Propeller Sleds in WW II

edwest4

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The Russians used a small, closed car with skis and a propeller in the back for traveling through snow during the war. The Germans captured some for their own use.
 
The Russians used a small, closed car with skis and a propeller in the back for traveling through snow during the war. The Germans captured some for their own use.

The Aerosani (known in the West as aero-sleds), though some types had no cabs. Below, via Dark Roasted Blend is an example of a captured aero-sled, not sure of the model:
2097505994_31bbdcb5b8.jpg


The Germans were quite impressed by the aero-sleds they encountered, and attempted to reverse engineer or otherwise build their own versions, for example, the Tatra V 855 (only two prototypes, built in 1942).
2096704781_04441964b3.jpg

(TatraWorld via Dark Roasted Blend)
 
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The De Lesseps sled with Filippi Cyrnos wing was entered in a Russian military competition for sleds. But that was in 1913, nearly thirty years before the Russian / WH you evoke. Here it is shown in Chamonix. the date is claimed to be 1914 (so after the Russian competition) but I doubt it....

JCC
 

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Some of those aerosleds resupplied Leningrad
during the dreadful winter siege.
 
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The Aerosani (known in the West as aero-sleds), though some types had no cabs. Below, via Dark Roasted Blend is an example of a captured aero-sled, not sure of the model:
2097505994_31bbdcb5b8.jpg
Contrary to what Dark Roasted Blend writes, this one was captured by Finns, not by Nazis. See the Swastika upright rather than at 45°.
 
From the article link provided by Stenda G:
The armament of the aerosan was more impressive than that of the tank. Instead of a 12.7 mm DShK machinegun, the project used the 23 mm MP-6 (PT-23TB) autocannon designed by OKB-16 with a coaxial 7.62 mm DT machinegun. The crew also had personal weapons: 20 grenades and a PPD submachinegun. The submachinegun could be fired from five ports in the hull and turret.

Even though OKB-16 chief, Taubin, insisted that the MP-6 was in mass production, there was only one such gun. According to GABTU's plans, the MP-6 would be installed and tested in the T-40 tank in January of 1941, and the gun was already installed in the tank. Days before the trials were scheduled to start, the gun was removed and moved to the aerosan.


The verdict of the acceptance commission seems interesting:
  1. The weight of the experimental prototype is 5360 kg, instead of the 4700 kg approved by the Model Commission.
  2. A used up MP-6 gun sent by OKB-16 is installed instead of a combat ready specimen.
  3. The TMFP optical sight is missing (the People's Commissariat of Armament never sent one).
  4. 36 magazines of ammunition are missing from the full ammunition loadout.
In other words, the gun was only good as a dummy weight, and gunnery trials could not be performed. This failure was directly connected with repressions of the OKB-16 management.
 
That "Finnish" aerosled is NKL-16/41.
https://www.armedconflicts.com/SOV-NKL-16-41-aerosane-t39701#225970 (machine translated)

Tatra V 855:

Whole article about aerosleds in Russia/USSR, in Czech:
 
Hello all.

I am sure you all are familiar with Soviet aerosani like the NKL-16/37, NKL-16/41, NKL-26/41, RF-8 GAZ-98, TsKB-50 02SS, (and their wheeled variants) the Finnish Tervasmaa aerosani, the monster Swedish Sländan aerosani, plus German aerosani like Propellerschlitten WH-WL or Tatra V855, but has anyone heard of a Luftwaffe aerosani?

I found this website: http://alifrafikkhan.blogspot.com/2016/08/propellerschlitten-dan-aerosan.html

It mentions how the Luftwaffe built aerosani like a convertible, possibly implying these were reserved for high-ranking officers. I was able to find another photo of this unknown aerosani that was not on the site I linked, which shows multiple vehicles parked in a row, which tells me this was not a one-off build but perhaps a limited serial build like the Propellerschlitten WH-WL.

Does anybody know of any good resources on German aerosani? Does anybody recognize this vehicle? I am curious if it was really a Luftwaffe project.

Cheers.

PS thanks edwest for directing me to a more appropriate thread.
 

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Aerosleds
 

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The Russians used a small, closed car with skis and a propeller in the back for traveling through snow during the war. The Germans captured some for their own use.

The Aerosani (known in the West as aero-sleds), though some types had no cabs. Below, via Dark Roasted Blend is an example of a captured aero-sled, not sure of the model:
2097505994_31bbdcb5b8.jpg


The Germans were quite impressed by the aero-sleds they encountered, and attempted to reverse engineer or otherwise build their own versions, for example, the Tatra V 855 (only two prototypes, built in 1942).
2096704781_04441964b3.jpg

(TatraWorld via Dark Roasted Blend)

Those "square" swastikas imply that it was operated by Finns. ... perhaps captured from Russians along the Karelian Front, which was close to Petrograd/Saint Petersburg/Leningrad.
 
Book about A. N. Tupolev:
There is a chapter on propeller sleds here.
 
According to this article from 1946, the Germans contracted Coanda in 1942 to design a jet propulsion system to be used, presumably, on an aerosani, given that the article says snow sled. Its purpose was as an ambulance. I am curious where this assertion came from and if there is anything that came from it paperwork-wise to prove it was a real contract. Did Coanda himself make this claim? As far as I can tell, the magazine's bibliography, if there was one, was not saved in the internet archive.

https://web.archive.org/web/2016030...bal.com/pdfarchive/view/1946/1946 - 1600.html
 

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