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At https://docplayer.cz/104912146-Vyvo...doc-ing-ladislav-lehky-csc-listopad-2017.html you may find (and download) a document titled "Vývoj a výroba raket v Československu Hnací náplně" (or "Development and Production of Rockets in Czechoslovakia. Rocket propellants") by Doc.ing.Ladislav Lehký. The document apparently is a presentation to support a lecture or speech at a conference.
In the document you may find a drawing, unfortunately rather not very much clear, that shows an aircraft rocket pod and two versions of a rocket (with HE and HEAT warheads respectively). The drawing has a caption that reads "LR-55", so probably the rockets are indeed the LR-55s in 55-mm calibre.
What is the most interesting in the drawing is the pod itself. It seems it has two compartments. The front one for sixty rocket tubes (four rings for 24, 18, 12 and 6 tubes), probably those in 55-mm, with exhaust holes in the pod sides. And the rear compartment has twenty-eight tubes (three rings for 16, 9 and 3 tubes) of evidently larger calibre that those at the front. And of course the tubes don't seem to contain rockets (!), as there is a bulkhead between the two compartments in the pod. So a question arises: what is the purpose for the rear compartment tubes?
What comes to my mind is something like the Polish ZR-8 bomblet container that has eight tubes in which there are in total 120 bomblets. They are ejected rearwards when an aircraft of a helicopter flies over a target. Or something like the Platan aerlial mine laying system. In the drawing you may see that in the rear tubes there are packet-like shapes - may be bomblets or mines. Probably two objects in the lower part of the drawing are the bomblets?
Perhaps in Czechoslovakia a similar system was being developed?
Does anyone has any idea what it was? Or perhaps members from the Czech Republic or Slovakia know more on that? The pod must have been quite huge (its dimensions are not readable in the picture) and heavy (60 LR-55 rockets' weight is approx. 336 kg alone, so the loaded pod should weight much in excess of 500kg), so what aircraft was supposed to carry it?
Piotr
In the document you may find a drawing, unfortunately rather not very much clear, that shows an aircraft rocket pod and two versions of a rocket (with HE and HEAT warheads respectively). The drawing has a caption that reads "LR-55", so probably the rockets are indeed the LR-55s in 55-mm calibre.
What is the most interesting in the drawing is the pod itself. It seems it has two compartments. The front one for sixty rocket tubes (four rings for 24, 18, 12 and 6 tubes), probably those in 55-mm, with exhaust holes in the pod sides. And the rear compartment has twenty-eight tubes (three rings for 16, 9 and 3 tubes) of evidently larger calibre that those at the front. And of course the tubes don't seem to contain rockets (!), as there is a bulkhead between the two compartments in the pod. So a question arises: what is the purpose for the rear compartment tubes?
What comes to my mind is something like the Polish ZR-8 bomblet container that has eight tubes in which there are in total 120 bomblets. They are ejected rearwards when an aircraft of a helicopter flies over a target. Or something like the Platan aerlial mine laying system. In the drawing you may see that in the rear tubes there are packet-like shapes - may be bomblets or mines. Probably two objects in the lower part of the drawing are the bomblets?
Perhaps in Czechoslovakia a similar system was being developed?
Does anyone has any idea what it was? Or perhaps members from the Czech Republic or Slovakia know more on that? The pod must have been quite huge (its dimensions are not readable in the picture) and heavy (60 LR-55 rockets' weight is approx. 336 kg alone, so the loaded pod should weight much in excess of 500kg), so what aircraft was supposed to carry it?
Piotr
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