Early Developments Of Solid Rockets Fired From Aircraft

[Stargazer]

Found this interesting bit of information in an old French magazine:

"In 1916, some Le Prieur solid rockets mounted on Nieuport aircraft enabled the destruction of about 50 German balloons. These rockets were fitted to the wing masts with tubes, with the rocket's rods sliding into the tubes. The pilot could fire several at once with electrical controls."

 

[Jemiba]

Not just by Nieuports, but by Sopwith Babies/Pubs/Camels and Farmans, too, just one site about them:
http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/knights-of-the-air-le-prieur
Later these rockets were replaced by easier to aim incendiary and tracer bullets, but up to 1918, they
were used frequently. That's why I moved this thread to the "Aerospace" section. Was considering the
"Missile" section, too, but those New Year rockets would really mean to overstretch the term "missile", I think.

 

[Avimimus]

- Germany developed at least two types of rockets during the war - but they did not see service.
- There was some variation over time (e.g. the enlarged Z type, with extended range and metal blast protectors for the aircraft)'
- There were experiments with grenade tipped Le Prieur
- There are rumours of Russian experiments with air launched rockets during the war


So there is quite a bit to discuss - maybe this should go in the 'missile projects' section?

 

[Apophenia]

- There are rumours of Russian experiments with air launched rockets during the war

The Ilya Muromets was said to carry six under-wing 127mm rockets. Anyone know any details?

 

[cardonet]

There was another kind of French torpedo-rocket developed during WWI, perhaps never used.
Its description is given at : https://sites.google.com/site/fusee44mmdoccomplete/

 

[cardonet]

There was another kind of French torpedo-rocket developed during WWI, perhaps never used.
Its description is given at : https://sites.google.com/site/fusee44mmdoccomplete/

Picture of a Farman 40 with its launch tube

 

[cardonet]

After the Le Prieur air-to-air rockets, which were only modified anti-hail rockets, three other types of rockets were studied by the French Aeronautics services but were not put into service.

The first was the 44 mm diameter Sautereau du Part rocket (illustrated in my messages of March 2013). Its appearance recalls that of the nineteenth century rockets despite the absence of stabilisation stick replaced by empennages. It gave good results but was considered too heavy by the pilots.

To maintain the same efficiency with lighter rockets, improvements have been made to the following models:
- optimisation of the aerodynamic shape;
- introduction of a nozzle at the rear of the thruster.

These improvements have led to two new models:
- the 75 mm Pyrotorpile (pyrotorpedo) by Bory and Andreau;
- the 60 mm incendiary torpedo of the Aeronautics Technical Service.
The trials were successful, but the war ended before development was complete.

 

[fortrena]

Some additional info found online re. the 44 mm rocket.

A Commandant (Major in US and UK armies?) d'Ales and a Colonel Sautereau du Part began to work on war rockets no later than 1916. They initially tried to modernise the Fusée de 6, or Fusée Modèle 1866, a 60 mm war rocket adopted in 1866 or earlier (1862?). That seemingly did not work too well.

D'Ales and Sautereau du Part then began to work on a new (44 mm?) rocket. Testing came to a close when d'Ales went to the front but resumed under the supervision of younger officers, Lieutenant Émile Bosc and a Lieutenant Houx. The end result was a 44 mm rocket which weighed about 3.2 kg. As was mentioned above, even though it seemed to work reasonably well, that weapon was not adopted for service, because aviators deemed it too heavy.

 

[publiusr]

Sterling Colgate fired rockets into a tornado…but he was forced to use paper rockets, BTW.