
flying pattern near the carrier.
• The Carrier Air Traffic Control Center decides
the landing order of the waiting planes based
on their various fuel levels.
• Landing Signals Officers (LSOs) help guide the
plane in, through radio communication as well
as a collection of lights on the deck.
• As soon as the plane hits the deck, the pilot
will push the engines to full power, instead of
slowing down, to bring the plane to a stop.
• This may seem counterintuitive, but if the
tailhook doesn't catch any of the arresting
wires, the plane needs to be moving fast
enough to take off again and come around for
another pass.
• The landing runway is tilted at a 14-degree
angle to the rest of the ship, so bolters like
this can take off from the side of the ship
instead of plowing into the planes on the
other end of the deck.
“meatball”
• An optical landing system (OLS) (nicknamed
"meatball" or simply, "Ball") is used to give
glidepath information to pilots in the terminal
phase of landing on an aircraft carrier.
Rocketry
• Rocketry The German rocket team at
Peenemunde developed liquidfueled rocket weapons that were
used to attack civilians in London and
throughout southeast England.
• Hitler believed that these new
weapons would turn the tide of war
in the Nazis’ favor.
• American engineers developed
smaller, but tactically more effective,
solid fuel rockets.
• These technologies, along with
engineers German, American, and
Russian, made the period after WWII
into “the Space Age” that continues
to this day.
Other Firsts…
DDT
• DDT was first synthesized in 1874.
• It’s insecticidal properties were not
discovered until 1939.
• In WWII, it was used with great
effect among both military and
civilian populations to control
mosquitoes spreading malaria and
lice transmitting typhus, resulting in
dramatic reductions in both diseases.
• Its overuse after the war led to
concerns about environmental
impact, spawning the modern
environmental movement.
D-Ration
• A high-calorie chocolate bar created
by the U.S. Army during WWII to
serve as an emergency ration for
soldiers who did not have access to
any other food.
• The Army purposely made the Dration taste bad, so that soldiers
would not be tempted to eat it
unless they had to.
Penicillin
• A bacteria-killing substance derived
from certain mold spores.
• Penicillin was first discovered in
1928, but was not successfully massproduced until 1942.
• It saved countless lives of soldiers
and civilians by preventing bacterial
infections that could easily turn
deadly.
Plasma
• The liquid component of blood
composed of 90% water.
• During WWII scientists discovered
that wounded soldiers could be given
plasma as a temporary substitute for
whole blood.
• Plasma was easier to transport and
did not decompose as easily as
blood.
Vitamins
• During WWII scientists made great
advances in their understanding of
how the human body uses vitamins,
enabling them to make
recommendations for daily nutrition
and create military rations with
appropriate amounts of nutrients.
Colossus computer
• Colossus The first programmable,
digital computer. Created by the
British to crack the German Lorenz
code, Colossus used more than 1,500
vacuum tube switches to quickly and
efficiently run through possible letter
sequences looking for recognizable
patterns.
Enigma
• The German field encoding machine.
• Thought to create an unbreakable
code, the Germans had no idea that
the British had broken the Enigma
code using a mechanical machine
called the Bombe.
• The Enigma could create a code
whose solution had 100.
•More about code
breaking and secret
communication next
week.
• Engineers created different
kinds of “simulators” to
recreate combat conditions
in a laboratory setting to
aid in training.
Media
• Training The development of great numbers of
new weapons, vehicles, and fighting
techniques during WWII necessitated the
development of new training methods.
• The military hired film makers and cartoonists
to create movies and training manuals that
could be understood by 18, 19, and 20-year
old draftees.
operations research
• Organization WWII saw great advances in the way
complex problems, such as transportation, supply, and
planning for military campaigns, are carried out.
• The science of operations research is an
interdisciplinary branch of applied mathematics and
formal science that uses methods such as
mathematical modeling, statistics, and algorithms to
arrive at optimal solutions to very complex problems.
• In other words, Operations Research helps armies,
businesses, and governments achieve their goals using
scientific methods.
Topic by request
• Maginot Line (in France)
• line of concrete fortifications, tank
obstacles, artillery casemates, machine
gun posts, and other defenses, which
France constructed along its borders with
Germany and Italy.
• Using WW1 experience, military experts
believed it would prevent any further
invasions from the east (notably, from
Germany).
• The line was built in several phases
from 1930 till 1939, at a cost of
around 3 billion French francs.
• While the fortification system
successfully prevented a direct
attack, it was strategically ineffective,
as the Germans invaded through
Belgium.
• Germany was able to conquer France
in about 6 weeks.
• Reference to the Maginot Line is used to recall
a strategy or object that people hope will
prove effective but instead fails miserably.
Use of Rockets
• A very small (but not the
smallest) gyroscope.
• For stabilizing phones and
cameras.
• Largest one are used as
stabilizer in ocean liner and
yachts.
Unusual weapons of WWII
Unusual weapons of WWII
• Anti-tank dogs
• Deployed by the Soviet Union
• It was an attempt to halt the
German advance during 1941.
Unusual weapons of WWII
• The dogs were kept hungry, and
food was placed under tanks in
order to teach them to look
under vehicles for food.
• In action, these dogs proved less
than effective.
Pigeon Guided Missile
Pigeon Guided Missile
• proposed by American
psychologist B.F. Skinner.
• later Project Orcon, for "organic
control"
• An image of the target would be
projected in front of it, and the
pigeon would be trained to
recognize it.
Pigeon Guided Missile
• It would then peck on one of four
levers (up, down, left or right)
until the target was dead centre
of the screen.
Pigeon Carriers
• United Kingdom used About 250,000 pigeons
during World War II by all branches of the
military and the Special Operations Executive.
• Flying from mainland Europe to Britain, the
birds heroically delivered all sorts of messages
through a gauntlet of enemy hawk patrols and
potshots from soldiers.
• The Dickin Medal, the highest possible
decoration for valor given to non-human
animals, was awarded to 32 pigeons, including
the United States Army Pigeon Service's G.I.
Joe and the Irish pigeon Paddy.
• The head of the Air Ministry Pigeon
Section reported in 1945 that
pigeons could be trained to deliver
small explosives or bio-weapons to
precise targets.
• The ideas were not taken up by the
committee,
• In 1948 the UK military stated that
pigeons were of no further use.
• In November 2012, the skeleton of a
World War II carrier pigeon is found
in a man's chimney in England.
• A red canister attached to a leg bone
holds a coded message UK agency
can't crack.
Anti-Communication Falcons
They patrolled the air over the
British coasts in two-hour shifts,
and took down any pigeons flying
off toward the mainland.
Project Habakkuk
Project Habakkuk
• Suggested by Geoffrey Pyke.
• He invented Pykrete as a response to the
steel shortage at the beginning of World
War II.
• It is a mix of water and 14 percent
sawdust in a mold, let it freeze, and you
have Pykrete.
• It doesn't shatter like ice, it's strong
enough to use in building projects, and
strangely, it doesn't appear to melt.
• The aircraft carrier (carrying 150 planes
) design called for a giant carrier (2000ft)
long, built out of pykrete, fitted with an
extensive cooling system to prevent the
pykrete melting.
• The British Military eventually decided
that the 10 million pound price tag for a
carrier was not something they were
willing to risk.
• See “myth buster” episode about
“Pykrete”.
Comparative properties of materials
Mechanical
properties
Ice
Concrete
Pykrete
Crushing strength
[MPa]
3.447
17.240
7.584
Tensile strength
[MPa]
1.103
1.724
4.826
Density [kg/m³]
910
2500
980
Acoustic Radars
• A passive device used during early years of
WW2.
• Became obsolete when Radar was developed.
• A variation of that was called sound mirror.
Czech one man aircraft locator
Japan’s “war tubas”
Sound Mirrors
Sound Mirrors
• They are acoustic reflectors, dubbed
by locals as the “listening ears.”
• These structures were built to
protect harbors and coastal towns
from airborne attacks.
• Serving as an early warning system,
microphones placed at the focal
point of the reflector enabled it to
detect sounds from flying aircraft
over the English Channel, at a range
of 30 kilometers.
• Became obsolete with the
development of RADAR.
Sound Mirrors
• How is it used today?
Also, “Kent Acoustic Mirror”
The “Who Me?” Stench Spray
• This weapon stunk so bad that it
didn’t even reach deployment.
• Developed by the Office of Strategic
Services, it was intended to be used
by the French Resistance to
demoralize German officers by
spraying the content, which smelled
of fecal matter.
• However, the sulfur compounds used
were extremely volatile and, therefore,
very difficult to control.
• As a result, the person spraying the
substance often got as smelly as his
unfortunate victim.
• Though this was a top-secret weapon, a
recipe of ingredients to make it can now
be found on the Internet.
• A recipe for a kilogram
• 919 g of white mineral oil as an inert
carrier
• 20 g of skatole (3-methylindole)
• 20 g of n-butanoic acid
• 20 g of n-pentanoic acid
• 20 g of n-hexanoic acid
• 1 g of pentanethiol
http://www.oddee.com/item_91684.aspx#LfAyGdHDIgk0PjK7.99
Rotabuggy
• British experimental aircraft
• was assembled by helicopter pioneer
Raul Hafner. Better known as the Blitz
Buggy by Hafner.
• Despite looking absolutely ridiculous and
almost cartoon-like, the Rotabuggy
successfully went airborne, reaching
gliding speeds of 45 mph in its first trial,
in 1943.
• It flew at 65 mph for 10 minutes in 1944.
• It was also surprisingly sturdy,
withstanding falls from 7 ft. without
experiencing damage.
• Despite being an engineering success and
deemed to be “highly satisfactory,” the
Rotabuggy was overlooked and phased
out.
The Bouncing Bomb
• Better known as the “Dam Busters”,
and used to blow up the Ruhr dams
in Operation Chastise.
• The bombs were issued for combat
use when torpedo attacks and aerial
raids on German hydroelectric
proved fruitless.
• Torpedo nets protected and detonated
conventional torpedoes from impact.
• Because of its bounce, it became
very effective at avoiding torpedo
nets, and its ability to be aimed
directly at a target was seen as a
huge advantage.
The Bouncing Bomb
De Lisle Commando Rifle
De Lisle Commando Rifle
• Silencer.
• Designed by William Godfray de Lisle
(known as Godfray),
• It is was so quiet that moving the bolt to
chamber the next round makes more
sound than firing a round.
• The De Lisle was only manufactured in
small numbers and was exclusive to
Special Forces.
Earthquake Bomb
Earthquake Bomb
• The bombs are built with a tough armored tip
and would reach supersonic speeds when
dropped from 40 thousand feet high,
penetrating deep underground and
detonating.
• The shock would often create a deep crater
and produce a miniature earthquake capable
of destroying the infrastructure of buildings
and dams.
• Earthquake bombs were used to destroy the
V2 factories, sink the German battleship
Tirpitz and destroy docked U2 boats.
• It was put to use 41 times.
Earthquake Bomb
Major Martin
• “Major Martin” was a homeless man,
who died of pneumonia and was
then used as a weapon of deceit by
the British in Operation Mincemeat.
• The body was disguised as a dead
Royal Marines Officer and left to be
found in the sea off the Spanish
coast, with a briefcase full of top
secret files chained to his wrist.
• The trick worked, and the Germans
pulled thousands of troops from
Sicily to defend Sardinia (which the
faked documents revealed intention
of the allied for invasion) .
• Thousands of Allied troops owed
their lives to the deception of Major
Martin.
Electromagnetic Degaussing
• The primary goal was to render the ship
undetectable, and invisible, from magnetically
fused undersea mines and torpedoes.
• The degaussing of a ship involved the
generation of a powerful electromagnetic field
onboard.
• Many people also believe the electromagnetic
degaussing attempt on the USS Engstorm
might have influenced the story of the famous
“Philadelphia Experiment” or “Project
Rainbow”
Hollywood chimes in:
Fire balloons or
balloon bomb
• Weapon launched by Japan.
• A hydrogen balloon with a load varying
from a 12-kilogram (26 lb) incendiary to
one 15 kg (33 lb) antipersonnel bomb
and four 5 kg (11 lb) incendiary devices
attached.
• They were designed as a cheap weapon
intended to make use of the jet stream
over the Pacific Ocean and wreak havoc
on Canadian and American cities,
forests, and farmland.
• The balloons were relatively
ineffective.
• Between November 1944 and April
1945, Japan launched over 9,300 fire
balloons.
• About 300 balloon bombs were
found or observed in North America,
killing six people and causing a small
amount of damage.
Panjandrum
• Burlesque title of an imaginary person in some
nonsense lines by Samuel Foote.
• Name of a secret weapon.
How did it do?
German Sonic Cannon
German Sonic Cannon
• During the early 1940s Axis
engineers developed a sonic cannon
that could literally shake a person
apart from the inside.
• A methane gas combustion
chamber leading to two parabolic
dishes pulse-detonated at roughly
44hz.
• This sound wave created pressures that
could kill a man up to 50 yards away in 30
seconds
• At distances of 160–660 ft the sound
waves could act on organ tissues and
fluids by repeatedly compressing and
releasing compressive resistant organs
such as the kidneys, spleen, and liver.
• This infrasound, magnified by the dish
reflectors, caused vertigo and nausea at
220–440 yd by vibrating the middle ear
bones.
The Krummlauf (curved gun)
The Krummlauf on display
at the Wehrtechnische
Studiensammlung in
Koblenz, Germany.
• The curved barrel included a periscope
sighting device for shooting around corners
from a safe position.
• Various versions were built:
– "I" version for infantry use
– "P" version for use in tanks
– versions with 30°, 45°, 60° and 90° bends
• The bent barrel attachments had
very short lifespan
–approx. 300 rounds for the 30°
version
–160 rounds for the 45°
• Another problem was that the bending caused
the bullets to shatter and exit the barrel in
multiple fragments, producing an unintended
shotgun effect.
The Vortex Cannon
• The shells contained coal-dust and a
slow-burning explosive in the center.
• If all circumstances were perfect and
favorable, the strange device seemed to
work fairly well.
• The range of the prototype was
estimated to be about 100m.
• The gun was never used in practice.
Strange Tanks
Swimming Tank, Flame Thrower Tank, Rhinoceros
tanks, Flail Tank
Early Drone (Operation Aphrodite)
Survival Research Laboratories
• http://srl.org/info.html
• Located in Petaluma
• Is a machine performance art group credited
for pioneering the genre of large-scale machine
performance.
• organization of creative technicians dedicated
to re-directing the techniques, tools, and
tenets of industry, science, and the military
away from their typical manifestations in
practicality, product or warfare.
Vertical take off/landing
Death Ray
• Originally a sci fi theory!
• Japan weighted construction of
atomic bomb versus death ray.
• Ended up choosing death ray as a
more plausible weapon.
• Called The Ku-go (Death Ray)
• An Article on a death-ray device invented
by Nikola Tesla had been in The New York
Times (July 11, 1934), and was picked up
by the Japanese press.
• In this article, Tesla was quoted as saying
that his beam would "drop an army in its
tracks and bring down squadrons of
airplanes 250 miles away."
• Invention of Magnetron
(producing microwave) in 1940
was a giant step toward
possibility of making this
weapon possible.
• In 1943, work began at the Shimada City
research facility on developing a highpower magnetron that, if not as capable as
Tesla had boasted, could at least
incapacitate an aircraft.
• By the end of the war, their effort had
produced a 20-cm magnetron with a
continuous output of 100 kW.
• This was far short of the desired 500 kW,
which itself would likely have been
insufficient for the mission.
Invasion Glider
German Jet/Rocket plane (Natter )
• Rocket powered interceptor, which was
to be used in a very similar way to a
manned surface-to-air missile.
• After vertical take-off the majority of the
flight to the Allied bombers was to be
controlled by an autopilot.
• The primary mission of the relatively
untrained pilot, perhaps better called a
gunner, was to aim the aircraft at its
target bomber and fire its armament of
rockets.
• The pilot and the fuselage containing
the rocket motor would then land
under separate parachutes, while the
nose section was disposable.
• The design was so dangerous that
the German Air Ministry rejected it.
• The designer persuaded Himmler to
fund the program in secret.
• The only manned vertical take-off
flight on 1 March 1945 ended in the
death of the test pilot.
Early Shuttle
And the weirdest project
The project X-ray
Project X-Ray—The Bat Bomb