Reich miracle weapon: Zenger space bomber
The Third Reich lasted only 12 years, collapsing under the blows of the Allied forces. At the same time the winners got really rich trophies, among which were the real wonders of technology, which were tens of years ahead of their time. It is no coincidence that by many researchers, these 12 years of the Reich's existence are characterized as the quintessence of scientific and technological progress. It was the Third Reich that opened the way for the stars to humanity, giving a significant impetus to the development of rocket technology.
One of these trophies was the drawings of the orbital bomber, which had many names Silbervogel (German silver bird), Amerika Bomber, Orbital-Bomber, etc. Today it is known to many as the Zenger space bomber, named after its creator. This bomber was created as part of the Amerika Bomber program (a program to create ultra-long-range bombers for bombing the US), and could also be used to bomb remote areas of the USSR, in particular Siberia and the Far East.
Of particular interest is the launch of this unit. The orbital bomber was proposed to be installed on special “slides”, which were equipped with booster rocket engines. A sled with a bomber was placed on a special overpass with a monorail with a total length of 3000 meters. “Sleds” should have provided traction in 600 t. In just 11 seconds. After takeoff and reach altitude in 1,5 km. at the speed of 1850 km / h, the main rocket engine of the bomber had to be launched, which, according to the designers, would have to disperse the combat aircraft to 8 22 km / h within 100 minutes and raise it to 145 km altitude. The theoretical maximum altitude of the bomber was 280 km.
The movement of the apparatus in the stratosphere was also interesting. According to Eugen Zenger, as a result of the initial acceleration and subsequent descent under the action of gravity to the dense layers of the atmosphere (about 40 km), the device had to push off from the dense layers of the atmosphere and rise again. This model of movement allowed the device not to enter the dense layers of the atmosphere, avoiding repeated intense frictional heating. This model of movement is familiar to many children and resembles the movement of a flat stone launched on the water surface. The amplitude of such jumps was to be continuously reduced until the bomber could go on normal planning for a landing using an ordinary tri-support chassis. The estimated range of the orbital bomber was 23 500 km. In fact, Zenger invented the concept of an aircraft, which anticipated the American project Space Shuttle and the Soviet project Energy-Buran.
Description of the project
Austrian scientist Eugen Zenger was born in 1905 year. In 1929, Zenger graduated from the Higher Technical School in Vienna and began his scientific work. In April, the young engineer-scientist 1931 began a series of experiments with rocket engines. During 5 years, he was able to improve (by conducting a large number of static tests) a regeneratively cooled liquid-propellant rocket engine (LRE), which was cooled by its own fuel that circulated around the combustion chamber. This engine Zenger planned to use in his bomber.
For a long time, there was an opinion that rockets should return to the lower layers of the atmosphere at a rather small angle. Almost all the calculations were based on this opinion almost until the end of the Second World War. However, Dr. Eugen Zenger, in collaboration with the mathematician Irena Bredt, who later became his wife, proposed a completely different concept. According to their theory of the rocket, it was necessary to return to the earth at an angle close to a straight line.
Bradt and Zenger prepared a relevant scientific report, which was immediately classified and in the number of 100 copies sent to the most prominent scientists in this field. A number of these reports under the heading "Long-range rocket engine bomber" were subsequently discovered by special intelligence units of the Allied forces.
First of all, Zenger was interested in the question of what would happen if the cruise missile enters the dense atmosphere (at an altitude of 40 km) too abruptly and too quickly. From the documents it becomes clear that in this case the cruise missile had to ricochet. Having “bounced off” from the dense layers of the atmosphere, the rocket again went upwards into more discharged layers. After overcoming a certain distance, it again falls into dense layers and ricochets again from them. The flight path of such an aircraft was a wavy line with a gradually decaying amplitude. According to the calculations made by Zenger and Bredt, this trajectory significantly increased the given flight of the vehicle.
Based on these calculations, Zenger designed the concept of a missile "antipode bomber", included in history under many names. The bomber was created as a supersonic stratospheric apparatus. He had a carrying fuselage, which partially served as a wing and was very licked. The wedge-shaped wings were very short. The bomber had a horizontal tail, which was located at the very end of the fuselage. The fuel was in the 2-x large tanks located on both sides of the fuselage behind the wing in the tail of the device. Similarly, but in front of the wing, oxygen tanks were placed. The power plant of the bomber consisted of a huge rocket engine that could develop thrust in the 100 T. The engine was located in the rear fuselage and worked on kerosene and liquid oxygen. In addition, the space bomber was equipped with two auxiliary rocket engines located on the sides of the main one.
The pilot was placed in a special sealed cabin in front of the fuselage. A tricycle landing gear was used to make a planning landing. In the central compartment of the fuselage there was a compartment for bombs that could hold up to 10 m. Conventional bombs. Defensive weapons on a bomber was not planned to install. It was assumed that the length of the orbital bomber will be about 28 meters, wingspan - 15 meters, dry weight of the device - 10 tons, fuel weight - 80 tons. The total weight of the vehicle, taking into account the bomb load, was reduced to 100 tons.
With such an impressive weight, a huge amount of fuel was required for takeoff. Here ordinary starting accelerators could not help. The way out proposed by Zenger was to build a straight long launch site - a monorail 3 km long. Next, the bomber was placed on a special slide, on which it was possible to put the required number of rocket engines. These jet slides were supposed to accelerate the monorail bomber in 10 seconds to the speed of 500 m / s, after which he gained altitude using his cruising engine.
According to Zenger’s theoretical calculations, the speed of a space bomber could reach 6 000 m / s, and the maximum flight altitude in 260 km. made it orbital. The bomber was moving along the trajectory described above, the ninth lower point would be in 16 800 km. from the start. After that, the aircraft could be at an altitude of 40 km for some time, and at a distance of 23 000 km from the launch site would begin to lose height and, having flown another 500 km (a total of half the distance around the Earth), would land. The landing speed of the bomber was equal to 140 km / h, which made it possible for any of the existing airports of those years to receive the rocket glider.
Flight mode options offered by Zenger
The scheme of such flights was calculated by Eugen Zenger quite accurately, although it had a number of drawbacks. For example, the antipodal point for any launch site from the territory of Germany turned out to be in the region of Australia or New Zealand, i.e. territory, which was in the hands of the allies. In addition to this, the target cities were not always located as the “flight plan” required. Any bombardment would be done from the lowest point of the trajectory, but even in this case, dispersion during the bombing would be very significant. The only city in the Western Hemisphere that, according to Zenger’s scheme, would be under the lower point of the trajectory, was New York. In this case, the bomber itself would be sent to Japan or that part of the Pacific Ocean, which was controlled by the Japanese troops and landed on the territory of the ally.
First option
The first option involved the launch of a bomber in Germany, its exit into near space and flying along a drop-down ballistic trajectory to the point of bombing and landing at the antipode point. Since these points were in the area of Australia or New Zealand, the rocket glider would inevitably be lost along with the pilot. Yes, and bombing from a very high altitude when using conventional bombs was very ineffective. In this case, an option was considered with a possible dive to the target and the subsequent ejection of the pilot. In this case, the highest accuracy of the bombing would be achieved.
The second option
According to the second variant, the space bomber had to reach the bombing point, bomb the target, then turn to 180 degrees and return to the launch site. When launching, the rocket glider had to accelerate to the speed of 6 370 m / s and reach an altitude of 91 km. In this mode of flight along a ballistic trajectory at a distance in 5 500 km. from the launch site, its speed should have dropped to 6 000 m / s, and the flight altitude should drop to 50 km. After another 950 km. bombing was carried out, after which the aircraft for 330 seconds performed a turn with a radius of 500 km. and come back. The speed of the car after exiting the U-turn would be 3 700 m / s, and the height of the flight 38 km. At a distance of 100 km. from the starting point already on the territory of Germany, the aircraft speed would be 300 m / s, and the flight altitude 20 km. The subsequent planning and landing phase was identical to a conventional aircraft.
Third Embodiment
Under this variant, Zenger considered the “wave-planning” mode, which resembled the trajectory of a stone bouncing off the water surface. When planning from space, the rocket glider had to be reflected several times from the dense boundaries of the atmosphere, significantly increasing the distance of a possible flight. In order to implement such a regime, the Zenger orbital bomber had to reach speed in 7 000 m / s and reach a flight altitude in 280 km. at a distance of 3 500 km. from the start. The first decline and "rebound from the atmosphere" at an altitude of 40 km. should have happened over a distance of 6 750 km. from the start. Ninth planning and “bounce” would occur 27 500 km away. from the start. After 3 hours 40 minutes of flight, the rocket glider, having completely rounded the Earth, was supposed to land at an airfield in Germany. The estimated point of bombing was in this mode at the next decrease to the borders of the atmosphere.
Zenger’s report ended with a recommendation to adopt a single-base scheme as the most practical, as well as listing the research that needed to be done to develop this truly “space” bomber. The project was supported by officials from the High Command of the Luftwaffe, who proposed the creation of a special secret scientific research institute in the town of Trauen. The start of construction of a test site for full-scale testing of the Silbervogel rocket engine was scheduled for June 1941. The implementation period of the program was 10 years, in fact, this is exactly what ruined the project. In the 1941 year, by launching a campaign against the USSR, Germany curtailed all programs that could not work in the coming years.
One of these trophies was the drawings of the orbital bomber, which had many names Silbervogel (German silver bird), Amerika Bomber, Orbital-Bomber, etc. Today it is known to many as the Zenger space bomber, named after its creator. This bomber was created as part of the Amerika Bomber program (a program to create ultra-long-range bombers for bombing the US), and could also be used to bomb remote areas of the USSR, in particular Siberia and the Far East.
Of particular interest is the launch of this unit. The orbital bomber was proposed to be installed on special “slides”, which were equipped with booster rocket engines. A sled with a bomber was placed on a special overpass with a monorail with a total length of 3000 meters. “Sleds” should have provided traction in 600 t. In just 11 seconds. After takeoff and reach altitude in 1,5 km. at the speed of 1850 km / h, the main rocket engine of the bomber had to be launched, which, according to the designers, would have to disperse the combat aircraft to 8 22 km / h within 100 minutes and raise it to 145 km altitude. The theoretical maximum altitude of the bomber was 280 km.
The movement of the apparatus in the stratosphere was also interesting. According to Eugen Zenger, as a result of the initial acceleration and subsequent descent under the action of gravity to the dense layers of the atmosphere (about 40 km), the device had to push off from the dense layers of the atmosphere and rise again. This model of movement allowed the device not to enter the dense layers of the atmosphere, avoiding repeated intense frictional heating. This model of movement is familiar to many children and resembles the movement of a flat stone launched on the water surface. The amplitude of such jumps was to be continuously reduced until the bomber could go on normal planning for a landing using an ordinary tri-support chassis. The estimated range of the orbital bomber was 23 500 km. In fact, Zenger invented the concept of an aircraft, which anticipated the American project Space Shuttle and the Soviet project Energy-Buran.
Description of the project
Austrian scientist Eugen Zenger was born in 1905 year. In 1929, Zenger graduated from the Higher Technical School in Vienna and began his scientific work. In April, the young engineer-scientist 1931 began a series of experiments with rocket engines. During 5 years, he was able to improve (by conducting a large number of static tests) a regeneratively cooled liquid-propellant rocket engine (LRE), which was cooled by its own fuel that circulated around the combustion chamber. This engine Zenger planned to use in his bomber.
For a long time, there was an opinion that rockets should return to the lower layers of the atmosphere at a rather small angle. Almost all the calculations were based on this opinion almost until the end of the Second World War. However, Dr. Eugen Zenger, in collaboration with the mathematician Irena Bredt, who later became his wife, proposed a completely different concept. According to their theory of the rocket, it was necessary to return to the earth at an angle close to a straight line.
Bradt and Zenger prepared a relevant scientific report, which was immediately classified and in the number of 100 copies sent to the most prominent scientists in this field. A number of these reports under the heading "Long-range rocket engine bomber" were subsequently discovered by special intelligence units of the Allied forces.
First of all, Zenger was interested in the question of what would happen if the cruise missile enters the dense atmosphere (at an altitude of 40 km) too abruptly and too quickly. From the documents it becomes clear that in this case the cruise missile had to ricochet. Having “bounced off” from the dense layers of the atmosphere, the rocket again went upwards into more discharged layers. After overcoming a certain distance, it again falls into dense layers and ricochets again from them. The flight path of such an aircraft was a wavy line with a gradually decaying amplitude. According to the calculations made by Zenger and Bredt, this trajectory significantly increased the given flight of the vehicle.
Based on these calculations, Zenger designed the concept of a missile "antipode bomber", included in history under many names. The bomber was created as a supersonic stratospheric apparatus. He had a carrying fuselage, which partially served as a wing and was very licked. The wedge-shaped wings were very short. The bomber had a horizontal tail, which was located at the very end of the fuselage. The fuel was in the 2-x large tanks located on both sides of the fuselage behind the wing in the tail of the device. Similarly, but in front of the wing, oxygen tanks were placed. The power plant of the bomber consisted of a huge rocket engine that could develop thrust in the 100 T. The engine was located in the rear fuselage and worked on kerosene and liquid oxygen. In addition, the space bomber was equipped with two auxiliary rocket engines located on the sides of the main one.
The pilot was placed in a special sealed cabin in front of the fuselage. A tricycle landing gear was used to make a planning landing. In the central compartment of the fuselage there was a compartment for bombs that could hold up to 10 m. Conventional bombs. Defensive weapons on a bomber was not planned to install. It was assumed that the length of the orbital bomber will be about 28 meters, wingspan - 15 meters, dry weight of the device - 10 tons, fuel weight - 80 tons. The total weight of the vehicle, taking into account the bomb load, was reduced to 100 tons.
With such an impressive weight, a huge amount of fuel was required for takeoff. Here ordinary starting accelerators could not help. The way out proposed by Zenger was to build a straight long launch site - a monorail 3 km long. Next, the bomber was placed on a special slide, on which it was possible to put the required number of rocket engines. These jet slides were supposed to accelerate the monorail bomber in 10 seconds to the speed of 500 m / s, after which he gained altitude using his cruising engine.
According to Zenger’s theoretical calculations, the speed of a space bomber could reach 6 000 m / s, and the maximum flight altitude in 260 km. made it orbital. The bomber was moving along the trajectory described above, the ninth lower point would be in 16 800 km. from the start. After that, the aircraft could be at an altitude of 40 km for some time, and at a distance of 23 000 km from the launch site would begin to lose height and, having flown another 500 km (a total of half the distance around the Earth), would land. The landing speed of the bomber was equal to 140 km / h, which made it possible for any of the existing airports of those years to receive the rocket glider.
Flight mode options offered by Zenger
The scheme of such flights was calculated by Eugen Zenger quite accurately, although it had a number of drawbacks. For example, the antipodal point for any launch site from the territory of Germany turned out to be in the region of Australia or New Zealand, i.e. territory, which was in the hands of the allies. In addition to this, the target cities were not always located as the “flight plan” required. Any bombardment would be done from the lowest point of the trajectory, but even in this case, dispersion during the bombing would be very significant. The only city in the Western Hemisphere that, according to Zenger’s scheme, would be under the lower point of the trajectory, was New York. In this case, the bomber itself would be sent to Japan or that part of the Pacific Ocean, which was controlled by the Japanese troops and landed on the territory of the ally.
First option
The first option involved the launch of a bomber in Germany, its exit into near space and flying along a drop-down ballistic trajectory to the point of bombing and landing at the antipode point. Since these points were in the area of Australia or New Zealand, the rocket glider would inevitably be lost along with the pilot. Yes, and bombing from a very high altitude when using conventional bombs was very ineffective. In this case, an option was considered with a possible dive to the target and the subsequent ejection of the pilot. In this case, the highest accuracy of the bombing would be achieved.
The second option
According to the second variant, the space bomber had to reach the bombing point, bomb the target, then turn to 180 degrees and return to the launch site. When launching, the rocket glider had to accelerate to the speed of 6 370 m / s and reach an altitude of 91 km. In this mode of flight along a ballistic trajectory at a distance in 5 500 km. from the launch site, its speed should have dropped to 6 000 m / s, and the flight altitude should drop to 50 km. After another 950 km. bombing was carried out, after which the aircraft for 330 seconds performed a turn with a radius of 500 km. and come back. The speed of the car after exiting the U-turn would be 3 700 m / s, and the height of the flight 38 km. At a distance of 100 km. from the starting point already on the territory of Germany, the aircraft speed would be 300 m / s, and the flight altitude 20 km. The subsequent planning and landing phase was identical to a conventional aircraft.
Third Embodiment
Under this variant, Zenger considered the “wave-planning” mode, which resembled the trajectory of a stone bouncing off the water surface. When planning from space, the rocket glider had to be reflected several times from the dense boundaries of the atmosphere, significantly increasing the distance of a possible flight. In order to implement such a regime, the Zenger orbital bomber had to reach speed in 7 000 m / s and reach a flight altitude in 280 km. at a distance of 3 500 km. from the start. The first decline and "rebound from the atmosphere" at an altitude of 40 km. should have happened over a distance of 6 750 km. from the start. Ninth planning and “bounce” would occur 27 500 km away. from the start. After 3 hours 40 minutes of flight, the rocket glider, having completely rounded the Earth, was supposed to land at an airfield in Germany. The estimated point of bombing was in this mode at the next decrease to the borders of the atmosphere.
Zenger’s report ended with a recommendation to adopt a single-base scheme as the most practical, as well as listing the research that needed to be done to develop this truly “space” bomber. The project was supported by officials from the High Command of the Luftwaffe, who proposed the creation of a special secret scientific research institute in the town of Trauen. The start of construction of a test site for full-scale testing of the Silbervogel rocket engine was scheduled for June 1941. The implementation period of the program was 10 years, in fact, this is exactly what ruined the project. In the 1941 year, by launching a campaign against the USSR, Germany curtailed all programs that could not work in the coming years.
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