The Sänger Amerika Bomber

[lepercan]

Here's some more info on that bird.
Let me mention briefly another Amerika Bomber Project. Dr. Eugen Sanger had been working on Rocket engines since the early 1930's and had developed some very powerful and extremely efficient rocket engines. This led to his being asked by the German military to build an aerospace research institute in Trauen to research and build his "Silverbird", a manned, winged vehicle that could circle at least half way around the earth in space. The Sanger Amerika Bomber (or Antipodal Bomber (antipodal, in this context meaning to the other side of the globe)) was designed to be launched into a sub orbital trajectory and skip along the top of the atmosphere several times before sinking back down and gliding in to a landing. It was powered by a huge rocket engine mounted in the rear of the fuselage rear with two auxiliary rocket engines on each side giving a total thrust of 145.7 tons. A bomb bay held one 8000 lb bomb to be dropped on it’s target as it flew over. This could have been the first reusable space vehicle, had it been built. The "Silverbird" was to be propelled down a 1.9 mile long monorail track by a rocket-powered sled that developed a 700 tons thrust for 10 seconds. After taking off at a 30 degree angle and reaching an altitude of 5100 feet, the main rocket engine would be fired for 8 minutes and burn 90 tons of fuel to propel the "Silverbird" to a speed of 13724 mph and an altitude of over 90 miles. It would then hit the denser air at about 25 miles and "skip" back up as a stone does when skipped along water. The final test facilities for full-scale rocket engine tests were being built when, in June 1941, all futuristic programs were canceled due to the need to concentrate on proven designs. After the war, he was asked to work (along with mathematician and his future wife, Irene Bredt) for the French Air Ministry, where he was almost kidnaped by Stalin, who recognized the value of the Amerika Bomber.

I thought I had a model of it somewhere, I'll keep looking
Lep

[lepercan]

Aha!
Part Time Models put out a resin kit a few years ago... I think it's on EBay now.
Sure would like to see a paper model of the whole thing (Hint, hint)
Lep

[Zathros]

It would have never reached the speed needed to obtain a sub orbital altitude.. It would have never worked. There was a show on TV recently that explored this vehicle and stated that it did not carry enough fuel and the aforementioned heat shield problem. It seems that every couple of years people come out with weapons that "could have" ,"if", from this era. It would make a neat paper model, especially if the "sled" could be modeled.

[TANSTAAFL]

I don't read spanish, but a model of this clearly must exist:

http://maquetasenpapel.mforos.com/11...merika-sanger/

[CharlieC]

It does - released as a free model by the designer......http://rapidshare.com/files/97836921/Amerika__Sanger__Bomber_heinkelModels_.V1.2.pdf.ht ml


The design thread is here:

http://maquetasenpapel.mforos.com/13...-download-now/

Regards,

Charlie

[Zathros]

Good find CharlieC.

[B-Manic]

Originally Posted by Paperbeam

B-Manic - Actually, the pilot was intended to keep on flying all the way to the Japanese-held Pacific and land there. Which, of course, never would've happened because it didn't have the requisite heat-shielding...

Terry
Ping-Pong Ball Cannon - sale price - at: Paper Card Model Ping-Pong Ball Cannon - (eBay item 160163957840 end time Oct-11-07 11:23:41 PDT)
N/Z scale Old West models (free samples) at: paperbeam - virtual paper models

It would need to have an incredible glide ratio to be low enough to drop bombs in the eastern US (planned target), cross North America, then head north across the Pacific to Japan. Just another reason it was never built I guess.

[Alcides]

The model was created by Heinkel111.

The thread is about the design of the America Bomber.

Look in this page:

http://maquetasenpapel.mforos.com/13...oad-now/?pag=3

for the link to rapidshare.

You can download the beta version.

Regards
Luis