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Fighter-bomber

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A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft . It differs from bomber and attack aircraft primarily in its origins, as a fighter that has been adapted into other roles, whereas bombers and attack aircraft are developed specifically for bombing and attack roles.

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147-433: Although still used, the term fighter-bomber has less significance since the introduction of rockets and guided missiles into aerial warfare . Modern aircraft with similar duties are now typically called multirole combat aircraft or strike fighters . Prior to World War II , general limitations in available engine and aeronautical technology required that each proposed military aircraft have its design tailored to

294-459: A rocket if it is unguided. Anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles use rocket engines to engage targets at high speed at a range of several miles, while intercontinental ballistic missiles can be used to deliver multiple nuclear warheads from thousands of miles, and anti-ballistic missiles try to stop them. Rockets have also been tested for reconnaissance , such as the Ping-Pong rocket , which

441-583: A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress or 10 five-inch (127 mm) High Velocity Aircraft Rockets . The first pilots to fly the Thunderbolt from England were Americans who had been flying Spitfires in the RAF before the U.S. joined the war. They were not impressed initially; the Thunderbolt lost out to the more nimble Spitfire so consistently in mock dogfights that these encounters were eventually banned. But by November 25, 1943 Thunderbolts had found their true niche, attacking

588-420: A multi-stage rocket , and also pioneered the concept of a rocket launch pad (a rocket standing upright against a tall building before launch having been slowly rolled into place) and the rocket-launch countdown clock. The Guardian film critic Stephen Armstrong states Lang "created the rocket industry". Lang was inspired by the 1923 book The Rocket into Interplanetary Space by Hermann Oberth, who became

735-565: A nozzle . They may also have one or more rocket engines , directional stabilization device(s) (such as fins , vernier engines or engine gimbals for thrust vectoring , gyroscopes ) and a structure (typically monocoque ) to hold these components together. Rockets intended for high speed atmospheric use also have an aerodynamic fairing such as a nose cone , which usually holds the payload. As well as these components, rockets can have any number of other components, such as wings ( rocketplanes ), parachutes , wheels ( rocket cars ), even, in

882-399: A rocket engine in the form of a fluid jet to produce thrust . For chemical rockets often the propellants are a fuel such as liquid hydrogen or kerosene burned with an oxidizer such as liquid oxygen or nitric acid to produce large volumes of very hot gas. The oxidiser is either kept separate and mixed in the combustion chamber, or comes premixed, as with solid rockets. Sometimes

1029-475: A vehicle may usefully employ for propulsion, such as in space. In these circumstances, it is necessary to carry all the propellant to be used. However, they are also useful in other situations: Some military weapons use rockets to propel warheads to their targets. A rocket and its payload together are generally referred to as a missile when the weapon has a guidance system (not all missiles use rocket engines, some use other engines such as jets ) or as

1176-527: A Luftwaffe airfield at Saint-Omer near Calais, France. On October 13, 1944, a Thunderbolt from 9th Air Force damaged the German Torpedoboot Ausland 38 (formerly the Italian 750 ton torpedo boat Spada) so badly near Trieste with gunfire alone that the ship was scuttled. The Vought F4U Corsair was built around the same Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine as the Thunderbolt, but for

1323-599: A Red Cross flag painted on at least one funnel. The previous day the Captain of the Cap Arcona refused to take any more inmates on board. On return to shore in longboats they were gunned down by Hitler Jugend , SS Guards and German Marines . Of an estimated 14,500 victims in the area two days earlier only 1,450 survived. The Hawker Tempest was a development of the Typhoon using the thin wing with an aerofoil developed by NACA and

1470-512: A Sopwith Camel in the novels by W. E. Johns during Biggles's spell in 266 Squadron during the First World War. The first collection of Biggles stories, titled The Camels are Coming , was published in 1932. The first two collections of stories (broken into three books in Australia) were all true stories or events, lightly fictionalised—some of them are identifiable in official war records, e.g.,

1617-663: A Soviet boycott of the United Nations , a vote was carried without Soviet veto, to intervene in support of the South. Most readily available were U.S. and British Commonwealth forces occupying Japan and the Pacific fleets. The first arrivals were fighter-bombers, which helped to repulse the Northern attack on the vital port of Pusan , the last small territory held by the South. Some strategists felt that air and battleship strikes alone could halt

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1764-756: A body of theory that has provided the foundation for subsequent spaceflight development. The British Royal Flying Corps designed a guided rocket during World War I . Archibald Low stated "...in 1917 the Experimental Works designed an electrically steered rocket… Rocket experiments were conducted under my own patents with the help of Cdr. Brock ." The patent "Improvements in Rockets" was raised in July 1918 but not published until February 1923 for security reasons. Firing and guidance controls could be either wire or wireless. The propulsion and guidance rocket eflux emerged from

1911-415: A cardboard tube filled with black powder , but to make an efficient, accurate rocket or missile involves overcoming a number of difficult problems. The main difficulties include cooling the combustion chamber, pumping the fuel (in the case of a liquid fuel), and controlling and correcting the direction of motion. Rockets consist of a propellant , a place to put propellant (such as a propellant tank ), and

2058-432: A chemical reaction is initiated between the fuel and the oxidizer in the combustion chamber, and the resultant hot gases accelerate out of a rocket engine nozzle (or nozzles ) at the rearward-facing end of the rocket. The acceleration of these gases through the engine exerts force ("thrust") on the combustion chamber and nozzle, propelling the vehicle (according to Newton's Third Law ). This actually happens because

2205-494: A conventional design for its era, with a wire-braced wooden box-girder fuselage structure, an aluminium engine cowling, plywood panels around the cockpit, and a fabric-covered fuselage, wings and tail. While possessing some clear similarities with the Pup, it had a noticeably bulkier fuselage. For the first time on an operational British-designed fighter, two 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Vickers machine guns were mounted directly in front of

2352-571: A crew of three, and its payload was just 1,200 lb (540 kg) of bombs. The Blenheim suffered disastrous losses over France in 1939 when it encountered Messerschmitt Bf 109s , and light bombers were quickly withdrawn. In contrast, the Vought F4U Corsair fighter —which entered service in December 1942—had in common with its eventual U.S. Navy stablemate, the Grumman F6F Hellcat and

2499-547: A dangerous spin . RFC pilots used to joke that it offered the choice between "a wooden cross , the Red Cross , or a Victoria Cross ". A two-seat trainer version was later built to ease the transition process: in his Recollections of an Airman , Lieutenant Colonel L. A. Strange , who served with the central flying school, wrote: "In spite of the care we took, Camels continually spun down out of control when flew [ sic ] by pupils on their first solos. At length, with

2646-499: A decomposing monopropellant ) that emit a hot exhaust gas . A rocket engine can use gas propellants, solid propellant , liquid propellant , or a hybrid mixture of both solid and liquid . Some rockets use heat or pressure that is supplied from a source other than the chemical reaction of propellant(s), such as steam rockets , solar thermal rockets , nuclear thermal rocket engines or simple pressurized rockets such as water rocket or cold gas thrusters . With combustive propellants

2793-616: A dive bomber almost as fast as the Mustang itself. By April 1943 USAAF Apaches were in Morocco supporting Operation Torch , and they continued bombing trains and gun emplacements northwards through Italy. When Soviet-backed North Korea attacked South Korea on June 25, 1950, their forces quickly routed the South Korean army which lacked tanks, anti-tank and heavy artillery. Its Air Force had 22 planes, none of which were fighters, or jets. During

2940-526: A failed launch. A successful escape of a crewed capsule occurred when Soyuz T-10 , on a mission to the Salyut 7 space station , exploded on the pad. Solid rocket propelled ejection seats are used in many military aircraft to propel crew away to safety from a vehicle when flight control is lost. A model rocket is a small rocket designed to reach low altitudes (e.g., 100–500 m (330–1,640 ft) for 30 g (1.1 oz) model) and be recovered by

3087-600: A fighter bomber, where one tried skip-bombing a 1,000 lb (450 kg) bomb through the door of Field Marshal Günther von Kluge 's OB West HQ. A Lightning squadron also killed Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto over Bougainville in the Pacific acting on an Ultra intercept. The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was a larger, evolutionary development of the P-43/P-44 fighter undertaken after the United States Army Air Forces observed Messerschmitt Bf 109s performing in

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3234-435: A fixed location on the ground, but would also be possible from an aircraft or ship. Rocket launch technologies include the entire set of systems needed to successfully launch a vehicle, not just the vehicle itself, but also the firing control systems , mission control center , launch pad , ground stations , and tracking stations needed for a successful launch or recovery or both. These are often collectively referred to as

3381-791: A flag stuck into a shingle beach. Both WW1 fighter bombers were used with novice and experienced pilots. The best results were achieved with a vertical dive into the wind using the Aldis Sight to align the aircraft. But they were not considered good enough to justify the expected casualty rate. When war broke out in Europe, Western Allied Air Forces employed light twin-engined bombers in the tactical role for low-level attacks. These were found to be extremely vulnerable both to ground fire and to single-engine fighters. The German and Japanese Air Forces had chosen dive bombers which were similarly vulnerable. The Ilyushin Il-2

3528-557: A high pressure combustion chamber . These nozzles turn the hot gas from the combustion chamber into a cooler, hypersonic , highly directed jet of gas, more than doubling the thrust and raising the engine efficiency from 2% to 64%. His use of liquid propellants instead of gunpowder greatly lowered the weight and increased the effectiveness of rockets. In 1921, the Soviet research and development laboratory Gas Dynamics Laboratory began developing solid-propellant rockets , which resulted in

3675-464: A larger airframe than the nimble Hurricane. At the prototype stage, there were problems with the new engines and stability of the aircraft itself, which led the Minister of Aircraft Production , Lord Beaverbrook to decree that production must focus on Spitfires and Hurricanes. The Typhoon disappointed as a fighter, especially at altitude but found its true niche as a fighter bomber from September 1942. It

3822-780: A last-ditch attempt to destroy Allied planes on the ground in support of the Battle of the Bulge . Allied fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber losses were downplayed, at the time. Seventeen airfields were targeted, of which seven lost many aircraft. The surprise was complete as the few Ultra intercepts had not been understood. At the worst hit, the Canadian base at Eindhoven , 26 Typhoons and 6 Spitfires were destroyed and another 30 Typhoons damaged. In total, 305 aircraft, mostly fighters, and fighter-bombers were destroyed and another 190 damaged. The Luftwaffe lost 143 pilots killed, 71 captured and 20 wounded, making

3969-475: A later version could carry eight rockets or 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) of bombs. The massive, powerful 18-cylinder Double Wasp engine weighed almost a ton—half as much again as the V12 Rolls-Royce Merlin and twice as much as the 9-cylinder Bristol Mercury that powered some heavy fighters . Increased engine power meant that many existing fighter designs could carry useful bomb loads, and adapt to

4116-478: A more advantageous position than had been possible when using shore bases alone. During the summer of 1918, a single 2F.1 Camel ( N6814 ) participated in a series of trials as a parasite fighter . The aircraft used Airship R23 as a mothership . By mid-1918, the Camel had become obsolescent as a day fighter as its climb rate, level speed and performance at altitudes over 12,000 ft (3,650 m) were outclassed by

4263-524: A more powerful version of the Napier Sabre engine, giving a top speed of 432 miles per hour (695 km/h). At a low level, it was faster than any other Allied or German aircraft, but slower than the Spitfire above 22,000 ft (6,700 m). Fitted with four 20mm cannon it was a formidable fighter, respected even by Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter pilots as their most dangerous opponent. At its debut over

4410-491: A number of 2F.1 Camels that were suitable for launching from platforms mounted on the turrets of major warships as well as from some of the earliest aircraft carriers to be built, eg HMS Furious . Furthermore, the Camel could be deployed from aircraft lighters , which were specially modified barges; these had to be towed fast enough that a Camel could successfully take off. The aircraft lighters served as means of launching interception sorties against incoming enemy air raids from

4557-543: A pointed tip traveling at high speeds, model rocketry historically has proven to be a very safe hobby and has been credited as a significant source of inspiration for children who eventually become scientists and engineers . Hobbyists build and fly a wide variety of model rockets. Many companies produce model rocket kits and parts but due to their inherent simplicity some hobbyists have been known to make rockets out of almost anything. Rockets are also used in some types of consumer and professional fireworks . A water rocket

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4704-614: A rail at extremely high speed. The world record for this is Mach 8.5. Larger rockets are normally launched from a launch pad that provides stable support until a few seconds after ignition. Due to their high exhaust velocity—2,500 to 4,500 m/s (9,000 to 16,200 km/h; 5,600 to 10,100 mph)—rockets are particularly useful when very high speeds are required, such as orbital speed at approximately 7,800 m/s (28,000 km/h; 17,000 mph). Spacecraft delivered into orbital trajectories become artificial satellites , which are used for many commercial purposes. Indeed, rockets remain

4851-663: A reference to 1264, recording that the "ground-rat", a type of firework , had frightened the Empress-Mother Gongsheng at a feast held in her honor by her son the Emperor Lizong . Subsequently, rockets are included in the military treatise Huolongjing , also known as the Fire Drake Manual, written by the Chinese artillery officer Jiao Yu in the mid-14th century. This text mentions the first known multistage rocket ,

4998-504: A sense, a person ( rocket belt ). Vehicles frequently possess navigation systems and guidance systems that typically use satellite navigation and inertial navigation systems . Rocket engines employ the principle of jet propulsion . The rocket engines powering rockets come in a great variety of different types; a comprehensive list can be found in the main article, Rocket engine . Most current rockets are chemically powered rockets (usually internal combustion engines , but some employ

5145-805: A single night's operation over England. IN July 1918 seven Sopwith Camels destroyed by bombing their hangars two German Zeppelins in the Tondern Raid ; they were flown off HMS Furious , and then landed in Denmark or ditched in the sea to be picked up. The Camel night fighter was also operated by 151 Squadron to intercept German night bombers operating over the Western Front. These aircraft were not only deployed defensively, but often carried out night intruder missions against German airstrips. After five months of operations, 151 Squadron had claimed responsibility for shooting down 26 German aircraft. The RNAS operated

5292-450: A solid combination of fuel with oxidizer ( solid fuel ), or solid fuel with liquid or gaseous oxidizer ( hybrid propellant system ). Chemical rockets store a large amount of energy in an easily released form, and can be very dangerous. However, careful design, testing, construction and use minimizes risks. In China, gunpowder -powered rockets evolved in medieval China under the Song dynasty by

5439-482: A specific prescribed role. Engine power grew dramatically during the early period of the war, roughly doubling between 1939 and 1943. The Bristol Blenheim , a typical light bomber of the opening stages of the war, was originally designed in 1934 as a fast civil transport to meet a challenge by Lord Rothermere , owner of the Daily Mail . It had two Bristol Mercury XV radial engines of 920 hp (690 kW) each,

5586-512: A stable aircraft like the Typhoon. But soft targets were simpler. When the 51st Highland Division moved to block German panzers reaching Antwerp in the Battle of the Bulge Tommy Macpherson saw a half-track full of SS soldiers. All were uninjured, powerful men over 6 ft (180 cm) tall. All were dead, killed by the air blast from a Typhoon rocket. The Bristol Beaufighter was a long-range twin-engine heavy fighter derived from

5733-533: A target tug role, where it could match the speed of the German bombers whilst towing a drone. In 1934, the British Air Ministry called for a carrier aircraft that could combine the roles of the dive bomber and fighter, to save limited space on small carriers. The Blackburn Skua was not expected to encounter land-based fighters but was to intercept long-range bombers attacking the fleet and also to sink ships. As

5880-626: A two-seater, it could not fight the Messerschmitt Bf 109 on equal terms. But the second seat carried a radio operator with a homing device that could find the carrier even when it had moved, in foul North Sea weather. It achieved one of the first kills of the war, when three from HMS Ark Royal downed a German Dornier Do 18 flying boat over the North Sea. On April 10, 1940, 16 Skuas operating from RNAS Hatston in Orkney under Commander William Lucy sank

6027-700: A variety of means. According to the United States National Association of Rocketry (nar) Safety Code, model rockets are constructed of paper, wood, plastic and other lightweight materials. The code also provides guidelines for motor use, launch site selection, launch methods, launcher placement, recovery system design and deployment and more. Since the early 1960s, a copy of the Model Rocket Safety Code has been provided with most model rocket kits and motors. Despite its inherent association with extremely flammable substances and objects with

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6174-421: A very fast radial engine fighter over France. First thought to be captured French Curtiss 75 Mohawks , they turned out to be Focke-Wulf Fw 190s , slightly faster and more heavily armed than the current Spitfire V. Kurt Tank had designed the aircraft when the Spitfire and Bf 109 were the fastest fighters flying; he called them racehorses, fast but fragile. As a former World War I cavalryman, Tank chose to design

6321-443: A warhorse. With a BMW 801 radial engine , wide-set undercarriage, and two 20mm cannons as well as machine guns it became a better fighter-bomber than either of the pure fighters. By mid-1942, the first of these "Jagdbombers" (literally "fighter" or "hunter" bomber, known for short as "Jabos") was operating over Kent . On October 31, 60 Fw 190s bombed Canterbury with only one aircraft lost, killing 32 civilians and injuring 116, in

6468-407: Is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air . A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely from propellant carried within the vehicle; therefore a rocket can fly in the vacuum of space. Rockets work more efficiently in a vacuum and incur a loss of thrust due to the opposing pressure of

6615-516: Is a heavily armoured two-seat single-engine ground-attack aircraft. It first flew a month later although few had reached the Soviet Air Force in time for Operation Barbarossa . Naval forces chose both torpedo and dive bombers. None of these could be considered as fighter bombers as they could not combat fighters. During the Battle of Britain , the Luftwaffe conducted fighter-bomber attacks on

6762-416: Is a type of model rocket using water as its reaction mass. The pressure vessel (the engine of the rocket) is usually a used plastic soft drink bottle. The water is forced out by a pressurized gas, typically compressed air. It is an example of Newton's third law of motion. The scale of amateur rocketry can range from a small rocket launched in one's own backyard to a rocket that reached space. Amateur rocketry

6909-406: Is less necessary, a pressurised fluid is used as propellant that simply escapes the spacecraft through a propelling nozzle. The first liquid-fuel rocket , constructed by Robert H. Goddard , differed significantly from modern rockets. The rocket engine was at the top and the fuel tank at the bottom of the rocket, based on Goddard's belief that the rocket would achieve stability by "hanging" from

7056-551: Is split into three categories according to total engine impulse : low-power, mid-power, and high-power . Hydrogen peroxide rockets are used to power jet packs , and have been used to power cars and a rocket car holds the all time (albeit unofficial) drag racing record. Corpulent Stump is the most powerful non-commercial rocket ever launched on an Aerotech engine in the United Kingdom. Launches for orbital spaceflights , or into interplanetary space , are usually from

7203-465: Is the highest attributed to a single aircraft during World War I. An important role for the Camel was home defence. The RNAS flew Camels from Eastchurch and Manston airfields against daylight raids by German bombers, including Gothas , from July 1917. The public outcry against the night raids and the poor response of London's defences resulted in the RFC deciding to divert Camels that had been heading to

7350-496: The 'fire-dragon issuing from the water' (Huo long chu shui), thought to have been used by the Chinese navy. Medieval and early modern rockets were used militarily as incendiary weapons in sieges . Between 1270 and 1280, Hasan al-Rammah wrote al-furusiyyah wa al-manasib al-harbiyya ( The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices ), which included 107 gunpowder recipes, 22 of them for rockets. In Europe, Roger Bacon mentioned firecrackers made in various parts of

7497-567: The Albatros D.III and D.V and offered heavier armament and better performance than the Pup and Triplane. Together with the S.E.5a and the SPAD S.XIII , it helped to re-establish the Allied aerial superiority for a time. While flying a Sopwith Camel with the serial number B6313, the Canadian ace Billy Barker was credited with shooting down 46 aircraft. The total aircraft credited to Barker while flying B6313

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7644-565: The Albatros D.III , the Camel was developed to replace it, as well as the Nieuport 17s that had been purchased from the French as an interim measure. It was recognised that the new fighter needed to be faster and have a heavier armament. The design effort to produce this successor, initially designated as the Sopwith F.1 , was headed by Sopwith's chief designer, Herbert Smith . Early in its development,

7791-413: The Battle of Britain . It was a massive aircraft built around the powerful Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engine and weighed up to eight tons with ordnance. The P-47 was twice as heavy and had four times the fuselage size of a Spitfire. Armed with eight .50 in (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns it could outshoot any enemy fighter, and as a fighter-bomber, it could carry half the bomb load of

7938-634: The Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber but with the 1,600 hp (1,200 kW) Bristol Hercules radial engine to give it a top speed 50 mph (80 km/h) faster. By late 1942 the Beaufighter was also capable of carrying torpedoes or rockets. The main user was RAF Coastal Command although it was also used in the Royal Australian Air Force with some aircraft assembled in Australia and by

8085-581: The F.1 . Other variants included the 2F.1 Ship's Camel , which operated from aircraft carriers ; the Comic night fighter variant; and the T.F.1 , a " trench fighter " armoured for attacks on heavily defended ground targets. A two-seat variant served as a trainer . The last Camels were withdrawn from RAF service in January 1920. When it became clear the Sopwith Pup was no match for the newer German fighters such as

8232-614: The German cruiser Königsberg which was tied to a mole in Bergen harbour. The Germans recorded five hits or near misses and as the ship started to sink, electric power failed, dooming the ship. The German cruiser Köln had departed during the night. With the failing of the Hawker Henley and the gradual fading of the Hawker Hurricane 's performance compared to the latest German fighters, it

8379-600: The Gestapo HQ in Oslo was attacked by four de Havilland Mosquitoes , which had flown over the North Sea below 100 ft (30 m) by dead reckoning navigation from RAF Leuchars , Scotland, carrying four 500 lb (230 kg) bombs each. The next day the RAF unveiled its new fast bomber. On December 31, 1944, the same aircraft was used against the same target, this time from RAF Peterhead in Scotland, flying high and diving onto

8526-551: The Italian rocchetta , meaning "bobbin" or "little spindle", given due to the similarity in shape to the bobbin or spool used to hold the thread from a spinning wheel. Leonhard Fronsperger and Conrad Haas adopted the Italian term into German in the mid-16th century; "rocket" appears in English by the early 17th century. Artis Magnae Artilleriae pars prima , an important early modern work on rocket artillery , by Casimir Siemienowicz ,

8673-603: The Normandy Beaches on D-Day +2, Tempests shot down three German fighters, without loss. Tempests supported the ambitious attempt to capture the bridge at Arnhem in Operation Market Garden in mid-September 1944. David C. Fairbanks , an American who joined the Royal Canadian Air Force was the top Tempest ace with 12 victories including an Arado Ar 234 jet bomber. General Henry H. Arnold , Chief of

8820-678: The North American F-100 Super Sabre and the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II , each of which was widely used during the Vietnam War . An example of a modern purpose-designed fighter bomber is the Sukhoi Su-34 . Rocket A rocket (from Italian : rocchetto , lit.   ''bobbin/spool'', and so named for its shape)

8967-667: The North American F-86 Sabre was rushed to Korea to combat the MiG-15s. There is much debate as to which was the better fighter. Recent research suggests a 13-10 advantage to the Sabre against Russian pilots, but the US pilots were mostly WWII veterans whilst the Russians were often “volunteers” with only a few hours aloft. The Australians converted from Mustangs to Gloster Meteor fighter-bombers,

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9114-573: The Royal Australian Air Force soon also flew across from Japan. Vought F4U Corsairs and Hawker Sea Furys from U.S., British and Australian carriers in the Yellow Sea and later from Korean airfields, also attacked the Pusan perimeter. The Sea Fury, a development of the Hawker Tempest had a Bristol Centaurus engine of 2,480 hp (1,850 kW) giving a 485 mph (781 km/h) top speed, one of

9261-639: The Royal Naval Air Service , which was stationed near Dunkirk , France; this was the first squadron to operate the type. Its first combat flight and reportedly its first victory claim were both made on 4 July 1917. By the end of July, the Camel also equipped No. 3 and No. 9 Naval Squadrons; and it had become operational with No. 70 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps . By February 1918, 13 squadrons had Camels as their primary equipment. The Camel proved in service to have better manoeuvrability than

9408-430: The Saturn V and Soyuz , have launch escape systems . This is a small, usually solid rocket that is capable of pulling the crewed capsule away from the main vehicle towards safety at a moments notice. These types of systems have been operated several times, both in testing and in flight, and operated correctly each time. This was the case when the Safety Assurance System (Soviet nomenclature) successfully pulled away

9555-467: The Sopwith Pup and became one of the best-known fighter aircraft of the Great War. Pilots flying Camels were credited with downing 1,294 enemy aircraft, more than any other Allied fighter of the conflict. Towards the end of the war, Camels lost their edge as fighters and were also used as a ground-attack aircraft . The Camel was powered by a single rotary engine and was armed with twin synchronized 0.303 in (7.70 mm) Vickers machine guns . It

9702-427: The U.S. Navy . Difficulties with carrier landings meant that the first aircraft were used by the United States Marine Corps from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal from February 12, 1943. In its first combat action, the following day over Kahili airfield two Corsairs and eight other aircraft were lost when attacked by 50 Mitsubishi A6M Zeros . This became known as the St Valentine's Day massacre. Despite this initiation

9849-443: The USAAF . Over 30 Beaufighters flying from RAF Dallachy in Scotland from Australian, British, Canadian, and New Zealand squadrons attacked the German destroyer Z33 sheltering in Førde Fjord Norway. They were escorted by only 10 to 12 North American P-51 Mustangs . German destroyers escorted convoys of Swedish iron ore, which in winter were forced to creep along the Atlantic Coast by night, hiding deep inside fjords by day. Z33

9996-403: The United States Army Air Forces , urged the adoption of the Mosquito by the U.S. but was overruled by those who felt that the as yet untried Lockheed P-38 Lightning also twin-engined, could fulfill the same role. Although Lightning got its name from the RAF, the British eventually rejected it. Too slow and cumbersome to match Bf 109s as an escort fighter over Germany, it did fly over Normandy as

10143-412: The " ground segment ". Orbital launch vehicles commonly take off vertically, and then begin to progressively lean over, usually following a gravity turn trajectory. Sopwith Camel The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to

10290-406: The 13th century. They also developed an early form of multiple rocket launcher during this time. The Mongols adopted Chinese rocket technology and the invention spread via the Mongol invasions to the Middle East and to Europe in the mid-13th century. According to Joseph Needham, the Song navy used rockets in a military exercise dated to 1245. Internal-combustion rocket propulsion is mentioned in

10437-449: The 1950s and 1960s, as new jet engines dramatically improved the power of even the smallest fighter designs. Many aircraft initially designed as fighters or interceptors found themselves in the fighter-bomber role at some point in their career. Notable among these is the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter , first designed as a high-performance day fighter and then adapted to the nuclear strike role for European use. Other U.S. examples include

10584-614: The Camel and the S.E.5, which were the two main types deployed to the Caspian Sea area to bomb Bolshevik bases and to provide aerial support to the Royal Navy warships present, Allied control of the Caspian region had been achieved by May 1919. Starting in March 1919, direct support was also provided for White Russian forces , carrying out reconnaissance, ground attack, and escort operations. During

10731-561: The Camel one of the best-remembered Allied aircraft of the First World War . Aviation author Robert Jackson notes that: "in the hands of a novice it displayed vicious characteristics that could make it a killer; but under the firm touch of a skilled pilot, who knew how to turn its vices to his own advantage, it was one of the most superb fighting machines ever built". In June 1917, the Sopwith Camel entered service with No. 4 Squadron of

10878-451: The Camel proved capable of being flown at night as well. Accordingly, those aircraft assigned to home defence squadrons were quickly modified with navigation lights in order that they could serve as night fighters. A smaller number of Camels were more extensively reconfigured; on these aircraft, the Vickers machine guns were replaced by overwing Lewis guns and the cockpit was moved rearwards so

11025-449: The Camel was simply referred to as the "Big Pup". A metal fairing over the gun breeches, intended to protect the guns from freezing at altitude, created a "hump" that led pilots to call the aircraft "Camel", although this name was never used officially. On 22 December 1916, the prototype Camel was first flown by Harry Hawker at Brooklands , Weybridge , Surrey ; it was powered by a 110-horsepower (82 kW) Clerget 9Z. In May 1917,

11172-519: The Camel's replacement, the Sopwith Snipe , resulted in the Camel remaining in service in this capacity until well after the signing of the Armistice . During the German spring offensive of March 1918, squadrons of Camels participated in the defence of the Allied lines, harassing the advancing German Army from the skies. Jackson observed that "some of the most intense air operations took place" during

11319-556: The Congreve rocket in 1865. William Leitch first proposed the concept of using rockets to enable human spaceflight in 1861. Leitch's rocket spaceflight description was first provided in his 1861 essay "A Journey Through Space", which was later published in his book God's Glory in the Heavens (1862). Konstantin Tsiolkovsky later (in 1903) also conceived this idea, and extensively developed

11466-716: The Corsair soon proved to be an effective fighter bomber, mostly flown by the Marine Corps, but also by the United States Navy , Fleet Air Arm and Royal New Zealand Air Force in the Pacific theater. When the British Purchasing Commission invited James H. Kindelberger , President of North American Aviation , to assemble the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk in an underutilized plant, he promised a better fighter on

11613-491: The French and Belgian coasts, targeting mostly oil and gas works. Losses were heavy, often more than the numbers of enemy fighters destroyed. By May 1942 Hurricane IICs with 40-imperial-gallon (180 L) drop tanks were intruding at night over France. On the night of May 4–5, Czech pilot Karel Kuttelwascher flying from RAF Tangmere with No 1 Squadron shot down three Dornier Do 17s as they slowed to land at Saint-André-de-Bohon after raiding England. On September 25, 1942,

11760-579: The Germans, only 10 were found to be due to rocket-firing Typhoons. At Mortain, where the German counter-offensive Operation Lüttich came within 2 miles (3.2 km) of cutting through US forces to Avranches , Typhoons destroyed 9 of 46 tanks lost but were more effective against unarmoured vehicles and troops and cause the armoured vehicles to seek cover. General Dwight D. Eisenhower , the Supreme Allied Commander, said "The chief credit in smashing

11907-559: The L3 capsule during three of the four failed launches of the Soviet Moon rocket, N1 vehicles 3L, 5L and 7L . In all three cases the capsule, albeit uncrewed, was saved from destruction. Only the three aforementioned N1 rockets had functional Safety Assurance Systems. The outstanding vehicle, 6L , had dummy upper stages and therefore no escape system giving the N1 booster a 100% success rate for egress from

12054-544: The Mosquito I am yellow and green with envy. (The British) have the geniuses and we have the nincompoops.” Initially used for high-level photo-reconnaissance, the Mosquito was adapted to precision bombing, night fighter, and fighter bomber roles. It was built in Canada and Australia as well as the UK. Fitted with a British Army Ordnance QF 6 pounder (57 mm) gun it could sink U-boats found on

12201-416: The RAF detachment operated in support of General Vladimir May-Mayevsky 's counter-revolutionary volunteer army during intense fighting around Kharkiv . In March 1920, the remainder of the force was evacuated and their remaining aircraft were deliberately destroyed to avoid them falling into enemy hands. Camels were powered by several makes of rotary engines : The F.1 was the main production version. It

12348-615: The Soviet Katyusha rocket in the artillery role, and the American anti tank bazooka projectile. These used solid chemical propellants. The Americans captured a large number of German rocket scientists , including Wernher von Braun, in 1945, and brought them to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip . After World War II scientists used rockets to study high-altitude conditions, by radio telemetry of temperature and pressure of

12495-809: The Soviet Union ( Vostok , Soyuz , Proton ) and in the United States (e.g. the X-15 ). Rockets came into use for space exploration . American crewed programs ( Project Mercury , Project Gemini and later the Apollo programme ) culminated in 1969 with the first crewed landing on the Moon – using equipment launched by the Saturn V rocket. Rocket vehicles are often constructed in the archetypal tall thin "rocket" shape that takes off vertically, but there are actually many different types of rockets including: A rocket design can be as simple as

12642-528: The United Kingdom from September to December 1940. A larger fighter-bomber campaign was conducted against the UK from March 1942 until June 1943. These operations were successful in tying down Allied resources at a relatively low cost to the Luftwaffe, but the British Government regarded the campaign as a nuisance given the small scale of the individual raids. In August 1941, RAF pilots reported encountering

12789-520: The accidental discovery of a major camouflaged airfield when rescuing a downed pilot. The Sopwith Camel was featured as a flyable aircraft in the Microsoft Flight Simulator series, starting with Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.0 , released in November 1982. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 was the last version to include the Sopwith Camel with the game. The Camel is the "plane" of Snoopy in

12936-408: The assistance of Lieut Morgan, who managed our workshops, I took the main tank out of several Camels and replaced [them] with a smaller one, which enabled us to fit in dual control." Such conversions, and dual instruction, went some way to alleviating the previously unacceptable casualties incurred during the critical type-specific solo training stage. Despite these issues, its agility in combat made

13083-673: The atmosphere, detection of cosmic rays , and further techniques; note too the Bell X-1 , the first crewed vehicle to break the sound barrier (1947). Independently, in the Soviet Union's space program research continued under the leadership of the chief designer Sergei Korolev (1907–1966). During the Cold War rockets became extremely important militarily with the development of modern intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The 1960s saw rapid development of rocket technology, particularly in

13230-419: The atmosphere. Multistage rockets are capable of attaining escape velocity from Earth and therefore can achieve unlimited maximum altitude. Compared with airbreathing engines , rockets are lightweight and powerful and capable of generating large accelerations . To control their flight, rockets rely on momentum , airfoils , auxiliary reaction engines , gimballed thrust , momentum wheels , deflection of

13377-468: The building. In February 1941 the Mosquito with two Rolls-Royce Merlin engines and a streamlined wooden fuselage achieved 392 mph (631 km/h), 30 mph (48 km/h) faster than the current Spitfire. It was used on all kinds of missions, including silencing Hermann Göring 's Berlin Nazi anniversary broadcast on January 20, 1943, leading him to tell Erhard Milch, Air Inspector General that “when I see

13524-492: The cockpit, synchronised to fire forwards through the propeller disc – initially this consisted of the fitment of the Sopwith firm's own synchronizer design , but after the mechanical-linkage Sopwith-Kauper units began to wear out, the more accurate and easier-to-maintain, hydraulic-link Constantinesco-Colley system replaced it from November 1917 onward. In addition to the machine guns, a total of four Cooper bombs could be carried for ground attack purposes. The bottom wing

13671-410: The deflecting cowl at the nose. In 1920, Professor Robert Goddard of Clark University published proposed improvements to rocket technology in A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes . In 1923, Hermann Oberth (1894–1989) published Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen ( The Rocket into Planetary Space ). Modern rockets originated in 1926 when Goddard attached a supersonic ( de Laval ) nozzle to

13818-463: The dynamics of rocket propulsion is due to William Moore (1813). In 1814, Congreve published a book in which he discussed the use of multiple rocket launching apparatus. In 1815 Alexander Dmitrievich Zasyadko constructed rocket-launching platforms, which allowed rockets to be fired in salvos (6 rockets at a time), and gun-laying devices. William Hale in 1844 greatly increased the accuracy of rocket artillery. Edward Mounier Boxer further improved

13965-476: The enemy's spearhead, however, must go to the rocket-firing Typhoon aircraft of the Second Tactical Air Force . The result of the strafing was that the enemy attack was effectively brought to a halt, and a threat was turned into a great victory". The disparity between claims and actual destruction at about 25-1 owed much to the difficulty of hitting a fast-moving tank with an unguided rocket, even from

14112-425: The engine like a pendulum in flight. However, the rocket veered off course and crashed 184 feet (56 m) away from the launch site , indicating that the rocket was no more stable than one with the rocket engine at the base. Rockets or other similar reaction devices carrying their own propellant must be used when there is no other substance (land, water, or air) or force ( gravity , magnetism , light ) that

14259-604: The exhaust stream , propellant flow, spin , or gravity . Rockets for military and recreational uses date back to at least 13th-century China . Significant scientific, interplanetary and industrial use did not occur until the 20th century, when rocketry was the enabling technology for the Space Age , including setting foot on the Moon . Rockets are now used for fireworks , missiles and other weaponry , ejection seats , launch vehicles for artificial satellites , human spaceflight , and space exploration . Chemical rockets are

14406-482: The fastest piston-engined aircraft ever built. Initially, United Nations air forces using piston-engined fighter-bombers and straight wing jet fighters easily drove the North Koreans out of the sky and so disrupted logistics and hence the attack on Pusan. All changed when the Soviet Air Force intervened with swept-wing Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15s flown by Russian pilots on November 1. The planes had Korean markings and

14553-557: The fighter-bomber role, especially where longer ranges were needed for naval strikes. Examples include the Lockheed P-38 Lightning , the Bristol Beaufighter (developed from a torpedo bomber ), and de Havilland Mosquito (developed from an unarmed fast bomber). The Beaufighter MkV had a Boulton-Paul turret with four 0.303 in (7.7 mm) machine guns mounted aft of the cockpit but only two were built. Bristol's Blenheim

14700-565: The fighter-bomber role. Notable examples include the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 , Hawker Typhoon and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt . Various bombing tactics and techniques could also be used: some designs were intended for high-level bombing , others for the low-level semi-horizontal bombing, or even for low-level steep dive bombing as exemplified by the Blackburn Skua and North American A-36 Apache . Larger twin-engined aircraft were also used in

14847-670: The film's scientific adviser and later an important figure in the team that developed the V-2 rocket. The film was thought to be so realistic that it was banned by the Nazis when they came to power for fear it would reveal secrets about the V-2 rockets. In 1943 production of the V-2 rocket began in Germany. It was designed by the Peenemünde Army Research Center with Wernher von Braun serving as

14994-439: The final German bombing raid upon Britain on the night of the 20/21 May 1918. During this air raid, a combined force of 74 Camels and Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5s intercepted 28 Gothas and Zeppelin-Staaken R.VIs ; three German bombers were shot down, while two more were downed by anti-aircraft fire from the ground and a further aircraft was lost to engine failure, resulting in the heaviest losses suffered by German bombers during

15141-456: The first Allied jet fighter of WWII but no match for a MiG-15. It was pressed into combat but after four were lost when the squadron was bounced by 40 Mig-15s, reverted to ground attack, carrying 16 60 lb (27 kg) rockets. Although Meteors shot down 6 MiG-15s, 30 were lost, but mainly to ground fire. Both Corsairs and Sea Furies also shot down MiG-15s, but were vulnerable to the faster jet. Fighter-bombers became increasingly important in

15288-455: The first launch in 1928, which flew for approximately 1,300 metres. These rockets were used in 1931 for the world's first successful use of rockets for jet-assisted takeoff of aircraft and became the prototypes for the Katyusha rocket launcher , which were used during World War II . In 1929, Fritz Lang 's German science fiction film Woman in the Moon was released. It showcased the use of

15435-493: The first production contract for an initial batch of 250 Camels was issued by the British War Office . Throughout 1917, a total of 1,325 Camels were produced, almost entirely the initial F.1 variant. By the time that production of the type came to an end, approximately 5,490 Camels of all types had been built. In early 1918, production of the naval variant of the Sopwith Camel, the "Ship's" Camel 2F.1 began. The Camel had

15582-410: The force (pressure times area) on the combustion chamber wall is unbalanced by the nozzle opening; this is not the case in any other direction. The shape of the nozzle also generates force by directing the exhaust gas along the axis of the rocket. Rocket propellant is mass that is stored, usually in some form of propellant tank or casing, prior to being used as the propulsive mass that is ejected from

15729-462: The frontlines in France to Britain for the purposes of home defence; in July 1917, 44 Squadron RFC reformed and reequipped with the Camel to conduct the home defence mission. By March 1918, the home defence squadrons had been widely equipped with the Camel and by August 1918, a total of seven home defence squadrons were operating these aircraft. When the Germans switched to performing nighttime attacks,

15876-533: The full fuel load pushed the aircraft's centre of gravity beyond the rearmost safe limit. When in level flight, the Camel was markedly tail-heavy. Unlike the Sopwith Triplane, the Camel lacked a variable incidence tailplane, so that the pilot had to apply constant forward pressure on the control stick to maintain a level attitude at low altitude. The aircraft could be rigged so that at higher altitudes it could be flown "hands off". A stall immediately resulted in

16023-617: The invasion. USAF North American F-82 Twin Mustangs had the range to reach the front line from Japanese bases. The last piston-engined aircraft, produced in the U.S., it looked like two Mustangs, with two pilots in separate fuselages, bolted together. Initially intended to escort bombers over Japan from remote Pacific island bases, hence its long-range, it missed WWII and first saw action in Korea. Plain North American P-51 Mustangs of

16170-761: The jets of its main British and US opponents, which used the older Rolls-Royce Derwent design. Only the Navy Grumman F9F Panther used a version of the Nene and could match the MiG-15, accounting for seven during November. Daylight heavy bomber raids over North Korea ceased and the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star and its all-weather variant the Lockheed F-94 Starfire were focused on bombing missions whilst

16317-708: The largest raid since the Blitz . Flying at sea level, under the radar, these raids were hard to intercept. The Jabos reached the Eastern Front in time to bomb Russian positions in Stalingrad . By July 1943 Fw 190s were replacing the vulnerable Stukas over the Battle of Kursk : although winning the air war, they were unable to prevent subsequent Red Army advances. On New Year's Day 1945 in Operation Bodenplatte , over 1,000 aircraft (including more than 600 Fw 190s) launched

16464-470: The latest German fighters, such as the Fokker D.VII . However, it remained viable as a ground-attack and infantry support aircraft and instead was increasingly used in that capacity. The Camel inflicted high losses on German ground forces, albeit suffering from a high rate of losses itself in turn, through the dropping of 25 lb (11 kg) Cooper bombs and low-level strafing runs. The protracted development of

16611-497: The left, which resulted in a nose-up attitude, but the torque also resulted in being able to turn to the right quicker than other fighters, although that resulted in a tendency towards a nose-down attitude from the turn. Because of the faster turning capability to the right, some pilots preferred to change heading 90° to the left by turning 270° to the right. Upon entering service, the Camel gained an unfortunate reputation with pilots, with inexperienced ones crashing on take-off when

16758-568: The massive, seven-ton USAAF Republic P-47 Thunderbolt —a single Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp radial engine of 2,000 hp (1,500 kW) in a much smaller, simpler and less expensive single-seat aircraft, and was the first aircraft design to ever fly with the Double Wasp engine in May 1940. With less airframe and crew to lift, the Corsair's ordnance load was either four High Velocity Aircraft Rockets or 2,000 lb (910 kg) of bombs;

16905-482: The most common type of high power rocket, typically creating a high speed exhaust by the combustion of fuel with an oxidizer . The stored propellant can be a simple pressurized gas or a single liquid fuel that disassociates in the presence of a catalyst ( monopropellant ), two liquids that spontaneously react on contact ( hypergolic propellants ), two liquids that must be ignited to react (like kerosene (RP1) and liquid oxygen, used in most liquid-propellant rockets ),

17052-487: The most successful Allied aircraft of the First World War with 1,294 enemy aircraft downed, was losing its edge by 1918, especially over 12,000 ft (3,700 m). During the final German offensive in March 1918, it dropped 25 lb (11 kg) Cooper bombs on advancing columns: whilst puny by later standards, the four fragmentation bombs carried by a Camel could cause serious injuries to exposed troops. Pilot casualties were also high. The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 .

17199-516: The normal pilot's position. The weapons were removed, although the hump was sometimes kept. [REDACTED]   Russian Empire [REDACTED] Media related to Sopwith Camel museum aircraft at Wikimedia Commons There are eight known original Sopwith Camels extant: [REDACTED] Media related to Sopwith Camel replicas at Wikimedia Commons Data from Quest for Performance, Profile Publications General characteristics Performance Armament Biggles flies

17346-479: The only way to launch spacecraft into orbit and beyond. They are also used to rapidly accelerate spacecraft when they change orbits or de-orbit for landing . Also, a rocket may be used to soften a hard parachute landing immediately before touchdown (see retrorocket ). Rockets were used to propel a line to a stricken ship so that a Breeches buoy can be used to rescue those on board. Rockets are also used to launch emergency flares . Some crewed rockets, notably

17493-449: The pilot could reload the guns. This modification, which became known as the "Sopwith Comic" allowed the guns to be fired without affecting the pilot's night vision, and allowed the use of new, more effective incendiary ammunition that was considered unsafe to fire from synchronised Vickers guns. The Camel was successfully used to intercept and shoot down German bombers on multiple occasions during 1918, serving in this capacity through to

17640-559: The pilot. Production Camels were powered by various rotary engines , most commonly either the Clerget 9B or the Bentley BR1 . In order to evade a potential manufacturing bottleneck being imposed upon the overall aircraft in the event of an engine shortage, several other engines were adopted to power the type as well. Unlike the preceding Pup and Triplane , the Camel was considered to be difficult to fly. With light and sensitive controls

17787-541: The pilots had been taught a few Korean words, in a thin sham that the USSR was not fighting. The MiG-15 used captured German swept wing technology and tools and British jet engines, 25 of which had been a gift from Stafford Cripps the president of the Board of Trade and were quickly copied. Josef Stalin remarked “What fool will sell us his secrets?” The MiG's Rolls-Royce Nene had 5,000 lbf (2,300 kgf) thrust, twice as much as

17934-470: The propellant is not burned but still undergoes a chemical reaction, and can be a 'monopropellant' such as hydrazine , nitrous oxide or hydrogen peroxide that can be catalytically decomposed to hot gas. Alternatively, an inert propellant can be used that can be externally heated, such as in steam rocket , solar thermal rocket or nuclear thermal rockets . For smaller, low performance rockets such as attitude control thrusters where high performance

18081-527: The result of producing confusion and panic amongst the advancing German forces. As the March offensive waned, the Camel was able to operate within and maintain aerial superiority for the remainder of the war. In the aftermath of the First World War, the Camel saw further combat action. Multiple British squadrons were deployed into Russia as a part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War . Between

18228-474: The retreat of the British Fifth Army , in which the Camel provided extensive aerial support. Camels flew at multiple altitudes, some as low as 500 feet (150 m) for surprise strafing attacks upon ground forces, while being covered from attack by hostile fighters by the higher altitude aircraft. Strafing attacks formed a major component of British efforts to contain the offensive, the attacks often having

18375-589: The same timing. The resulting North American P-51 Mustang powered by a Packard-built Rolls-Royce Merlin engine became the outstanding long-range fighter of the war. When Lend-lease funding for the RAF Mustangs was exhausted, Kindleberger tried to interest the USAAC but no funds were available for a fighter; instead, the Mustang was fitted with dive brakes and emerged as the North American A-36 Apache ,

18522-399: The summer of 1919, Camels of No. 47 Squadron conducted offensive operations in the vicinity of Tsaritsyn , primarily against Urbabk airfield ; targets including enemy aircraft, cavalry formations, and river traffic. In September 1919, 47 Squadron was relocated to Kotluban , where its aircraft operations mainly focused on harassing enemy communication lines. During late 1919 and early 1920,

18669-467: The surface. On April 9, 1945, three were sunk en route to Norway, and in the following month, Mosquitos sank two more. The Hawker Typhoon was being designed as a replacement for the Hurricane in March 1937 before production had even started. The reason was to take advantage of the new 2,000 hp (1,500 kW) engines then being planned, either the Napier Sabre or Rolls-Royce Vulture which required

18816-538: The technical director. The V-2 became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944. Doug Millard, space historian and curator of space technology at the Science Museum, London , where a V-2 is exhibited in the main exhibition hall, states: "The V-2 was a quantum leap of technological change. We got to the Moon using V-2 technology but this

18963-449: The top wing, as the muzzle flash of the Vickers guns could blind the pilot. The second reason to use Lewis guns was to facilitate the use of incendiary ammunition because of the risk of using it in synchronized guns. To allow reloading of the guns, the pilot was moved about 12 inches (30 cm) to the rear, and to compensate the fuel tank was moved forward. It served with Home Defence Squadrons against German air raids. The "Comic" nickname

19110-410: The type owed both its extreme manoeuvrability and its difficult handling to the close placement of the engine, pilot, guns and fuel tank (some 90% of the aircraft's weight) within the front seven feet (2.1 m) of the aircraft, and to the strong gyroscopic effect of the rotating mass of the cylinders common to rotary engines . Due to the torque of the rotary engine the Camel turned more slowly to

19257-507: The world in the Opus Majus of 1267. Between 1280 and 1300, the Liber Ignium gave instructions for constructing devices that are similar to firecrackers based on second hand accounts. Konrad Kyeser described rockets in his military treatise Bellifortis around 1405. Giovanni Fontana , a Paduan engineer in 1420, created rocket-propelled animal figures. The name "rocket" comes from

19404-516: The worst one-day loss in its history; it never recovered. The Bristol Blenheim and Douglas A-20 Havoc (which the RAF called Boston) were used as night fighters during the Blitz , as they could carry the heavy early airborne radars. The Hawker Henley , a two-seat version of the Battle of Britain -winning Hawker Hurricane , was designed as a dive bomber. It might have proved to be a capable fighter-bomber but overheating of its Rolls-Royce Merlin engine in this installation led to its relegation to

19551-509: Was armed with twin synchronised Vickers guns. The 2F.1 was a shipboard variant, flown from HMS  Furious . It had a slightly shorter wingspan and a Bentley BR1 as its standard engine. Additionally, one Vickers gun was replaced by an overwing Lewis gun to assist in destroying Zeppelins using incendiary ammunition. The "Comic" was a Camel variant designed specifically for night-fighting duties. The twin Vickers guns were replaced by two Lewis guns on Foster mountings firing forward over

19698-629: Was damaged and February 9, 1945, became known as Black Friday . Typhoons were involved in one of the worst tragedies at the end of the war when four squadrons attacked the luxury liners SS Deutschland and the SS Cap Arcona and two smaller ships SS Athen and SS Thielbek moored off Neustadt in Lübeck Bay The Cap Arcona had 4,500 concentration camp inmates and the Thielbek another 2,800 as well as SS Guards. The Deutschland had

19845-409: Was difficult to fly, with 90% of its weight in the front two metres (seven feet) of the aircraft, but it was highly manoeuvrable in the hands of an experienced pilot, a vital attribute in the relatively low-speed, low-altitude dogfights of the era. Its pilots joked that their fates would involve "a wooden cross , the Red Cross , or a Victoria Cross ". The main variant of the Camel was designated as

19992-478: Was even pushed into service as a fighter during the Battle of Britain but it was not fast enough. Equipped with an early Airborne Interception (AI) radar set, however, it proved to be an effective night fighter. The first single-seat fighters to drop bombs were on the Western Front , when fighter patrols were issued with bombs and ordered to drop them at random if they met no German fighters. The Sopwith Camel ,

20139-523: Was fielded in the Napoleonic Wars . It was Congreve rockets to which Francis Scott Key was referring, when he wrote of the "rockets' red glare" while held captive on a British ship that was laying siege to Fort McHenry in 1814. Together, the Mysorean and British innovations increased the effective range of military rockets from 100 to 2,000 yards (91 to 1,829 m). The first mathematical treatment of

20286-521: Was first printed in Amsterdam in 1650. The Mysorean rockets were the first successful iron-cased rockets, developed in the late 18th century in the Kingdom of Mysore (part of present-day India) under the rule of Hyder Ali . The Congreve rocket was a British weapon designed and developed by Sir William Congreve in 1804. This rocket was based directly on the Mysorean rockets, used compressed powder and

20433-541: Was fitted with racks to carry two 500 lb (230 kg) and then two 1,000 lb (450 kg) bombs. By September 1943 it was fitted with eight RP-3 rockets each with a 60 lb (27 kg) warhead, equivalent to the power of a naval destroyer's broadside. Claims of German tanks destroyed by rocket-armed Typhoons in Normandy after D-Day were exaggerated. In Operation Goodwood , the attempt by British and Canadian forces to surround Caen of 75 tanks recorded as lost by

20580-501: Was intended to have two machine guns jutting through the cockpit floor so as to spray trenches with bullets as it passed low overhead. But this did not work and it was fitted with four Cooper bombs, instead. It was ordered in very large numbers, but most were canceled after the Armistice . In February and April 1918 the Royal Flying Corps conducted bombing tests at Orfordness , Suffolk dropping dummy bombs at various dive angles at

20727-494: Was launched to surveil enemy targets, however, recon rockets have never come into wide use in the military. Sounding rockets are commonly used to carry instruments that take readings from 50 kilometers (31 mi) to 1,500 kilometers (930 mi) above the surface of the Earth. The first images of Earth from space were obtained from a V-2 rocket in 1946 ( flight #13 ). Rocket engines are also used to propel rocket sleds along

20874-555: Was modified to carry four 20mm cannon and two 500 lb (230 kg) bombs; once bombs were jettisoned the aircraft could put up a reasonable fight. Inevitably the type became known in the RAF as the “Hurribomber”, reaching squadrons in June 1941. It was soon found that it was hardly possible to hit fast-moving Panzers in the Western Desert , with bombs and cannon fire-making little impact on their armour. Daylight bombing raids were made on

21021-415: Was moored close to the vertical cliffside of the fjords so Beaufighters had to attack singly with rockets without the normal tactic of having simultaneous attacks by other Beaufighters firing cannon at the numerous flak gunners. Twelve Focke-Wulf Fw 190s surprised the Mustangs and Norway's biggest ever air battle was soon raging. Nine Beaufighters and one Mustang were lost as were five Fw 190s. The destroyer

21168-406: Was rigged with 5° dihedral while the top wing lacked any dihedral; this meant that the gap between the wings was less at the tips than at the roots; this change had been made at the suggestion of Fred Sigrist , the Sopwith works manager, as a measure to simplify the aircraft's construction. The upper wing featured a central cutout section for the purpose of providing improved upwards visibility for

21315-592: Was technology that was developed with massive resources, including some particularly grim ones. The V-2 programme was hugely expensive in terms of lives, with the Nazis using slave labour to manufacture these rockets". In parallel with the German guided-missile programme, rockets were also used on aircraft , either for assisting horizontal take-off ( RATO ), vertical take-off ( Bachem Ba 349 "Natter") or for powering them ( Me 163 , see list of World War II guided missiles of Germany ). The Allies' rocket programs were less technological, relying mostly on unguided missiles like

21462-403: Was unofficial, and was shared with the night fighter version of the Sopwith 1½ Strutter . The F1/1 was a version with tapered wings. The T.F.1 was an experimental trench fighter used for development work for the Sopwith Salamander . Its machine guns were angled downwards for efficient strafing , and it featured armour plating for protection. The trainer variant had a second cockpit behind

21609-412: Was used in the same role. The Royal Flying Corps received the first purpose-built fighter-bomber just as the war was ending. It was not called a fighter bomber at the time, but a Trench Fighter as that was what it was designed to attack. The Sopwith Salamander was based on the Sopwith Snipe fighter but had armour plating in the nose to protect the pilot and fuel system from ground fire. Originally it

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