Why not models of "secret weapons" of WWII

[Philip]

I just watched the History Channel concerning Secret Weapons of WWII, both Allied and Axis. I think this would be pretty neat to produce. What does the Forum think? Some of these weapons were really stunning, both airplanes and tanks. Anyway, I have listed a description below of a discussion of a floating "iceship" carrier, seriously discussed during WWII.

Carrier plan cut no ice
 
03.01.02 14:52








Wartime plans to construct an aircraft carrier out of ice left one Navy News reader bemused - but the tale is true.



Mr M Stanford wrote to us from Ramsgate saying that a friend of his had just had a holiday in Canada, where he visited Lake Patricia.



There he saw a plaque which described trials carried out during World War II intending to create an aircraft carrier out of two million tons of ice.



Mr Stanford and his mates, pilot launch crews, had a good laugh at the idea - but it was true.



Operation Habbakuk was the name of the plan by eccentric British boffin Geoffrey Pyke to construct, from a form of ice, either a 'relay floating air base' for long-range aircraft, an aircraft carrier for shorter-range anti-submarine patrols, an advance fighter base, or a cargo carrier.



A copy of the directive, as agreed by the Deputy First Sea Lord and dated April 9, 1943, is kept at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton in Somerset.



The directive states: "The ultimate function of the vessel is not specified at this stage, apart from the fact that it must be unsinkable …"



According to Pyke's cousin Magnus, the celebrity TV scientist, Geoffrey Pyke realised that with the addition of between four and fourteen per cent wood pulp as water freezes, a very hard, durable and buoyant substance is produced, which was named pycrete or pykrete in his honour.



Churchill was interested in the prospects for huge vessels made of pycrete, but Allied advances in the war - including the Normandy landings - and the relative cheapness of steel aircraft carriers, led to the scheme being abandoned.



So artificial 'berg-ships', up to 2,000ft long with 30ft thick hulls, containing hangars, accommodation, a refrigeration plant and banks of diesels to power them at less than seven knots, never saw the light of day, despite the fact that torpedoes would have caused barely a dent and they were impervious to bombs.



It was estimated that a torpedo would cause a crater a metre deep and six metres across, which could quickly be repaired using sea water, wood pulp and the cold air which would circulate throughout the berg-ship in cardboard tubes.



The prototype berg-ship - a framework of wood and pycrete blocks - floated throughout the summer on Lake Patricia, sinking later that year. Divers later found the remnants on the lake bed, and a plaque was recently unveiled to record the experiment.



Navy News would still like to hear from anyone who has further details of Operation Habbakuk, or any other far-fetched ideas which never made it past the theoretical stage.












 


 


 

[lightning2000]

Phillip,
That's something I'm in complete agreement with you on. A Natter, a Gotha, Me-163, an Arado 234 bomber, a Salamander (Volksjager), Kaiten, Oka, etc. etc. I'm sure there are dozens to work with, and a huge audience that hasn't been tapped.
Collectors would eat 'em up if they were well made. A little bit of well-written fiction behind them wouldn't hurt either...

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bigstep.com

[tmanthegreat]

I agree - there's alot of cool "secret projects" from both the Axis and Allies that would be very cool to produce. They would most likely be feasable (from a marketing standpoint) in the small scales, such as 1:72. I could only dream to have representations of some of the German secret projects in 1:18...

[aferguson]

there have been a lot of 'luft 46' model kits in both 1/72 and 1/48 featuring german drawing board aircraft (mostly fighters but a few bombers too) and even a couple of rocket and missile projects. Some pretty wild stuff. Check out www.luft46.com and you'll see what i mean.

The Kaiten suicide sub was also made in kit form..1/72 i think and resin but is probably pretty rare. German mini subs have been covered by Verlinden in 1/35 scale.

Virtually nothing is available in pre-built format that i'm aware of but i'm sure that will change in time once the more interesting fundemental types get covered. Dragon being the most likely source, especially for german luft 46 stuff.

Bring on a 1/18 Triebflugel!

[lightning2000]

Yeah, that Treibflugel was a wild looking concept. Pretty scary looking too, although I'm not sure I would've flown such a bird! Besides Luft46, there's loads of books on the subjects, many of which can still be found online at some of the major bookselling sites.

In the same vein, there were a couple of strange inter-war aircraft that saw the light of day (I forget the name of the precursor to the B-17) that might make for an interesting replica. Frankly, unless the next Spitfire is being offered at 1:1 scale, I'm a little nonplussed...

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bigstep.com

[tmanthegreat]

there have been a lot of 'luft 46' model kits in both 1/72 and 1/48 featuring german drawing board aircraft (mostly fighters but a few bombers too) and even a couple of rocket and missile projects. Some pretty wild stuff.

Yeah! I built a Revell 1:72 scale version of the conceptual Arado AE.E-555 long range jet bomber. It was one of the last kits I built and one of my personal favorites. The box had a cool picture of three AR-555s bombing New York. Here's that picture and a schematic of the plane:





Would love one of these in 1:72 diecast, with a Lockheed P-80 to intercept it!

[aferguson]

that's a cool plane but i never understood how it was supposed to reach the US. It wasnt really all that big, so not a great deal of fuel could be carried and jet engines consumed fuel a lot faster than piston engines.

Even a one way mission to the US would have been tough, let alone flying home again. Ferry command used to have a rough go ferrying B-17's across the Atlantic and they were stripped, had extra fuel on board, no bombs of course AND were just flying one way.

However, cool lookng plane for sure.

[lightning2000]

Hi,
Nice looking aircraft but strange nonetheless. I never saw a jet engine cluster like that and I would imagine the heat build-up generated over the upper rear portion of the fuselage would be incredible. Are these supposed to be using ram-jet technology (like the V-1) or are these standard Jumo engines like the type used on the Me-262s?

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bigstep.com

[tmanthegreat]

According to the specs I have for the plane - coming from the book Luftwaffe Secret Projects: Strategic Bombers 1939-1945 by Dieter Herwig & Heinz Rode (of which the said plane is featured on the cover) - the engines were BMW 109-018 turbojets, rated at 5069lb static thrust. The plane was supposed to have a maximum range from 3353mi (internal) to 4657mi (with external tanks). The projected bomb load was rated 8816lb and the speed rated from 543 to 571mph. It was supposed to reach an altitude of nearly 50,000ft, putting it well beyond the range of most US interceptors and air defenses of the time. The design (with the aircraft being mostly a giant wing) was supposed to allow it to carry enough fuel for its range.

Stuff like this would have been interesting to see in action - thankfully the Germans didn't get that far!

[MG-42]

I'd like to see the proto-type "Flying Wing" BOMBER,.. by the German, Horten Bros.,which directly influenced our "Stealth" projects.

[Hoverbug]

I'd like to see the proto-type "Flying Wing" BOMBER,.. by the German, Horten Bros.,which directly influenced our "Stealth" projects.

Actually Jack Northrop almost entirely ignored the Horten brothers' developments. The massive XB-35 flying wing bomber was under development way before the Horten IX even existed. The Germans may have been ahead in the design of wacky concepts, but most of them were literally the work of desperate engineers trying to come up with something so fantastically promising that they would not be drafted to be Soviet cannon fodder. Even if most of these designs had been viable (which they weren't owing to an absurd procurement process), their development and production would have an enormous dead weight on vital war material.