Blohm & Voss L 10

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The Blohm & Voss L 10 with the suggestive name "Friedensengel" was an unmanned German torpedo carrier (also called torpedo glider) during World War II .

With the aircraft developed by Richard Vogt , the dropping distance of the air torpedo (LT) LT 950 C was increased. The LT was carried as an external load of a torpedo bomber and dropped from a height of 2500 m, whereby a range of 8500 m should be achieved. This enabled the carrier aircraft to operate outside the enemy firing range. The aircraft was not controllable, i. H. the pilot had to determine the flight direction of the aircraft before the aircraft was dropped, analogous to the dropping of a normal LT.

Three seconds after the launch, a small kite unfolded, ejected from a container under the left wing and dragged along a 25 m long cable. When the L 10 was about 10 m above the ground, the kite was already touching the surface of the water and the L-10 carrier part was blown off. The LT 950 C then ran on an underwater lane towards the target.

During the test drops at the Hexengrund torpedo weapon area in Danziger Bucht and in Peenemünde-West ( test site of the Karlshagen Air Force ), 54 units were used from September 1942, after which a further 330 units were commissioned, but probably only 270 were actually built. The Kampfgeschwader received 26 34 of these for field testing. A total of around 450 pieces are said to have been produced. A large number of different types, such as the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 F, Heinkel He 111 H and J and Junkers Ju 88 A-4, were used as carrier aircraft . There was no longer any front deployment.

Technical specifications
  • First flight: September 1942
  • Span: 2.80 m
  • Wing area: 2.06 m²
  • Length: 3.89 m
  • Height: 0.59 m
  • Hull diameter: 0.44 m
  • Weight (without LT): 220 kg
  • Max. Range: 9000 m
  • Speed: 87 m / s

A further development of the “Angel of Peace” was the L 11 “Snow White” torpedo glider, which, however, did not get beyond the design phase. Here the torpedo was not hung under the glider, but was in two half-shells from which it was blasted.

literature

See also