Glide bomb
The glide bomb is a dropping weapon that, in contrast to the falling bomb , can be used at a distance from the target. So it has an effective range .
The increase in range compared to a pure drop weapon, e.g. B. a conventional aerial bomb , is achieved by means of aerodynamic constructions, which are either an integral part of the glide bomb or are attached as a separate assembly to a conventional aerial bomb. With this measure, the carrier aircraft is to be kept as far away as possible from the ground target and thus in front of any enemy defensive fire. In the case of a pure aerial bomb, on the other hand, the carrier aircraft must fly over the ground target and consequently expose itself to increased defensive fire. In addition, with a controlled glide bomb you have the option of steering the weapon into the target.
Other distinguishing features of the glide bombs are, in addition to the structure already mentioned, the control, the target search and the warhead. There are also glide bombs with an additional auxiliary drive to increase the range or the top speed. Aerodynamic missiles with permanently operating engines, on the other hand, are referred to as cruise missiles .
The control, if available, takes place either via wire or via radio signals. In the absence of information processing technologies, the search for targets was carried out manually in World War II, mostly using target coverage methods. The target and the glide bomb were kept under cover from the bombardier's point of view. The glide bomb usually had an optical beacon for this purpose. Exceptions are the American Bat , which had an autonomous, radar-guided control, and the Japanese Yokosuka MXY-7 , which was manned. Depending on the target, conventional warheads, shaped charge warheads or air torpedoes were used.
history
Even before the First World War , the USA began developing air torpedoes, the forerunners of glide bombs, in 1910, and Italy and Great Britain from 1912. 1912 acquired Bradley A. Fiske, Captain of the US Navy , a corresponding patent. An air torpedo was first used on July 28, 1914, when the future British Air Chief Marshall Arthur Longmore, as an RNAS pilot , made an official test drop near the Royal Naval Air Base in Calshot ( Hampshire ). British aviation legend Charles Gordon Bell had completed the dress rehearsal the previous evening.
In Germany, the Siemens torpedo glider was developed from 1914 , also an air torpedo. Testing began in 1915, with airships as the carrier systems. The plan to equip the Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII bomber with the Siemens torpedo glider prevented the end of the war in 1918.
The first German glide bomb developed the electrical engineer and a PhD aerodynamics Max Kramer , the Fritz X . As early as 1938, Kramer had been developing radio-controlled weapons and, since 1940, had been working for the Ruhrstahl armaments company, and had worked on rocket-propelled air-to-air guided missiles , the X-4 and the X-1.
Examples of glide bombs
Examples of glide bombs in World War II:
- Fritz X (even if this is only a controlled free-fall bomb, it can still be seen as a glide bomb due to the control)
- Henschel mine gliding bombs Hs 293 , Hs 294 , Hs 295, with rocket propulsion
- Blohm & Voss BV 143 , with rocket drive
- Blohm & Voss BV 246
- Bat , the first radar-controlled and autonomous glide bomb ( Fire-and-Forget ).
- Yokosuka MXY-7 , the only manned glide bomb in use
Examples of modern glide bombs:
Web links
literature
- FA Brockhaus Wiesbaden, Brockhaus Encyclopedia in Twenty Volumes , Edition 22, Brockhaus Verlag, 1966. ISBN 978-3-7653-0028-8
- Hugh Cecil, Peter Liddle: Facing Armageddon: The First World War Experience , Pen & Sword Books Ltd, London 1996. ISBN 978-0-8505-2525-0
- Chris Chant: The World`s Great Bombers , Grange Books Ltd (New edition), Rochester (Kent), 2000. ISBN 978-0-7607-2012-7
- Hubert Faensen, Leo Seidel: High-tech for Hitler: the Hakeburg - from the research center to the Kaderschmiede , Ch. Links Verlag, 2001. ISBN 978-3-86153-252-1
- Bill Gunston: Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Rockets and Missiles , Smithmark Publishers, New York 1987. ISBN 978-0-8317-7415-8
- Steven Wentworth Roskill: Documents relating to the Royal Naval Air Service 1908-18, Navy Records Society, London 1969. ISBN 978-1-911423-42-3
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chant, 2000
- ^ Roskill, 1969
- ↑ U.S. Patent 1032394
- ↑ Cecil, Liddle (1996, p.202)
- ↑ Keith Isaacs: Australian Naval Aviation - Part 1 , in: Naval Historical Review, December 1972 (Naval Historical Society of Australia)
- ↑ Zeitschrift für Flugwissenschaften, Vol. 5–6, Volume 1957-58, pp. 135–36
- ↑ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : When the Wehrmacht dropped the first clever bomb in: Die Welt , September 9, 2013