BHT-38 French guided bomb

[Dilandu]

Hello! I'm currently searching the data about this little guy:

This is BHT-38 (Bombe Hurel-Turck) radio-controlled glide bomb, designed for French military shortly before World War 2. It was supposed to have a weight about 160 kg. Some examples were tested in 1940, but Fall of the France paused the development (albeit it seems that French engineers, who worked on BHT-38, suspected that Germans stole their ideas to use in German guided bombs). After the liberation, works on the bomb resumed, but after several tests in 1945 it became obvious that it became obsolete, and so the project was discontinued.

Does anyone have any additional information about this weapon? I firstly found mention about BHT-38 in "The True Beginnings of French Astronautics 1938-1959" by P. Jung. The bomb is also mentioned in "LeO-45, Amiot-350 et autres B4, de Jean Danel et Raymond Cuny". And, there are several websites and forums where I managed to find some additional photos of the bomb itself and carrier planes:

https://www.39-45.org/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=48759

http://aviateurs.e-monsite.com/pages/de-1939-a-1945/evasions-du-so-90.html

I'm trying to find any additional information about that weapon, particularly about its radio guidance system.

P.S. It seems that the bomb existed in at least two versions - the stub-nose one (which is on the above picture), and the one with Pitot tube:

I suspect that the latter is the 1945 version, because it is also presented in that configuration on the illustration in "LeO-45, Amiot-350 et autres B4":

 

[Dilandu]

Managed to find this photo:

(sorry for poor size, have no better).

Seems that it is late-type BHT-38, with pointy nose. Interesting to see that operator is using the control station, obviously designed for plane deployment.

Unfortunately, still no luck about any kind of precise data...

 

[Dilandu]

From ""LeO-45, Amiot-350 et autres B4, de Jean Danel et Raymond Cuny". The LeO No 493, used for BHT testing after war. Also, the internal view of BHT-38 operator control station in the bombardier cabin.

P.S. From "Les dossiers secrets de la marine: Londres-Vichy 1940-1944" I found some data about this weapon which might explain the difference between 1938 and 1944 models. The 1940 tests showed that turbulence around the plane hull tended to destabilize the weapon after launch. So, the pointy nose of 1944 model might be an attempt to solve that problem.

 

[klem]

Managed to find this photo:

(sorry for poor size, have no better).

Seems that it is late-type BHT-38, with pointy nose. Interesting to see that operator is using the control station, obviously designed for plane deployment.

Unfortunately, still no luck about any kind of precise data...

Myabe mine is better.

 

[Dilandu]

Myabe mine is better

Thank you! Did you have any additional data on this project?

 

[klem]

No.but i have this for you

 

[fortrena]

If I may, from the looks of it, this air to surface (anti-ship?) project, one of the first one, if not the first one in France, was launched in 1938. The main players were Maurice Hurel, the technical director of the flying boat maker Chantiers Aéro-Maritimes de la Seine (CAMS), by then integrated within the Société national de constructions aéronautiques du Sud-Est (SNCASE), for the airframe, and Jean Turck, an engineer with a radio-electric equipment company by the name of Bougault, for the guidance system.

After some trials with a small prototype built by CAMS, at Vincennes, near Paris, some government organization signed a development contract, which involved the Armée de l'air and the Marine nationale, in the spring of 1939. By then, the weapon was known as the BHT-38 for Bombe Hurel-Turck 1938.

The Société anonyme des Avions Caudron may, I repeat may, have completed a dozen prototypes before the 1940 armistice was signed.

Trials had begun around April 1940 at the Aéronautique navale base of Fréjus-Saint Raphaël, on the Mediterranean. The bombs were guided from a nearby hill. All prototypes were destroyed in June, after the signing of the Armistice.

Turck and Hurel having fled to Algeria by air in 1943, the former allegedly supervised the fabrication of a BHT-38s, which was carried aloft for trials held in 1943-44.

 

[Dilandu]

No.but i have this for you

Quite interesting!

 

[Dilandu]

If I may, from the looks of it, this air to surface (anti-ship?) project, one of the first one, if not the first one in France, was launched in 1938.

Yep, that's the same data I used when made an article about BHT-38.

 

[fortrena]

Profuse apologies.

 

[Dilandu]

Profuse apologies.

For what?

 

[fortrena]

For using your material.

 

[Dilandu]

For using your material.

Oh. You misunderstood me. I meant, that I used the same data when I wrote an article about BH-38 back in 2019.

Беспроводные мушкетеры: управляемая авиабомба BHT-38

Уважаемые коллеги, как и обещал, я начинаю цикл статей об истории управляемого оружия Франции в годы Второй Мировой Войны. Сразу должен предупредить, что ввиду сложности с источниками, запутанности и противоречивости данных, информация по многим образцам носит в значительной степени спекулятивный…

fonzeppelin.livejournal.com

Sorry, seems I confused you.