Aerial Target (AT) developed soon enough to be used against Zeppelins

[PMN1]

What if the Arial Target had been developed quicker, was available for some of the last Zeppelin raids on the UK and successfully brought one or more down, would that have any longer term effects?

 

[Rule of cool]

Do you envisage Aerial Target as a proto-SAM?

According to Wiki on about 50 strategic bombing raids were flown with Zeppelins compared to over 1000 naval patrol missions, so I doubt bringing one down with an AT would have much of an impact on strategic bombing overall.

As for the proto-SAM, I suspect any success of the AT against a Zeppelin would be due to the target's very slow speed. So, it wouldn't translate against fixed wing aircraft, especially when mental, monoplane airliners going 200mph+ in the early 30s showed the future of aviation was quite fast.

 

[Dilandu]

What if the Arial Target had been developed quicker, was available for some of the last Zeppelin raids on the UK and successfully brought one or more down, would that have any longer term effects?

I doubt it would be possible. The technology simply wasn't advanced enough for such weapon to be reliable. Low was extremely talented men, but no talent alone could circumvent the limitation of technology.

The main problem with AT was, that it used a very primitive radio control method - the pulse position modulation. Basically each control cycle was divided into time slots, and each command (there were six - up, down, right, left, engine throttle, detonation) was assigned a specific fraction of second time slot. To send the command to the AT, the ground control station sent a single radio pulse exactly at the right time slot for this specific command. For that purpose, both the transmitter (on ground control station) and receiver (on AT) were synchronized by rotating camshafts, which rotation speed were carefully synchronized before launch.

The inherited problem of such system is that it's self-contradictory. To ensure good synchronization, the time slots should be relatively big - but then less command could be sent in the same time, the delays would be significant and the whole system would be slow to react. To ensure good control, the time slots should be short (so they could be repeated as fast as possible) - but then the synchronization would suffer, because even slight differences in camshafts rotation speed would cause control signals to "miss" the intended positions.

Essentially, this system was suitable for something relatively slow - like target ship - but for airplane it was next thing to useless.

 

[PMN1]

I am only thinking about it being around to take on the last of the Zeppelin raids but...no way apart from Alien Space Bats of speeding it up if to do so?

 

[Dilandu]

I am only thinking about it being around to take on the last of the Zeppelin raids but...no way apart from Alien Space Bats of speeding it up if to do so?

Basically no way. Creating a workable anti-air drone in 1910-1920s is just too far ahead of what cotemporary technology was able to do. Radio guidance was pretty much in infancy, autopilot wasn't even invented yet, and the whole complex theory of automatic control was poorly understood then. Even the electronic valves weren't widespread yet.

A simpler goals - say, radio-controlled bomb to precisely hit ground targets from airship - would be doable on available tech, yes. But anti-air guided weapon? Far too complex, far too many demands for far too primitive technology.

 

[Grey Havoc]

https://flyingmachines.ru/Site2/Crafts/Craft29148.htm

 

[robunos]

Do you envisage Aerial Target as a proto-SAM?

According to Wiki on about 50 strategic bombing raids were flown with Zeppelins compared to over 1000 naval patrol missions, so I doubt bringing one down with an AT would have much of an impact on strategic bombing overall.

As for the proto-SAM, I suspect any success of the AT against a Zeppelin would be due to the target's very slow speed. So, it wouldn't translate against fixed wing aircraft, especially when mental, monoplane airliners going 200mph+ in the early 30s showed the future of aviation was quite fast.

The problem with intercepting Zeppelins was that although they were slow movers horizontally, by dropping ballast, they could easily outclimb (literally straight up, vertically) any fixed-wing aircraft available to the defenders. When done at night, this meant the Zeppelin would literaly just disappear . . .

cheers,
Robin.