DFS Glide bombs

The year 1939 marked the beginning of the testing and development of remotely piloted missiles, a new field with all the unknowns that this research entailed for the Versuchsstelle. The first missiles and gliding bombs tested were proposed by DVL and DFS, Dr Oskar Tietjens for the 'GV' and Dr Horst Muttray for the 'GS', even if they were of good design, their behaviour in flight proved unsatisfactory. The first air launches were two DVL models "GV-I" in April 1939 at E-Stelle Rechlin and on 5 May 1939 at Peenemünde-West. Manufacturing errors caused them to crash due to the flight paths and spiral movements up to the dive impact, which made it difficult for observers from accompanying aircraft to follow the missile up to the moment of impact. Also, in order to have a straight flight, a trajectory control system was needed. As a result of these trajectory problems, DVL and DFS changed their manufacturing methods, opting for a simple SC 250 bomb body with flat, dihedral sheet steel wings with slightly depressed, arrow-shaped leading edges. The usual cruciform tail surfaces of the bomb were replaced by a long pointed cone at the rear, which carried horizontal and vertical flight surfaces and allowed the insertion of trajectory control equipment. A simple model known as the GB200. The design was completed in the Versuchsstelle workshops on 26 May 1939, tested in the DVL wind tunnel on 21/22 July 1939, and demonstrated on 30 August 1939 to Rheinmetall-Borsig for manufacture.
The missile trajectory control systems were developed by the companies Askania-Werke in Berlin, Anschütz in Kiel, Kreiselgeräte GmbH in Berlin, Patin and Siemens-Luftfahrtgerätewerk in Berlin. Equipped with such aircraft - as the air-launch tests had already shown in the spring of 1940 - perfectly straight flights could be achieved, except that functional reliability was not guaranteed in all cases.
It should be mentioned here that missiles of the type described were not suitable for use against 'point' targets. Their development was therefore subsequently discontinued, as attacks against so-called 'area' targets were not part of the OKL's operational doctrine.(From "German Secret Flight Test Centres to 1945").
 

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Hi Temistocle,

More info here:

https://www.flugzeug-lexikon.de/Dro...automat_RSA-160/rauchspurautomat_rsa-160.html

and at pages 12-14 of the paper found at this link:

Lenkkorper und Zielweisungsgerate der deutschen Luftwaffe Teil I

The pdf file is too large to attach it here: it is a 288 pages book full of details about the Luftwaffe guided weapons (I really need to learn German!). If interested, the second part is here:

Lenkkorper und Zielweisungsgerate der deutschen Luftwaffe Tiel II

Thanks a lot for the links! Are you able to download the first part? Currently, I get the second part from the link that is supposed to deliver the first part, and an "Addendum Timetable Fritz X" from the link that is supposed to deliver the second part.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong here?

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
 
"Early on, from about 1938 onwards, the German Research Institute for Gliding (DFS) carried out extensive aerodynamic tests on gliders with different wing shapes and profiles(1). Among other things, circular, elliptical, trapezoidal and arrow-shaped wings were tested in the wind tunnel. An original sketch of such a test glider with dimensions (scale 1:3) for wind tunnel measurements from 1941 is shown in Figure 7a. The wing sections could be changed, the angle adjusted, and the tailplane replaced by a slender, rudder-free tail body. The glider developed at the Gustav-Schwarz-Propellerwerke in Berlin under the camouflage name Rauch- Spur-Automat 160 (= GB 4) (160 because of the model scale 1:1.6) is suitable as an example (Fig. 7b-e). Initially unstabilised and without control, the first test versions crashed after a short flight time. Successful flights could only be achieved by retrofitting a pneumatically operated gyro stabilisation in three axes (Askania; Fig. 7f).
The GB 4 had, among other things, swept, sloping, adjustable wings and a tail control system with elevator and rudder (Fig. 7b/c, 7d/e). The attitude and rate-of-turn gyros ran at 40 000 rpm (!) and were driven by compressed air (Fig. 7f). Two trials took place in Peenemünde on 4 and 5 September 1941. By precisely measuring the eye track of a GB 4 dropped from an altitude of 1500 m by a Dornier Do 17, astonishingly good gliding properties could be determined: At a speed of 90 and 100 m/s respectively, both bodies largely maintained the direction they had been in at the moment of jettison. The measured descert rate along the glide path was on average 7.5 m/s with an inclination between 1:10 and 1:8 (Fig. 7g). From a drop height of 1500 m, a 'throw distance' of more than 13 km could be achieved. The test gliders were painted in a conspicuous red/ochre colour (Fig. 7d/e). In the official final evaluation of the tests it says: "…The mechanical construction of the controls was very good.However, the unit in its present design is not suitable for larger series (more than 50 - 100 units)." A late version of the GB 4 was apparently even equipped with a wireless radio remote control, as a device installation frame in the German Armed Forces Air Force Museum (LMBB) in Berlin-Gatow suggests. It is possible that the first radio-controlled steering tests
were carried out with it."
(1)-According to Wagner (1957), the German Aviation Research Institute (DVL), a government institution, hadeveloped a model cell for testing Askania autopilots. The aim was to control a glider automatically, using only elevator and rudder. The order to build such a device went to Schwarz Propeller-Werke in 1937. Test drops from an aircraft without control were not successful. At the end of 1939, the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) therefore decided to outsource the further development of such devices to the aircraft industry. In early 1940, an inspection of the Schwarz models by employees of the Henschel-Flugzeugwerke (HFW) revealed the strong V-position of the wings and the angle of attack during the drop as the cause of the earlier failures. Apparently, extensive wind tunnel measurements were then carried out on the Schwarz-GB-4 in 1941 with the support of the DFS (Fig. 7a).-"(Lenkkörper und Zielweisungsgeräte der deutschen Luftwaffe-Teil I - Wolfgang-D. Schröer - Berlin 2005/2014- S. 12 bis 15)-Translation.
 

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Extract on the development of the GB-4 Gleitbomb in (Lenkkörper der deutschen Luftwaffe 1939-1945) -Teil1 : Frühe Gleitbomben - Beispiele - Lothar Nürnberg und Wolfgang-D. Schröer - Daedalus-Info n° 3 (Arbeitsgemeinschaft historische Luftwaffe Berlin).
 

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Extract on the development of the GB-4 Gleitbomb in (Lenkkörper der deutschen Luftwaffe 1939-1945) -Teil1 : Frühe Gleitbomben - Beispiele - Lothar Nürnberg und Wolfgang-D. Schröer - Daedalus-Info n° 3 (Arbeitsgemeinschaft historische Luftwaffe Berlin).
Thanks for sharing Deadalus info publication, it's new to me.
 
Hi Temistocle,

More info here:

https://www.flugzeug-lexikon.de/Dro...automat_RSA-160/rauchspurautomat_rsa-160.html

and at pages 12-14 of the paper found at this link:

Lenkkorper und Zielweisungsgerate der deutschen Luftwaffe Teil I

The pdf file is too large to attach it here: it is a 288 pages book full of details about the Luftwaffe guided weapons (I really need to learn German!). If interested, the second part is here:

Lenkkorper und Zielweisungsgerate der deutschen Luftwaffe Tiel II

Thanks a lot for the links! Are you able to download the first part? Currently, I get the second part from the link that is supposed to deliver the first part, and an "Addendum Timetable Fritz X" from the link that is supposed to deliver the second part.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong here?

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
For some reason this Researchgate url returns

Lenkkorper und Zielweisungsgeräte der Deutschen Luftwaffe Teil I Mechanik und Funk-Fernlenkung von Fall- und Gleitbomben​

https://www.researchgate.net/profil...us-substriatus-Steph-Coleoptera-Gyrinidae.pdf
 
I just tried with my phone and both links worked perfectly. BTW, the first pdf is called

LenkkrperBandII-Tonne-Seedorf.pdf

and the second

AddendumZeittafelFRITZX.pdf

Maybe with the search option you can find it.
Or I can put them on a Google drive when I will be back from vacation :)

EDIT: Maybe is the same problem of Henning? I cannot try a deep search here also for a not stable internet connection.
 
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Hi,

Maybe with the search option you can find it.
Or I can put them on a Google drive when I will be back from vacation :)

With the help of Düsenjäger's link, I can now dowload all three files.

Summing it up:

Part 1: https://www.researchgate.net/public...inidae/link/5f6da98f458515b7cf4c6239/download

Part 2: https://www.researchgate.net/public...bomben/link/5f6daa6ca6fdcc00863a77f5/download

Addendum: https://www.researchgate.net/profil...-von-Gleitbomben-Das-Tonne-Seedorf-System.pdf

No idea what happened on ResearchGate, but it looks like a filing (system) screw-up.

The first link is supposed to lead to an article on bug eyes! :-D

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
 
I just tried with my phone and both links worked perfectly. BTW, the first pdf is called

LenkkrperBandII-Tonne-Seedorf.pdf

and the second

AddendumZeittafelFRITZX.pdf

Maybe with the search option you can find it.
Or I can put them on a Google drive when I will be back from vacation :)

EDIT: Maybe is the same problem of Henning? I cannot try a deep search here also for a not stable internet connection.

Three of the 9 papers attributed to Wolfgang D. Schröer (a Berlin zoologist) by Researchgate are Lenkkorper related. See:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wolfgang-D-Schroeer-2

There is some confusion in the links. They are:

Lenkkörper und Zielweisungsgeräte der deutschen Luftwaffe, Vol. II, Fernsehgestützte Zielweisung von Gleitbomben - Das "Tonne-Seedorf"-System

Returns a 125 page document: "Addendum »Fritz X« - Dokumente".

Lenkkörper und Zielweisungsgeräte der deutschen Luftwaffe, Teil I, Mechanik und Funk-Fernlenkung von Fall- und Gleitbomben

Returns a 234 page document: "Lenkkörper und Zielweisungsgeräte der deutschen Luftwaffe Teil II Fernsehgestützte Zielweisung von Gleitbomben Das »Tonne-Seedorf«-System".

Zur Morphologie des Dorsal- und Ventralauges des Taumelk�fersGyrinus substriatus (Steph.) (Coleoptera, Gyrinidae)

This is not about the whirligig beetle, but returns a very interesting 288 page document "Lenkkörper und Zielweisungsgeräte der Deutschen Luftwaffe Teil I Mechanik und Funk-Fernlenkung von Fall- und Gleitbomben".
 

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