Use of Rockets

• A very small (but not the smallest) gyroscope.

• For stabilizing phones and cameras.

• Largest one are used as stabilizer in ocean liner and yachts.

Unusual weapons of WWII

Unusual weapons of WWII

• Anti-tank dogs• Deployed by the Soviet Union • It was an attempt to halt the

German advance during 1941.

Unusual weapons of WWII

• The dogs were kept hungry, and food was placed under tanks in order to teach them to look under vehicles for food.• In action, these dogs proved less

than effective.

Pigeon Guided Missile

• proposed by American psychologist B.F. Skinner. • later Project Orcon, for "organic

control"• An image of the target would be

projected in front of it, and the pigeon would be trained to recognize it.

Pigeon Guided Missile

• It would then peck on one of four levers (up, down, left or right) until the target was dead centre of the screen.

Pigeon Guided Missile

• United Kingdom used About 250,000 pigeons during World War II by all branches of the military and the Special Operations Executive.

• Flying from mainland Europe to Britain, the birds heroically delivered all sorts of messages through a gauntlet of enemy hawk patrols and potshots from soldiers.

Pigeon Carriers

• The Dickin Medal, the highest possible decoration for valor given to non-human animals, was awarded to 32 pigeons, including the United States Army Pigeon Service's G.I. Joe and the Irish pigeon Paddy.

• The head of the Air Ministry Pigeon Section reported in 1945 that pigeons could be trained to deliver small explosives or bio-weapons to precise targets. • The ideas were not taken up by the

committee,• In 1948 the UK military stated that

pigeons were of no further use.

• In November 2012, the skeleton of a World War II carrier pigeon is found in a man's chimney in England.• A red canister attached to a leg bone

holds a coded message UK agency can't crack.

Anti-Communication Falcons

They patrolled the air over the British coasts in two-hour shifts, and took down any pigeons flying off toward the mainland.

Project Habakkuk

• Suggested by Geoffrey Pyke.• He invented Pykrete as a response to the

steel shortage at the beginning of World War II.

• It is a mix of water and 14 percent sawdust in a mold, let it freeze, and you have Pykrete.

• It doesn't shatter like ice, it's strong enough to use in building projects, and strangely, it doesn't appear to melt.

Project Habakkuk

• The aircraft carrier (carrying 150 planes ) design called for a giant carrier (2000ft) long, built out of pykrete, fitted with an extensive cooling system to prevent the pykrete melting.

• The British Military eventually decided that the 10 million pound price tag for a carrier was not something they were willing to risk.

• See “myth buster” episode about “Pykrete”.

Comparative properties of materialsMechanical properties Ice Concrete Pykrete

Crushing strength [MPa] 3.447 17.240 7.584

Tensile strength [MPa] 1.103 1.724 4.826

Density [kg/m³] 910 2500 980

Acoustic Radars

• A passive device used during early years of WW2.

• Became obsolete when Radar was developed.• A variation of that was called sound mirror.

Czech one man aircraft locator

Japan’s “war tubas”

Sound Mirrors

• They are acoustic reflectors, dubbed by locals as the “listening ears.” • These structures were built to

protect harbors and coastal towns from airborne attacks.

Sound Mirrors

• Serving as an early warning system, microphones placed at the focal point of the reflector enabled it to detect sounds from flying aircraft over the English Channel, at a range of 30 kilometers.• Became obsolete with the

development of RADAR.

• How is it used today?Sound Mirrors

Also, “Kent Acoustic Mirror”

The “Who Me?” Stench Spray• This weapon stunk so bad that it

didn’t even reach deployment. • Developed by the Office of Strategic

Services, it was intended to be used by the French Resistance to demoralize German officers by spraying the content, which smelled of fecal matter.

• However, the sulfur compounds used were extremely volatile and, therefore, very difficult to control.

• As a result, the person spraying the substance often got as smelly as his unfortunate victim.

• Though this was a top-secret weapon, a recipe of ingredients to make it can now be found on the Internet.

• A recipe for a kilogram • 919 g of white mineral oil as an

inert carrier• 20 g of skatole (3-methylindole)• 20 g of n-butanoic acid• 20 g of n-pentanoic acid• 20 g of n-hexanoic acid • 1 g of pentanethiol http://www.oddee.com/item_91684.aspx#LfAyGdHDIgk0PjK7.99

Rotabuggy

• British experimental aircraft• was assembled by helicopter pioneer

Raul Hafner. Better known as the Blitz Buggy by Hafner.

• Despite looking absolutely ridiculous and almost cartoon-like, the Rotabuggy successfully went airborne, reaching gliding speeds of 45 mph in its first trial, in 1943.

• It flew at 65 mph for 10 minutes in 1944.• It was also surprisingly sturdy,

withstanding falls from 7 ft. without experiencing damage.

• Despite being an engineering success and deemed to be “highly satisfactory,” the Rotabuggy was overlooked and phased out.

• Better known as the “Dam Busters”, and used to blow up the Ruhr dams in Operation Chastise.• The bombs were issued for combat

use when torpedo attacks and aerial raids on German hydroelectric proved fruitless.

The Bouncing Bomb

• Torpedo nets protected and detonated conventional torpedoes from impact.

• Because of its bounce, it became very effective at avoiding torpedo nets, and its ability to be aimed directly at a target was seen as a huge advantage.

The Bouncing Bomb

De Lisle Commando Rifle

De Lisle Commando Rifle• Silencer.• Designed by William Godfray de Lisle

(known as Godfray),• It is was so quiet that moving the bolt to

chamber the next round makes more sound than firing a round.

• The De Lisle was only manufactured in small numbers and was exclusive to Special Forces.

Earthquake Bomb

• The bombs are built with a tough armored tip and would reach supersonic speeds when dropped from 40 thousand feet high, penetrating deep underground and detonating.

• The shock would often create a deep crater and produce a miniature earthquake capable of destroying the infrastructure of buildings and dams.

Earthquake Bomb

• Earthquake bombs were used to destroy the V2 factories, sink the German battleship Tirpitz and destroy docked U2 boats.

• It was put to use 41 times.

Earthquake Bomb

Major Martin

• “Major Martin” was a homeless man, who died of pneumonia and was then used as a weapon of deceit by the British in Operation Mincemeat.• The body was disguised as a dead

Royal Marines Officer and left to be found in the sea off the Spanish coast, with a briefcase full of top secret files chained to his wrist.

• The trick worked, and the Germans pulled thousands of troops from Sicily to defend Sardinia (which the faked documents revealed intention of the allied for invasion) . • Thousands of Allied troops owed

their lives to the deception of Major Martin.

Electromagnetic Degaussing

• The primary goal was to render the ship undetectable, and invisible, from magnetically fused undersea mines and torpedoes.

• The degaussing of a ship involved the generation of a powerful electromagnetic field onboard.

• Many people also believe the electromagnetic degaussing attempt on the USS Engstorm might have influenced the story of the famous “Philadelphia Experiment” or “Project Rainbow”

Hollywood chimes in:

Fire balloons or balloon bomb

• Weapon launched by Japan.• A hydrogen balloon with a load varying

from a 12-kilogram (26 lb) incendiary to one 15 kg (33 lb) antipersonnel bomb and four 5 kg (11 lb) incendiary devices attached.

• They were designed as a cheap weapon intended to make use of the jet stream over the Pacific Ocean and wreak havoc on Canadian and American cities, forests, and farmland.

• The balloons were relatively ineffective.• Between November 1944 and April

1945, Japan launched over 9,300 fire balloons. • About 300 balloon bombs were

found or observed in North America, killing six people and causing a small amount of damage.

Panjandrum• Burlesque title of an imaginary person in some

nonsense lines by Samuel Foote.• Name of a secret weapon.

How did it do?

German Sonic Cannon

German Sonic Cannon• During the early 1940s Axis

engineers developed a sonic cannon that could literally shake a person apart from the inside. • A methane gas combustion chamber

leading to two parabolic dishes pulse-detonated at roughly 44hz.

• This sound wave created pressures that could kill a man up to 50 yards away in 30 seconds

• At distances of 160–660 ft the sound waves could act on organ tissues and fluids by repeatedly compressing and releasing compressive resistant organs such as the kidneys, spleen, and liver.

• This infrasound, magnified by the dish reflectors, caused vertigo and nausea at 220–440 yd by vibrating the middle ear bones.

The Krummlauf (curved gun)

The Krummlauf on display at the Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung in Koblenz, Germany.

• The curved barrel included a periscope sighting device for shooting around corners from a safe position.

• Various versions were built:– "I" version for infantry use– "P" version for use in tanks – versions with 30°, 45°, 60° and 90° bends

• The bent barrel attachments had very short lifespan –approx. 300 rounds for the 30°

version–160 rounds for the 45°

• Another problem was that the bending caused the bullets to shatter and exit the barrel in multiple fragments, producing an unintended shotgun effect.

The Vortex Cannon

• The shells contained coal-dust and a slow-burning explosive in the center.

• If all circumstances were perfect and favorable, the strange device seemed to work fairly well.

• The range of the prototype was estimated to be about 100m.

• The gun was never used in practice.

Strange TanksSwimming Tank, Flame Thrower Tank, Rhinoceros

tanks, Flail Tank

Early Drone (Operation Aphrodite)

Survival Research Laboratories• http://srl.org/info.html• Located in Petaluma• Is a machine performance art group credited

for pioneering the genre of large-scale machine performance.

• organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare.

Vertical take off/landing

Death Ray• Originally a sci fi theory!• Japan weighted construction of

atomic bomb versus death ray.• Ended up choosing death ray as a

more plausible weapon.

• Called The Ku-go (Death Ray)• An Article on a death-ray device invented

by Nikola Tesla had been in The New York Times (July 11, 1934), and was picked up by the Japanese press.

• In this article, Tesla was quoted as saying that his beam would "drop an army in its tracks and bring down squadrons of airplanes 250 miles away."

• Invention of Magnetron (producing microwave) in 1940 was a giant step toward possibility of making this weapon possible.

• In 1943, work began at the Shimada City research facility on developing a high-power magnetron that, if not as capable as Tesla had boasted, could at least incapacitate an aircraft.

• By the end of the war, their effort had produced a 20-cm magnetron with a continuous output of 100 kW.

• This was far short of the desired 500 kW, which itself would likely have been insufficient for the mission.

Invasion Glider

German Jet/Rocket plane (Natter )

• Rocket powered interceptor, which was to be used in a very similar way to a manned surface-to-air missile.

• After vertical take-off the majority of the flight to the Allied bombers was to be controlled by an autopilot.

• The primary mission of the relatively untrained pilot, perhaps better called a gunner, was to aim the aircraft at its target bomber and fire its armament of rockets.

• The pilot and the fuselage containing the rocket motor would then land under separate parachutes, while the nose section was disposable.• The design was so dangerous that

the German Air Ministry rejected it.

• The designer persuaded Himmler to fund the program in secret.• The only manned vertical take-off

flight on 1 March 1945 ended in the death of the test pilot.

Early Shuttle

And the weirdest projectThe project X-ray

Project X-Ray—The Bat Bomb