Murphy's Laws for Wunderwaffe:
1. If you are trained to fly on jet planes, you will still fight in the old Me.109.
2. If the King Tiger gets stuck in the mud, you can always remove the four outer rollers from each side to lighten the tank. The mass of the combat vehicle will drop to 67.5 tons, and this should be enough.
In 1944, the degradation of German scientific thought spiraled out of control. The inherent ambition (pride in what has been accomplished) was replaced by vulgar vanity (arrogance based on pipe dreams). “Great not because they exist, but because we dream of becoming such. And for this alone they are worthy of respect. Here is the point of view of the ubermen with the wunderwaffe, and all those who are trying to build a halo of mysterious geniuses around the fascists.
Instead of sober decisions aimed at increasing the efficiency of REAL weapons (since they decided to fight to the end), the German miracle engineers engaged in profanation and writing science fiction. Even deliberately unrealizable, absurd and non-working projects were recorded as great achievements and a breakthrough in scientific thought.
The jet Messerschmitt was a great idea. But only until a separate moment. In the design of the turbojet engine there is a place where the blades of the turbine burn in a hellish blue fire, but do not burn. And until an alloy is created that allows you to work in such conditions (and the optimal shape of the blades has also been found), the jet fighter idea would be dead. The Me.262 engines had a service life of 20 hours. But they often caught fire and exploded even earlier, during the flight. It is still unknown whether Walter Novotny was shot down, or his Messer itself was out of action. All that the pilots of his group saw was how the plane of the Luftwaffe ace rushed to the ground with a burning engine.
These were not “childhood illnesses” or periodic disasters that are common to any technique. These are the fatal shortcomings of the first jet engines, which made the Me.262 and Ar.234 an unhelpful attempt to create a new type of aircraft. And in conditions of a severe lack of resources - the madness and insanity of the leadership of the military-industrial complex of the Third Reich.
The technological level of that era did not allow the transition to jet engines. Everything else is wishful thinking.
Not to mention the weak characteristics of the Me.262 itself as a fighter that had problems with gaining speed. That is why it regularly fell prey to piston Mustangs.
And how not to mention … Two days before the first combat sortie of the Me.262, the Gloucester Meteor set off on its first combat flight on the other side of the English Channel. Having played catch-up with the V-1, the British were in no hurry to let him go to the front. Everyone understood the shortcomings of the first turbojet engines and did not even try to make the Meteor jet the basis of fighter aircraft.
Total: we immediately have two exposures of the myth of German achievements.
1. The Germans failed to build a miracle fighter. What is billed as the Me.262 wunderwaffe is a failed jet experiment.
2. The Germans were not the first, because they could not give any technological "push" in principle. The Allies at the same time had their own experimental turbojet aircraft.
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Liquid jet interceptors (Me.163 Comet) deserve a short comment. In the Soviet Union, which “was at a lower stage of development than the Aryan yubermensch,” attempts were made to create rocket gliders. Soviet aircraft with liquid-propellant rocket engines even made flights (the first was in May 1942). Throughout the year, BI-1 (close fighter-1) was able to set several speed and climb records (160 m / s). Cannons and cluster bombs were installed on it. But no one even thought to declare the achievement of combat readiness. And send an aircraft to the front, whose engine had a running time of several minutes. The prospects for such a car were not great.
An interesting experiment, nothing more. To call the rocket plane a combat aircraft and launch it in a small series (470 units) - only fascist bastards have thought of this. Which, obviously, did not care about everything, including the life of the pilot. However, the result is still the same - several sorties, a dozen downed bombers, the same number of crashed rocket planes. In short, a wunderwaffe.
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The topic of German achievements is very broad. Someone will probably remember about Wasserfall. The Germans overtook the whole world by creating the first anti-aircraft missile system.
Well, how are the results? In practice, were you able to intercept at least one target? No?
Well, then what did they create?
The main thing is that they were the first to guess. No, not the first. Around the same time (1945), the US Navy began testing its own shipborne SAM Lark ("Skylark"). Of course, given the level of development of electronics, all these were not very successful experiments. But, most importantly, again two conclusions: a) the Germans did not create anything in the end; b) conceptually, they were not even the first to think about creating an air defense system.
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You say rockets? They have been known since the days of Ancient China. The formula for jet propulsion (Newton's second law for a moving body of variable mass) was derived by Meshchersky. The first working liquid-propellant engine was built by Robert Gallard (USA, 1926)
But it never occurred to anyone, not the Chinese, not the Russians, the Americans, to massively use ballistic missiles for military purposes. Why is a rhetorical question. Before the advent of microelectronics and precision guidance systems (and this is already the mid-50s), ballistic missiles were useless. The Germans tried to shoot "V" in the squares, terrorizing the population of London and Rotterdam, but often could not even get into large European cities. In this area, the story repeated itself with combat rocket planes. German rocket scientists were able to outstrip the whole world only because no one seriously competed with them.
Realizing the complete absurdity of this type of technology, taking into account the technical level of that era. Lack of guidance systems.
As of the first half of the 40s. the only real way to increase the efficiency of combat aviation was not turbojet engines, not missiles, but the improvement of piston engines. This required a little secret - a turbocharger driven by engine exhaust gases. I repeat, do not take the useful power from the shaft, but use the exhaust gases (30% of the thermal energy emitted into the void). The only untapped resource that guaranteed a significant increase in characteristics, incl. stable work at high altitudes.
The Germans were unable to master the technology and create a serial tube supercharger. The only one who could during the war was the Yankees.
Hence the piston motors with a rated power of 2000-2400 hp.
Hellcat, Corsair, Thunderbolt, late Griffon-powered Spitfires.
If you really look for a "wunderwaffe", in other words - technical innovations that increase the effectiveness of military equipment, then in the field of military aviation you need to contact developers from overseas. The mythical "flying saucers" of the Nazis - childish babble against the background of the "Mustang" with a radar warning about the entry of the enemy into the tail. In fact, the standard AN / APS-13 system used throughout the US Air Force. It was also used as a radio altimeter in the design of the Fat Man and Malysh nuclear bombs.
Overload suits, multichannel radio stations with a voice control system (okay, googol!), Radio navigation and “friend or foe” identification systems that simplified the work of air defense and combat control, huge motors.
The B-29 bomber, which became a specialized (and, in fact, the only one in that era) carrier, suitable for the delivery of nuclear weapons. Three pressurized cabins, remote-guided turrets according to APG-15 radar, 2000-horsepower turbocharged engines.
By the way, German scientists never managed to create a nuclear bomb. It is not required to prove this, it is a fact. As for the developments, after examining the experimental model in Haigerloch (for some reason, called a reactor), it turned out that it would never have worked. The Hubermensch miscalculated by 750 kg of uranium.
Everything that was collected by the spring of 1945 was separate, scattered components and technologies (such as a “heavy water” reserve). Far from being of primary importance (and complexity) in the design of a nuclear bomb. In principle, the Germans could not have brought the matter to the final result. Suffice it to compare the German efforts with the amount of resources and funds involved in the Manhattan Project. Factories and entire cities built in the desert. Moreover, the "Chicago woodpile" (the first operating reactor) started working in 1942.
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You will say that the Reich did not create an analogue of the Superfortress, because it was not interested in the topic of strategic bombers. Oh sure! “Ural Bomber” and “America Bomber” were the wet dreams of the Germans throughout the war.
The most that the fascists managed to do was the four-engined He.177 “Grif” (over 1000 units produced). Which, in terms of radius of action and combat load, did not even reach the level of B-17. And more often it simply caught fire in flight due to the unsuccessful layout of the engine nacelles. Why - you have to ask the brilliant German engineers.
Fans of glorifying the Nazis will remind about the first guided (anti-ship) bombs, "Fritz-X" and Henschel-293. This is the scope, this is an achievement!
The response from the Allies was in the same vein. The world's first combat drone - TDR-1 Interstate carrier-based torpedo bomber. This is not just a radio-controlled plane with explosives. No, it was precisely a reusable attack drone capable of broadcasting a television image to the operator's screen (at a distance of up to 50 kilometers), and, upon completion of the mission, return to an aircraft carrier or an airfield for a new departure. The first training attack on a maneuvering destroyer - 1942 (the torpedo passed under the keel of the "Aaron Ward" EM). It is clear that he was inferior to modern UAVs, and did not have time to take part in major naval battles. But, starting from 1944, he regularly “endured” Japanese anti-aircraft batteries.
The main highlight of Interstate was a TV camera, unique for that time, created by Vladimir Zvorykin (the “father” of television).
The "Block 1" TV camera, together with a battery and a transmitter, was placed in a pencil case measuring 66x20x20 cm and weighed 44 kg in assembly. The viewing angle is 35 °. The camera had a resolution of 350 lines and the ability to transmit video images over a radio channel at a speed of 40 frames per second. The customer was the US Navy, and soon it became clear why the naval pilots needed such a system.
Here it is, the level. A real "wunderwaffe"!
German successes in the field of helicopter construction? Also by. The first was Igor Sikorsky. Army helicopters Sikorsky R-4B began to be used directly in hostilities in Burma, China and the Pacific Islands in April 1944. Unusual vehicles were used to evacuate wounded soldiers, downed pilots, supply encircled units, observe and adjust fire.
The stories about the brilliant engineers Horten brothers are worthy of the pages of the yellow press. Yes, they were literate and gifted aircraft designers, but it would be unfair to attribute to them the primacy in the development of "flying wings", from the point of view of historical facts.
The Horten brothers' most famous concept, the Ho.229 stealth jet fighter, made four test flights, repeating the fate of all the other "wunderwaffe".
“At the 45th minute, the right engine failed, and E. Ziller went for an emergency landing. Difficulties arose with the control of the aircraft, at an altitude of about 400 m the aircraft began to roll to the right. Having touched the ground, the car drove off the runway onto soft ground, turned over and caught fire, the pilot was killed. The total flight time of this machine was about two hours."
Total: an unsuccessful experiment, which is presented as a breakthrough achievement of fascist scientific thought. But that's not even the main thing. In 1945, on the drawing boards of the Northrop aircraft building company, there were already ready-made drawings of much more grandiose machines.
The German "flying wing" of the Horten brothers had a take-off weight of 7 tons.
"Flying wing" Northrop YB-35 (first flight - June 1946) had a takeoff weight of 94 tons.
Its development, Northrop YB-49 (first flight in 1947) already had 8 Allison J35 jet engines, 87 tons of takeoff weight and a speed of 800 km / h. Great-grandfather of stealth B-2.
For the most stubborn neo-fascists who claim that the idea was stolen from the Third Reich anyway, I will note that Northrop has been working on this topic since the 1930s. (experimental Northrop N1M flying wing fighter, maiden flight 1940).
Why didn't the existence of these machines become a sensation like the legends of the Ho.229? Because the YB-49s were classified. Unlike the defeated ones, the victorious countries were in no hurry to "shine" their latest developments.
Epilogue
Fascism left such a mark on history that, glorifying the great achievements of the Reich, one can inadvertently “thunder” under the article. I don’t know about rockets, but they made gazenvagens and lampshades made of human skin wonderfully well.
Undoubtedly, the German armed forces, the Wehrmacht, were a formidable adversary. But only exclusively due to better organization and high motivation (for the time being) of the personnel. Germany has never had any technological power. Individual successes in narrow areas (assault rifles, the appearance of a standard canister, etc.) cannot confirm the unconditional technological superiority of the Reich when objectively compared with the achievements of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.
