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22.11.2001 09:05:41
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WWII;
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Саиду и пр. - текст по немецким ЗР
Мое почтение!
Книга: "Germany's Secret Weapons in World War II", Roger Ford. Это к тем фоткам что я ниже постил.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Surface-to-Air
Missiles
In parallel with the programmes to develop air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, German scientists and engineers also strove to produce guided surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). Work first began in 1941, but yet again, progress was overtaken by events; the first usable missiles were due to go into service in mid-1945, but by then the war was already over.
Finding ways to defeat the Allied bomber forma-tions which pounded the Reich preoccupied the Luftwaffe and the RLM alike. As a result, a number of teams were at work developing new weapons. Most important amongst these were the more-or-less suc-cessful jet and rocket-powered aircraft we have already discussed. However, much energy and resources went into developing surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) too, amongst the most significant of which were the Henschel Hs 117 `Schmetterling' (`Butterfly'), the Messerschmitt `Enzian' (`Gentian'), the Rheinmetall-Borsig `Rheintochter' (`Rhine Maiden'), and the EMW `Wasserfall' (`Waterfall') -all of which had a guidance system - and the EMW `Taifun' (`Typhoon'), which was unguided.
THE HENSCHEL Hs 117 'SCHMETTERLING'
The earliest of the projects was for a subsonic short-to-medium-range missile which was radio controlled by an operator on the ground. Henschel first began work on the project in 1941, alongside a number of unguided flak rockets, and two years later was ordered to develop it as the Hs 117. With stubby swept-back wings and a cruciform tail, the Hs 117 `Schmetterling' was controlled like an aircraft, with solenoid-operated 'Wagner bars' rather than conven-tional ailerons on the trailing edges of the wings and tailplane. It appeared somewhat unbalanced, having a bifurcated nose, with the starboard cone elongated to form a warhead extension and the port cone finishing in a small airscrew driving a generator. Launch power was supplied by a pair of external solid-fuel motors, one above and one below the fuselage, which gave 1750kg (3850lb) of boost for four seconds, accelerat-ing the missile to 1100km/h (680mph) before falling away and igniting the sustainer motor. The motor was to have been either a BMW 109-558 or a Walter 109-729, both of which used liquid fuel - R-Stoff or `Tonka', a composite self-igniting fuel, with SV-Stoff (concentrated nitric acid) as an oxidizer in the former; SV-Stoff and Br-Stoff (low-octane petrol), with an alcohol igniter, in the latter.
LAUNCHING THE 'SCHMETTERLING'
At 4.3m (14ft) long and weighing a total of 420kg (925lb) including the solid-fuel motors, the `Schmetterling' was launched from a modified anti-aircraft gun mounting, azimuth and elevation being approximately pre-set manually by the launch crew.
Once in flight, a flare in the tail was ignited, and the controller observed its progress through a telescope, correcting by radio using the Kehl/Strassburg system codenamed `Parsival' (FuG203/230), which was also widely used for other operator-guided missiles, employing four separate radio frequencies, two for the horizontal axis and two for the vertical. Control was by a simple joystick. A fifth radio frequency was used to detonate the 25kg (55lb) warhead, which relied on blast rather than fragmentation, on com-mand, though proximitiy and time delay fuzes were also developed. The effective range was 16km (10 miles) and the ceiling was 11,000m (36,000ft). In blind conditions it was hoped to employ the Mannheim-Reise/`Rheingold' radar system, which worked something like the Wurzburg fighter control system, one set tracking the target, the other the mis-sile; the operator would use the joystick as before, but would now be observing dots on a cathode ray tube, and trying to keep them superimposed. Later, it was hoped, corrections would be applied automatically.
Testing of the `Schmetterling' began in May 1944, and by September, 22 launches had been made, some of them of a variant intended as an air-to-air missile, the Hs 117H (qv). The success rate was good enough that the missile was ordered into production in December, with first deliveries - 150 units per month - to take place in March 1945, rising to 3000 per month by November. This was hopelessly optimistic, of course, at a time when industrial output in Germany was failing fast, and no missile was ever produced for operational use.
THE MESSERSCHMITT 'ENZIAN'
Messerschmitt's proposal resembled an unmanned version of the Me 163 `Komet', with the same stubby body and wings and the twin ventral/dorsal tail fins. It was considerably heavier than the `Schmetterling' at 1800kg (3970lb), had a 300kg (660lb) warhead, and was designed to operate at up to 12,000m (41,000ft) or out to a range of 24.5km (15.25 miles) at lower levels. One most important feature of the `Enzian' was the fact that its airframe was to be constructed of moulded plywood, a material Germany had in abun-dance, and this was almost - but not quite - enough to give it sufficient official approval points to actually see it into production, especially since it used tech-nology which was well understood.
The `Enzian', originally the Flak Rakete 1, was designed from June 1943 by a team led by Hermann Wurster at Messerschmitt's R&D headquarters at Oberammergau, with prototypes to be produced at Augsburg and serial airframe manufacture to be car-ried out at Holzbau Kissing AG, in nearby Sonthofen.
Like the `Komet', it had a circular-section fuselage, 0.9m (aft) in maximum diameter; it also had ventral and dorsal fins and mid-mounted swept-back wings with full-width elevons, which operated in unison or independently and thus obviated the need for a rud-der. Launch power was provided by four Schmidding 109-533 diglycol-fuelled rockets, the same as that employed for the `Schmetterling', which gave a com-bined thrust of 7000kg (15,400lb) for four seconds and were then jettisoned. The launch platform con-sisted of 6.8m (22.25ft) rails on a modified 8.8cm anti-aircraft gun mounting, which could of course be trained in azimuth and elevation. The sustainer rocket was to have been a Walter R1-210B, using SV-Stoff and Br-Stoff as its fuel, delivered to the combustion chamber by a pair of steam-driven turbo-pumps as employed in the A4. About 15 of these motors are thought to have been produced, and they were used to test the prototype missiles, but for the production ver-sion a simplified motor was designed by Drs Konrad and Beck of the Deutsches Versuchsanstalt fur Kraftfahrzeug- and Fahrzeugmotoren (DVK - the German Aviation Propulsion Experimental Establishment), which used S-Stoff and Visol deliv-ered by compressed air, and in its final form gave the slightly higher performance figures of 2500kg (5510lb) of thrust falling to 1500kg (3300lb) by the end of its 56-second burn time. The reducing thrust ensured that the missile did not exceed its maximum Mach number and become unstable. Guidance was exactly the same as for the `Schmetterling' and the same sort of proximity fuze was to have been used.
Perhaps 60 `Enzian' missiles were constructed, of which 38 were tested, beginning in April 1944. The first examples fared badly because the designers had not grasped the importance of aligning the missile's axial centre of gravity and thrust lines, but that was cured, and later tests proved successful. The `Enzian' fell foul of the general deterioration in manufacturing capacity, and as there was concern at RLM that it was detracting from the production of Me 163s and Me 262s, in January 1945 the project was axed.
THE RHEINMETALL-BORSIG MISSILES
Although successful with its unguided `Rheinbote' bombardment missiles, Rheinmetall-Borsig achieved less with its surface-to-air missiles. The company's first foray into the field was a winged missile called the 'Hecht' (`Pike'), which seems to have been no more than a design and concept-proving exercise; several are known to have been air-dropped, both in powered and unpowered forms. Work on it stopped in 1941, when the `Feuerlilie' project was initiated; it seems that this, too, was to have been purely a research programme, but the RLM insisted that it be adaptable to use as an anti-aircraft rocket, should that prove necessary. Even though there is no evidence that that step was taken, and the missile was unguid-ed, we may include it here in passing.
The `Firelily' was to have a streamlined cylindrical fuselage with rear-mounted swept-back wings termi-nating in small symmetrical fins. It was to have been produced in a number of versions of different fuse-lage diameter, the most important of which were the F25 and the F55, and was to have been propelled by solid-fuel rockets which the company already had in production as take-off assistance units (RATO) for gliders and heavily-loaded transport aircraft, though there was also a plan to produce a supersonic version of the 55cm missile, with simple fins in place of the wing assembly, to be powered by a Konrad-designed liquid-fuel rocket. The `Firelily' project continued until early 1945, but it seems clear that no attempt was ever made to utilise the missiles as weapons. Several F25s were manufactured and were tested at Peenemunde-West and at the company's own proving grounds at Leba, but certainly no operational variant was ever produced. Perhaps six F55s were produced; one was tested successfully at Leba, and two were sent to Peenemunde, where the one went out of con-trol when launched.
The `Rhine Maiden' was an entirely different mat-ter. It was conceived from the outset as an anti-aircraft missile. It was an ambitious design incorporating two stages: the cylindrical first stage housed nothing but solid-fuel booster rockets, and had four fixed, swept-back fins with bracing struts between them, which acted simply as stabilisers, being jettisoned on burn-out; the second stage, also cylindrical, tapered to a point at the nose and slightly at the tail, and had six fixed fins mounted about two-thirds the way back from , the nose, and four small rounded steering sur-faces - canards, in effect - at the nose itself, which were actuated by servos to guide the rocket in flight. Unusually, the warhead was situated in the rear of the rocket, behind the fins and motor unit, the six venturi of which were positioned between the fins, angled out, which also worked to help stabilise the missile in flight. `Rheintochter I' was intended to reach speeds of almost 1300km/h (800mph), and carry a 100-150kg (220-330lb) warload to 40km (25 miles) and 6000m (19,700ft). The missile had a lengthy development period. The contract was signed in November 1942, but by late 1944 only a relatively small number - perhaps 50 - had been launched, less than half of which carried guidance equipment that was essentially similar to that incorporated in `Schmetterling' and `Enzian' and in the more suc-cessful guided glide bombs. At the year's end, the project was abandoned, the missile never having come close to reaching its design altitude.
It seems that the development team had known all along that the RATO units would never produce the required performance, and had planned to power the production version of the missile, known as `Rheintochter III', with a version of the same Konrad-designed liquid-fuel rocket which was to go into the supersonic `Feuerlilie', though a version with a much-enlarged solid-fuel rocket was also proposed. This was, in fact, the only version of the `Rheintochter III' ever tested.
THE EMW 'WASSERFALL
Although Wernher von Braun worked for the German Army, and anti-aircraft defences were the responsibil-ity of the Luftwaffe, EMW was ordered to produce an anti-aircraft guided missile. Most of the necessary work had already been done in developing the A4, and the chief difference between `Wasserfall' - as the surface-to-air missile was known - and the A4 was to be in its propulsion plant. From the outset it was clear that the operational requirements for the two rockets were quite different. Whereas A4 could be fuelled as and when required, in a more or less leisurely fashion, and fired when it was ready, the SAM would be required to be held at instant readiness, perhaps for months, and this was simply not practical if a cryo-genic propellant like liquid oxygen was employed. Instead, it would be fuelled by Salbei (90 per cent nitric acid, 10 per cent sulphuric acid to inhibit corro-sion) and a type of Visol, the fuel - which ignited spontaneously on being combined - being delivered to the combustion chamber by pressurising the pro-pellant tanks with inert nitrogen, rather than by using cumbersome high-pressure steam turbines. Because the two components of the fuel reacted so violently, pre-launch and launch-time safety procedures very important, and there was an elaborate system of inter-locks involving metal membranes which would rup-ture only in predetermined circumstances.
`Wasserfall' was about half the length of the A4, at 7.84m (25.7ft), and weighed 3500kg (7720lb) all-up, as opposed to 12,900kg (28,440lb), but it was still by far the biggest of all the German surface-to-air weapons, even though its warhead was smaller, at 235kg (520lb), than that of the `Enzian'. It was very similar in shape to the bigger missile, but unlike the A4 it had four stabilising fins located about one third the way back from the nose.
35 TEST LAUNCHES
`Wasserfall' was designed to operate at greater range and altitude than the other SAMs. Its 8000kg-(17,630lb-) thrust engine burned for 40 seconds and gave it a range of up to 50km (30 miles) and an alti-tude of 20,000m (65,000ft), even though the latter was far higher than any aircraft attained. Its guidance system was manual and ground-based, with course corrections transmitted to the rocket by radio signals, but since it was launched vertically, it also carried the A4's basic inertial guidance system, to point it in the approximate direction of the target. It is difficult to imagine visual tracking and control being at all effec-tive at anything like extreme range and altitude, and given its high launch speed, guiding it manually at all, whether through a sighting telescope or by superim-posing dots on an oscilloscope, generated by tracking radars, must have presented problems. The first suc-cessful launch occurred at Peenemunde on 29 February 1944, and it is believed that about 35 test launches were made in total. Series production was to have been at the biggest underground factory of them all, Bleichrode, but in the event even the factory itself had not been built when the war ended in May 1945.
THE UNGUIDED 'TAIFUN'
By mid-1944, there were many in Germany who advocated cancelling the offensive weapons develop-ment programme completely in order to concentrate on developing more effective defensive measures, but of course Adolf Hitler was not one of them, and what he said still went. The `Aggregat' programme certain-ly got priority at Peenemunde, and since the same team was working on `Wasserfall', that inevitably meant that the latter lost out because resources were not available. The A4 got into production, while `Wasserfall' did not. In fact, there was not even a clear consensus in favour of `Wasserfall', or even general acceptance of its desirability. Some at EMW even advocated scrapping `Wasserfall' (on the grounds that it would never work successfully without an automat-ic guidance system) and concentrating on a simpler, unguided flak rocket.
A design for just such a missile was put forward by the Range Officer at Peenemunde, an engineer named Scheufeln, and was - perhaps somewhat surprisingly, considering all the other demands being put on that establishment - ordered into development in September 1944 as the `Taifun' (`Typhoon'). The first examples used solid-fuel motors, but it soon became apparent that they would not reach the desired height (the `Rheintochter' development team was having the same problem, we may recall), and liquid propellants Salbei and Visol were used instead. They were stored in concentric cylindrical tanks, which made up the body of the missile, and forced into the combustion chamber by nitrogen under pressure, a cunningly designed valve ensuring that initially there was a fuel-rich mixture in the chamber which allowed pressure there to build up slowly and evenly (relatively speak-ing since the delay between triggering and firing was one tenth of a second). This was to prove most effec-tive, and was to make `Taifun' surprisingly accurate even at high altitude, which meant that the warhead could be fitted with a contact or graze fuze, and need-ed to be no bigger than a conventional anti-aircraft artillery shell of 0.5kg (1.1lb).
Overall, the missile was 1.93m (6.3ft) long and 100mm (4in) in diameter. It weighed 21kg (46lb) before launch, and reached a height of 15,000m (49,210ft) before falling back to earth, with a maxi-mum velocity of 3600km/h (2235mph). It went into limited production at Peenemunde in January 1945, and an estimated 600 were completed, along with a small number of launchers (which were based, once again, on the mounting of the 8.8cm FlaK 37). Unit cost would have been very low and, at RM25, less than a third of the price of a rifle. There is no clear indication whether it was ever used operationally, and no evidence to suggest that it ever brought down an aircraft, though that is certainly possible, since to the target's crew, it would have appeared that the aircraft had been hit by conventional anti-aircraft fire.
С уважением, Venik