FWIW I have seen this device mentioned several times in my reading over the years, mostly in connection with Heinkel He-111s. It was obviously not at all successful, and I believe the crews were not enthusiastic about carrying another container of flammable liquid into battle…
Read the full replywatched "The Hurricane that saved London" on the History Channel last nite. A fighter pilot explained that he thought the Dornier he was attacking was already damaged and leaking . Turns out it was an experimental rear mounted flamethrower that malfunctioned and did not ignite the oil that got all over the Hurricane.
Anyone heard about this thing?
Craig
i saw that too and went, huh? never heard about that and google isn't helping.
FWIW I have seen this device mentioned several times in my reading over the years, mostly in connection with Heinkel He-111s. It was obviously not at all successful, and I believe the crews were not enthusiastic about carrying another container of flammable liquid into battle either. Only picture I have ever seen was a small pipe sticking out of the underside of the tail of a He-111 and labeled as the "barrel"?
Bill Shuey
man, i spen two solid hours on google and another at the library finding nothing. must have been a real dude. and short lived. anyone help? this has become an obsession.
wonder how well an undirected flame would operate at 250 +/- mph with headwinds, prop wash, etc...
Craig.
Very well...if you can get the flame front to propagate behind the aircraft...
Here's an Aussie F-111 dumping fuel and then lighting the afterburners to ignite it:
An F-111 can do this because the fuel dump outlet is located between the engine exhausts. I'm told that Tomcats used to do this trick as well, but that the USN brass passed the word to knock it off.
i suspect that those variables are what made it fail.
how could i do this on the beast to smoke them asshole tailgaters?
I knew a guy once that rigged spark plugs into his tail pipes to produce backfires at will on his street rod...a little copper tubing, a bottle, some gassoline, a spark plug, and a little ingenuity...
old hot rodders trick. impressive at night. hmm, ok lady, wanna ride my ass? here!
You don't need any added gasoline--just a spark plug threaded into the tail pipe and a rich carb. I remember seeing one in action back in the '50s. Impressive but hard on exhaust systems.
MB
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