Typhoon (anti-aircraft missile)
The Taifun is a German anti-aircraft missile that was developed at the beginning of 1944 at the Elektromechanische Werk (EW) Karlshagen . The missile, equipped with a liquid rocket motor , was intended to be used in an uncontrolled manner in mass launch against air targets up to an altitude of 10,000 m. For this purpose, the Taifun was to be fired from multiple launchers in volley rate of up to 48 rockets from the mount of the 8.8 cm Flak 36 or 37. By the end of the war, however, the typhoon testing was not completed and this anti-aircraft missile was no longer used. Only a few hundred devices had been completed by the end of the war.
development
At the beginning of 1944 EW began developing the Taifun , of which a total of 80 samples were ordered from EW on September 14, 1944 and a further 420 from the Benteler works in Bielefeld . In October 1944, a Taifun working group was set up to speed up work on the project. However, in December 1944, the shortage of skilled workers meant that necessary ballistic tests were delayed by four weeks. The drives also caused difficulties in the initial phase of development. In the course of the flight tests it turned out until mid-January 1945 that the rocket began to tumble during the burning time, which lasted only 2.5 seconds , if it had left the launch frame at insufficient speed. Therefore, an extended starting frame was developed and the impulse of 2000 kp / s up to now was to be increased in the series version of the Taifun .
At the beginning of January 1945, some design changes were made to the Taifun devices, as a result of which the explosions that had hindered the testing of the Typhoon no longer occurred. By January 13, 1945, the first attempts at launching the Typhoon were carried out with sharp warheads , with the warheads detonating as planned after the timer had expired ; however, the scatter or inaccuracy was considerable. In parallel to the development of the devices with liquid drives , work was also carried out on a variant with a powder drive ; The first attempts to take off were made in Torgelow and, after eye observation, produced good trajectories.
In further tests carried out up to the end of January 1945 different results were obtained. For example, it was possible to launch eleven “Taifun F” (series-production units) with good results, but in another test six of 20 missiles launched detonated in the air without a cause being identified.
As part of the emergency driver program , a total of 2500 “Taifun P” (pre-series) and an unknown number of series F version units were to leave production by the end of March 1945, but this did not happen before the end of the war. The testing could not be completed either.
A train ( called Taifun-Express by the technicians ) left the Mittelwerk on April 5, 1945 with 50 civilian employees and almost 40 prisoners known as 'specialists' as well as machines and Taifun construction documents in the direction of Traunsee (Austria).
construction
The Taifun consisted of the central missile body, the tip of which was formed by the explosive device under which the solid gas generator was arranged to expel the propellants . The coaxially arranged fuel containers for SV and R-material followed . The combustion chamber with the exhaust nozzle formed the stern. The bow, middle and stern sections each consisted of thin sheet-metal shells that were screwed together with sleeves. In order to ensure a stable flight path, the stern was provided with a quadruple tail unit , each fin had an area of 155 cm².
drive
A liquid rocket motor powered by SV and R material served as the drive for the Taifun . An 8.3 kg tank for SV material and a 2.5 kg tank for R material were arranged coaxially in the center of the missile body. The pressure vessel for the SV substance was made of corrosion-resistant material and formed the core, while the wall of the R-substance container around it also formed the outer skin of the rocket center section. Behind the tip of the rocket there was a solid compressed gas generator working with a cordite powder charge, which had the task of driving out the propellants. A partition designed as an explosive membrane was provided between the pressurized gas container and the fuel containers , which was shattered at an excess pressure of about 2.5 to 5 bar. The maximum expulsion pressure that could be achieved with the cordite set was 51 bar. Another explosive membrane was located between the fuel tanks and the combustion chamber. This membrane was intended to prevent the missiles, which were already filled with fuel and ready for launch, from leaking and was set up in such a way that first the R-material and then the SV-material got into the combustion chamber during commissioning. The ignition took place automatically when the two fuels met. With a burn time of 2.5 s, the engine produced a thrust of 800 kp.
Technical specifications
| use | Drive type | thrust | Burn time | fuel | diameter | length | Operating weight | Vmax | Range | Summit height | Explosive charge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ground to air | liquid
rocket engine |
800 kp | 2.5 s |
SV substance
R-substance (Optolin) |
100 mm | 1930 mm | 19.7 kg | 2730 km / h | 12,000 m | 15,000 m | 0.5 kg |
References
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Manfred Griehl: German anti-aircraft missiles until 1945 ; ISBN 3-7909-0768-5
- ↑ see Jens-Christian Wagner: Production of death: the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp , Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-89244-439-0 , page 277 (footnote 371)
- ^ A b Heinz J. Nowarra: The German Air Armament 1933–1945 ; ISBN 3-8289-5315-8
literature
- Heinz J. Nowarra : The German Air Armament 1933-1945. Volume 4: Aircraft types MIAG - Zeppelin, missiles, aircraft engines, on-board weapons, drop weapons, radios, other air force equipment, anti-aircraft artillery. Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1993, ISBN 3-7637-5468-7 .
- Manfred Griehl: German anti-aircraft missiles until 1945. Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Wölfersheim-Berstadt 2002, ISBN 3-7909-0768-5 ( Waffen-Arsenal. Special issue 67).
- Manfred Griehl: Air Force '45. Recent flights and projects. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-613-02474-8 .