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WWII story - truth or fiction?
Hi
This is slightly OT but its still probably the best place to ask: I vaguely recall a WWII story involving some very dangerous flight experiments, as far as I recall, the Nazis were using disgraced German pilots to fly some highly experimental aircraft (as the story goes – the pilots were given the choice of flying these aircraft or stand trial and be executed). I have very few details about the particular tidbit I'm interested in but maybe someone here can help fill in the (admittedly, large) gaps – there was a story about one of those aircraft where, immediately after takeoff, the pilot had to yank out the flight stick and throw it out the window. Is this just an imaginary tale or is there some truth to it? Best regards, Bater A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools - Douglas Adams |
#3
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WWII story - truth or fiction?
In message , Bater
writes Hi This is slightly OT but its still probably the best place to ask: I vaguely recall a WWII story involving some very dangerous flight experiments, as far as I recall, the Nazis were using disgraced German pilots to fly some highly experimental aircraft (as the story goes – the pilots were given the choice of flying these aircraft or stand trial and be executed). I have very few details about the particular tidbit I'm interested in but maybe someone here can help fill in the (admittedly, large) gaps – there was a story about one of those aircraft where, immediately after takeoff, the pilot had to yank out the flight stick and throw it out the window. Is this just an imaginary tale or is there some truth to it? The story came up on this newsgroup a few months ago, and it apparently refers to the BA-349 Natter. According to Pat Flannery if he didn't do this it would "tear his nuts off" - probably academic, in the circumstances. -- "Roads in space for rockets to travel....four-dimensional roads, curving with relativity" Mail to jsilverlight AT merseia.fsnet.co.uk is welcome. Or visit Jonathan's Space Site http://www.merseia.fsnet.co.uk |
#4
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WWII story - truth or fiction?
"Bater" wrote in message
om... Hi This is slightly OT but its still probably the best place to ask: I vaguely recall a WWII story involving some very dangerous flight experiments, as far as I recall, the Nazis were using disgraced German pilots to fly some highly experimental aircraft (as the story goes - the pilots were given the choice of flying these aircraft or stand trial and be executed). I have very few details about the particular tidbit I'm interested in but maybe someone here can help fill in the (admittedly, large) gaps - there was a story about one of those aircraft where, immediately after takeoff, the pilot had to yank out the flight stick and throw it out the window. Is this just an imaginary tale or is there some truth to it? Best regards, Bater There _was_ a program of tests of the V-1 "Buzz Bomb" (I think) with a cockpit and pilot replacing the warhead. Don't know much about it. -- Alan Erskine alanerskine(at)optusnet.com.au John Howard doesn't speak for this Australian in the Amrosi death sentence - Jail, not death. |
#5
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WWII story - truth or fiction?
I was reading in the bathroom when I ran across an item written by
"Alan Erskine" on Tue, 12 Aug 2003 02:21:26 +1000, which said: There _was_ a program of tests of the V-1 "Buzz Bomb" (I think) with a cockpit and pilot replacing the warhead. Don't know much about it. Hanna Reitsch reportedly test-flew that variant. --------------- Beady's Corollary to Occam's Razor: "The likeliest explanation of any phenomenon is almost always the most boring." |
#6
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WWII story - truth or fiction?
John Beaderstadt wrote:
I was reading in the bathroom when I ran across an item written by "Alan Erskine" on Tue, 12 Aug 2003 02:21:26 +1000, which said: There _was_ a program of tests of the V-1 "Buzz Bomb" (I think) with a cockpit and pilot replacing the warhead. Don't know much about it. Hanna Reitsch reportedly test-flew that variant. according to her autobiography she assuredly did - and it was not neccessary to force her to do it .. servus markus -- markus baur SCA: markus von brixlegg schluesselgasse 3/5 tel: +43 - (0)1 - 50 40 662 a-1040 wien icq: 9894381 austria/europe icbm: 48°10'32"N; 16°22'17"E "der Markus?? .... das ist der mit dem Buch..." a nice portait of myself can be found at: http://btr0xw.rz.uni-bayreuth.de/cja...rcimboldo3.htm |
#7
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WWII story - truth or fiction?
Jonathan Silverlight wrote:
= In message , Bater writes Hi This is slightly OT but its still probably the best place to ask: I vaguely recall a WWII story involving some very dangerous flight experiments, as far as I recall, the Nazis were using disgraced German= pilots to fly some highly experimental aircraft (as the story goes =E2= =80=93 the pilots were given the choice of flying these aircraft or stand trial and be executed). I have very few details about the particular tidbit I'm interested in but maybe someone here can help fill in the (admittedly, large) gaps =E2= =80=93 there was a story about one of those aircraft where, immediately after= takeoff, the pilot had to yank out the flight stick and throw it out the window. Is this just an imaginary tale or is there some truth to it? = The story came up on this newsgroup a few months ago, and it apparently= refers to the BA-349 Natter. According to Pat Flannery if he didn't do this it would "tear his nuts off" - probably academic, in the circumstances. -- Exactly. The Natter was a very short-winged rocket plane which launched vertically. Once it was at cruise height, the tip of the nose would be jettisoned, allowing the pilot to make a single, high-speed pass through a bomber formation and fire off his unguided air-to-air rockets. After the pass was over, and the flight speed had bled off, the pilot would remove the flight stick and jettison the aircraft nose (basically everything forward of his seat), and then bail out. There was a single (and fatal) powered test flight. FWIW, the Me163 was hardly more effective. It killed more test and operational pilots, and ground crew, than it did Allied bomber crews. |
#8
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WWII story - truth or fiction?
In message , Markus Baur
writes John Beaderstadt wrote: I was reading in the bathroom when I ran across an item written by "Alan Erskine" on Tue, 12 Aug 2003 02:21:26 +1000, which said: There _was_ a program of tests of the V-1 "Buzz Bomb" (I think) with cockpit and pilot replacing the warhead. Don't know much about it. Hanna Reitsch reportedly test-flew that variant. according to her autobiography she assuredly did - and it was not neccessary to force her to do it .. AFAIK she flew almost everything except the Natter, which is probably how she lived to write it. The V-1 tests were featured in the film "Operation Crossbow". -- "Roads in space for rockets to travel....four-dimensional roads, curving with relativity" Mail to jsilverlight AT merseia.fsnet.co.uk is welcome. Or visit Jonathan's Space Site http://www.merseia.fsnet.co.uk |
#9
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WWII story - truth or fiction?
"Ami A. Silberman"
Once [the Natter] was at cruise height, the tip of the nose would be jjettisoned, allowing the pilot to make a single, high-speed pass through a bomber formation and fire off his unguided air-to-air rockets There was a German manned jet powered interceptor. Would have said it was the same one but this one took off horizontally. Anyway it had a row of mortar tubes on each wing root that pointed vertically. A photo sensor pointed upward as well. The craft would fly under a formation of Allied bombers. When the photo cell detected the underside of the bomber, it fired the mortars upward. It was said to actually work. The automatic firing was necessary due to the high speed of the rocket plane relative to its overhead target. |
#10
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WWII story - truth or fiction?
http://www.germanvtol.com/bachemfolder/bachem.html
The pilot, Lothar Siebert, was not threatened with his life. Due to some minor thing, he was degraded and had the prospect of being promoted again after doing the flight. The flight happened on February 28th 1945 and is the first manned vertical rocket launch in history. There is a pretty well German documentary "Der vergessene Raketenflug" (The Forgotten Rocket Flight) about this. Avery good book about it is "Der erste bemannte Raketenstart der Welt" (The world's first manned rocket launch). http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/tg/...#more-pictures |
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