Sanger Orbital Bomber

Sanger Orbital Bomber - In June 1935 and February 1936, Dr. Eugen Sänger published articles in the Austrian aviation publication Flug on rocket-powered aircraft. This led to his being asked by the German High Command to build a secret aerospace research institute in Trauen to research and build his "Silverbird", a manned, winged vehicle that could reach orbit. Dr. Sänger had been working on this concept for several years, and in fact he had began developing liquid-fuel rocket engines. From 1930 to 1935, he had perfected (through countless static tests) a 'regeneratively cooled' liquid-fueled rocket engine that was cooled by its own fuel, which circulated around the combustion chamber. This engine produced an astounding 3048 meters/second (10000 feet/second) exhaust velocity, as compared to the later V-2 rocket's 2000 meters/second (6560 feet/second). Dr. Sänger, along with his staff, continued work at Trauen on the "Silverbird" under the Amerika Bomber program. The Sänger Amerika Bomber (or Orbital Bomber, Antipodal Bomber or Atmosphere Skipper) was designed for supersonic, stratospheric flight. The fuselage was flattened, which helped create lift and the wings were short and wedge shaped. There was a horizontal tail surface located at the extreme aft end of the fuselage, which had a small fin on each end. The fuel was carried in two large tanks, one on each side of the fuselage, running from the wings aft. Oxygen tanks were located one on each side of the fuselage, located forward of the wings. There was a huge rocket engine of 100 tons thrust mounted in the fuselage rear, and was flanked by two auxiliary rocket engines. The pilot sat in a pressurized cockpit in the forward fuselage, and a tricycle undercarriage was fitted for a gliding landing. A central bomb bay held one 3629 kg (8000 lb) free-falling bomb, and no defensive armament was fitted. The empty weight was to be approximately 9979 kg (22000 lbs). An interesting flight profile was envisioned for the "Silverbird". It was to be propelled down a 3 km (1.9 mile) long monorail track by a rocket-powered sled that developed a 600 ton thrust for 11 seconds (please see diagram below). After taking off at a 30 degree angle and reaching an altitude of 1.5 km (5100'), a speed of 1850 km/h (1149 mph) would be reached. At this point, the main rocket engine would be fired for 8 minutes and burn 90 tons of fuel to propel the "Silverbird" to a maximum speed of 22100 km/h (13724 mph) and an altitude of over 145 km (90 miles), although some sources list the maximum altitude reached as 280 km (174 miles). As the aircraft accelerated and descended under the pull of gravity, it would then hit the denser air at about 40 km (25 miles) and 'skip' back up as a stone does when skipped along water (please see drawing below). This also had the added benefit of cooling the aircraft after the intense frictional heating encountered when the denser air was reached. The skips would gradually be decreased until the aircraft would glide back to a normal landing using its conventional tricycle landing gear, after covering approximately 23500 km (14594 miles). The final test facilities for full-scale rocket engine tests were being built when Russia was invaded in June 1941. All futuristic programs were canceled due to the need to concentrate on proven designs. Dr. Sänger went on to work on ramjet designs for the DFS (German Research Institute for Gliding), and helped to design the Skoda-Kauba Sk P.14. Although the Luftwaffe did its best to stop Dr. Sänger from publishing his research results, a few copies went unaccounted for and made their way to other countries. After the war, he was asked to work (along with mathematician Irene Bredt) for the French Air Ministry, where in a bizarre plot, he was almost kidnapped by Stalin, who recognized the value of the Amerika Bomber.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Sanger
• Orbital
• Bomber
• Sänger
• Amerika
• Luft46
• Luftwaffe
• 10000
• mph
• rocket

[dontcommentme]

interesting

[machizm]

This video is good.

I felt two things at the same time,a fear of the war madness and a possibility of technology.

How do this bomber hop on the Earth's atmosphere?

Dose the Space Shuttle idea come from Sanger's bomber?

[InfiniteMushroom]

Had this bomber gone through to actual flight testing, Sanger would have realized that the boundary between upper atmosphere and space does not present the firm boundary that he was counting on for the bomber to ride upon

Lots of far sighted thinking but, it was old-fashioned mass production of the U.S. that won the war. The Italians had a better, albeit lower tech, answer to the turbojet. The motor jet. THAT would have given Hitler a reliable mass produced jet engine to regain air superiority

[Alembic25]

There's poor quality photographic evidence that a mock up was built of Silverbird. Sanger began to realise that he had grossly underestimated the degree of aerodynamic heating the craft would be subjected to. Increased insulation leads to increased weight and the sums don't add up. The design becomes so heavy as to become impractical. Materials available at the time were not able to resist the heat either. An interesting design that would have burnt up in the atmosphere on re-entry.

[nipponhouseplayer]

I saw documentation that said it was the most labor active program at the time for the Japanese and that one of these rail tracks was constructed on an Island and for payment they were giving Jet technology and a Jet. There was a photo of a white GO229 with the Nippon sign on the side. Sounds far out but also was the Giant Japanese I-400 sub bigger than anything until are Nuke subs came out in the 1960"s . they were the hail mary of Bio War devices carrying the worst disease know to man.

[vidmizz]

i like the moh music ;D

[MegaPanzerTiger]

The Sanger really was a monster. If the Germans had deployed against the Yankees, then the war would have ended quickly.

[kwijibo33]

What's the sountrack of this video?

[Gloomshadow1]

I dont think this would have effected the outcome of the war though, the launch runway would have been attacked and destroyed with conventional bombers after D-day..and it still would not have been completed by then..Germany did the right thing to cancel the program..the money would have all been lost on D-day...the launch runway was found half built in France by Gen George S. Patton..he wrote about it in his book "War as I knew it"..he died before ever finding out about the bomber though.

[hmmwvj]

1:06 the control surfaces look way too small for something so fast.

[LordKatzeify]

Its scary... when we had enough money we propably would have buildt it... then the first human in space would have been german... but for wich price...

[WarTubeChannel]

this was one desighn plan germany had in WW2 for hitlers Amerika Bomer thank GOD it did not become a reality.