German WW1 glider bombs

[PMN1]

From ‘Naval Aviation in the First World War, its Impact and Influence’ by R D Layman

Even lesser known were remotely controlled missiles developed by the Siemans Schuckert-Werke GmbH. They were unpowered gliders carrying an explosive warhead or torpedo and controlled electrically through an unreeling wire, rather in the manner of the present American TOW anti-tank missile. Approximately 100 of these, of varying sizes and configurations, were built and tested from January 1915 until the project was abandoned in late 1918. Many successful launches were made from naval airships, and controlled distances of nearly five miles achieved with considerable accuracy. The missiles, however, never became operational.


Does anyone have any more information on these?

[Romantic Technofreak]

Forwarded to a German forum. Never heard about this before. Hope I get some reply.

Regards, RT

[PMN1]

They are mentioned here but you will have to register to see the piccies.


http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,3253.0.html

and here, I know it is wiki but....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_torpedo_glider

http://warandgame.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/siemtopglider.jpg

[Romantic Technofreak]

Hi PMN1,

I received an answer but it is not much more informative than you already told.

There should be another book in English language, Gray/Thetford, "German Aircraft of the First World War", maybe you even have this.

About the Siemens-Schuckert torpedo glider, re-translated it reads this: "Between 1915-18, Siemens-Schuckert built more than 100 'glider bombs' of different look. The development went until 1918 to a gross weight of 1000 kg and without doubt they were the forerunners of contemporary guided missiles.
The first take-offs were perfomed from the Siemens-Schuckert hangar in Biesdorf, later successfull inflight launches from airships followed. On 2 August 1918, a 1000 kg missile was dropped from airship L35, control could be kept for a distance of 7,5 km.
The size of these machines varied from 4.1 m for the 300 kg glider to 7.4 m for the 1000 kg missile."

Another picture, from the website of the Zeppelin Museum in Tønder, Denmark (German until 1920, famous airship base in WWI, German name: Tondern):
http://www.zeppelin-museum.dk/D/german/aktuell/akt2004/wochen/fernlenk.jpg

Regards, RT

[Trexx]

Fantastic advancement and foresight. Quite remarkable. Thanks for the posting.

[Kutscha]

Some might be interested in an American guided bomb.

The 'Aerial Target' and 'Aerial Torpedo' in the USA

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/rpav_usa.html

The first attempts to create an airborne counterpart of the naval torpedo took place in the United States during World War I. A pilotless plane was to be guided to a target and crashed into it in a power dive, exploding its charge.

In 1916-17 a prototype called the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane made a number of short test flights proving that the idea was sound. In November 1917 Army representatives witnessed one of these flights and started a similar aerial torpedo, or flying bomb, project led by Lieut. Col. Bion J. Arnold for the Air Service and Charles Kettering for industry.

The latter was assisted by Orville Wright and C.H. Wills of the Ford Motor Company. Various companies working together produced 20 complete pilotless aircraft (called Bugs), and a successful test flight was made Oct. 4, 1918. Since World War I ended five weeks later all projects were discontinued except for some experiments with Bugs. This project was dropped in 1925.

[Red Admiral]

There's also the Toraplane which is a British glide bomb from the period. Range with the wire guidance is very limited though, especially by weather.

[PMN1]

Jellicoe was very worried about the Zeppelin's reconaisance abilities (overestimated it sems), imagine what he would have thought had one been able to successfully attack his ships......

[Red Admiral]

Jellicoe was very worried about the Zeppelin's reconaisance abilities (overestimated it sems), imagine what he would have thought had one been able to successfully attack his ships......

I've a feeling that that would be optimistic given the likely weather and short range. Not really sure how much damage they would do either.

7.5km is within range of 3" and 4" anti-aircraft guns, and a large slow moving target like a Zeppelin should be easy to hit.

[BRITTANY]

I agree completely. It looked fast, it was fast, and it had the most graceful lines of any airliner--ever! Its major competition in the airline industry of the 1950s was the Douglas DC-7. They were very closely matched in performance, but for class, there was no comparison. It was the Super Constellation, hands down.

[martin1]

Expert My vision was not as large for the development of my comment on that air line, but clearly and I appreciate what Your effort for this field observation and hope to get more information, such as in the future Too