Blohm & Voss BV 143

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The Blohm & Voss BV 143 was a glide bomb developed by Blohm & Voss , which was intended to be used against ship targets from the air or later from land (catapult).

The peculiarity of this glide bomb was the flight profile. For this reason, the glide bomb was sometimes referred to as the "surface torpedo". The gyro-stabilized glide bomb, driven by a briefly acting Walter rocket engine, was to be dropped from a carrier aircraft at some distance from the target and after a glide flight controlled by a variometerbe intercepted by a mechanical sensor just above the water surface and then approach the target (ship) at a low height above the water surface. At the beginning of the development, target control should only be ensured by the gyro-stabilized trajectory. During testing, however, it was found that the lateral deviation could not be kept within the necessary limits. For this reason, the installation of a remote control or the use of target finding devices (contrast or light controls, infrared controls such as the "Hamburg" device) and remote control were considered in the further development, but these ideas were no longer tested in practice . The interception of the missile just above the water surface could not be solved satisfactorily during the entire development. The development was continued from 1942 without any priority important to the war effort and stopped in mid-1943.

Series

  • BV 143 V pattern (for the drop test)
  • BV 143 A (only wind tunnel model)
  • BV 143 A-2 (catapult device with Anschütz control)
  • BV 143 A-3 (catapult device with Askania control)
  • BV 143 B (completely revised new design)

Technical specifications

BV 143 V pattern: Span: 3.30 m, length: 5.98 m

BV 143 A (extrapolated from the wind tunnel model): Span: 3.05 m, length: 6.90 m

BV 143 catapult devices (A-2 / A-3): Span: 3.20 m, length: 6.22 m

BV 143 B: Span: 2.52 m, length: 5.18 m

Weights refer to the BV 143 V-Muster Empty weight: 407.5 kg Fuel: 165.5 kg (fuel 150 kg + air and additional 15.5 kg) explosive charge: 500 kg, (BV 143B: 1000 kg) total weight: 1073 kg

literature

  • Karl R. Pawlas: The development of the BV 143A. Karl R. Pawlas-Luftfahrt-Lexikon, article identifier 8551-100-1, 30 pages.
  • Oliver Thiele: Blohm & Voss 143: Ancestor of the Sea Skimmer. 1st edition, Books on Demand, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8482-1861-5 .