# What are some other wacky military ideas that never made it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911 "2005-08-27T22:28:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/61 "2005-08-30T14:37:57Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > However, they did build one flying tank. Basically, wings and an empannage werre attached to a tank and it was towed aloft by a bomber. Upon reaching the landing zone it was to jettison the flying structure upon landing, after which it would be a regular tank. It was flown once. I think the German Gigant has already been mentioned. Like the BV 141, the Goblin, and a few others in this thread, it gets an entry in The World’s Worst Aircraft. The original idea was attaching big glider wings, and a tail to a tank. The tank could be towed to altitude, glide to the drop site, and jettison the glider parts. Aerodynamic problems led to more and more of the tank being covered by a glider frame. Soon, they had a huge glider, still cloth skin stretched over a metal frame, with a nose that split open to admit large cargo. It required too many tow planes. So the Gigant was fitted with its own engines. The whole idea might now have worked if they’d begun to think of the project as a plane. But, they were stuck on the idea of a glider. A huge glider with big engines had all kinds of problems. 201 Gigants were made, some with engines and some without. Besides everything else, they were extremely slow and unmaneuverable. Even with fighter escorts, they were easy targets. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/62 "2005-08-30T14:46:10Z")
Heh. Tow planes. They came up with the Heinkel 111Z to try to get this baby aloft. Two He111s siamesed together with a fifth engine on the wing centre section. You may be starting to get a mental picture of that cartoon of a swing hanging from a tree, and the various modifications made to deal with one flaw after another… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/63 "2005-08-30T15:06:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Heh. Tow planes. They came up with the Heinkel 111Z to try to get this baby aloft. Two He111s siamesed together with a fifth engine on the wing centre section. > > You may be starting to get a mental picture of that cartoon of a swing hanging from a tree, and the various modifications made to deal with one flaw after another… “Well, what if they carried it between them on a bit o’ creeper?” “Well, of course, African Heinkel 111Z’s are non-migratory.” “Oh, yeah…” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ecks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ecks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ecks)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/64 "2005-08-30T21:48:11Z")
Lets see- guns with curved barrels for shooting around corners. the gyrojet pistol: almost as effective as a .45, but much, much more expensive. And set fire to anything it hit would have been a bonus, but the gun was wildly inaccurate. The jetpack- not a terrible idea, but thirty seconds of controlled flight is good for nothing. The civil war idea of simultaniously firing two cannons loaded with cannonballs connected by a chain. The problem was the simultanious part. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/65 "2005-08-30T23:22:57Z")
> [@Johnny Ecks](#): > > The jetpack- not a terrible idea, but thirty seconds of controlled flight is good for nothing. About the jetpacks—most of the ones tested and in use today were actually rocket propelled. Bell was working on one with a true _Jet_ engine which—and I _think_ it made it to the prototype stage—actually had a seven minute endurance. Still not great, or militarily practical, but hey, cool enough. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/66 "2005-08-31T00:10:28Z")
> [@Johnny Ecks](#): > > the gyrojet pistol: almost as effective as a .45, but much, much more expensive. And set fire to anything it hit would have been a bonus, but the gun was wildly inaccurate. You left out the interesting part. The Gyrojet didn’t shoot bullets. It fired mini-rockets. The ammo conatinedd its own fuel, and increased in speed and damge as it flew. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/67 "2005-08-31T02:03:53Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > The original idea was attaching big glider wings, and a tail to a tank. The tank could be towed to altitude, glide to the drop site, and jettison the glider parts. Aerodynamic problems led to more and more of the tank being covered by a glider frame. Soon, they had a huge glider, still cloth skin stretched over a metal frame, with a nose that split open to admit large cargo. It required too many tow planes. So the Gigant was fitted with its own engines. The whole idea might now have worked if they’d begun to think of the project as a plane. But, they were stuck on the idea of a glider. A huge glider with big engines had all kinds of problems. 201 Gigants were made, some with engines and some without. Besides everything else, they were extremely slow and unmaneuverable. Even with fighter escorts, they were easy targets. I think you got the Gigant and the flying tank confused. [This](http://www.unrealaircraft.com/roadable/images/antonovkt.jpeg) is the flying tank and [this](http://perso.wanadoo.fr/frenchaces/avions/luftwaffe/img/me323_ph.jpg) is the Gigant. The Gigant **did** start its life as a glider (Me 321) and had engines added later on, becoming the Me 323. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/68 "2005-08-31T03:09:20Z")
> [@Johnny Ecks](#): > > The civil war idea of simultaniously firing two cannons loaded with cannonballs connected by a chain. The problem was the simultanious part. Sounds like Swordchucks. ---
**Author:** ![douglips](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@douglips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/douglips)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/69 "2005-08-31T03:26:35Z")
My personal favorite wacky military project: The Nuclear Ramjet cruise missile - [Project Pluto](http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html) Capable of cruising at supersonic speeds, and of staying airborne for weeks, they eventually hit upon the idea of simply driving it back and forth across the Soviet Union after it had delivered it’s 12 warheads to their targets, spewing radioactive exhaust over the countryside. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/70 "2005-09-02T00:48:35Z")
> [@douglips](#): > > My personal favorite wacky military project: > The Nuclear Ramjet cruise missile - [Project Pluto](http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html) > > Capable of cruising at supersonic speeds, and of staying airborne for weeks, they eventually hit upon the idea of simply driving it back and forth across the Soviet Union after it had delivered it’s 12 warheads to their targets, spewing radioactive exhaust over the countryside. Mach 3. **At treetop level**. It could have killed people just by flying overhead. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/71 "2005-09-02T00:52:09Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > Watching The History Channel today. (Hence, accuracy is suspect.) They claimed the Russians had plans for a flying submarine (or submersible airplane) in WWII. It was never built. Didn’t some of the German Subs actually carry an autogyro that could be deployed for scouting? I seem to remember seeing photographs once. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/72 "2005-09-02T00:56:22Z")
From [here](http://www.pra007.org/histfaq.html) > [@](#): > > Q: Did anyone else fly autogyros? > > A: Before World War II, the German aircraft company Focke-Achgelis was licensed by Cierva and produced the C-19 Autogyro. From this design they developod thc first fully controlled helicopter, the FA-61, which flew in 1937. The German navy also used autogyro gliders, which were towed behind submarines on a long cable. The pilot, high above the sea, could spot ships and relay this information by telephone to the submarine below. Sometimes the autogyro pilot was forgotten in the press of battle. Imagine how it must have felt to see the cable attaching you to the submarine getting shorter and shorter as the submarine dived before retrieving you! ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/73 "2005-09-06T23:56:44Z")
This just in: [The German Chocolate Surprise, and other wacky ideas](http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article310341.ece): > [@](#): > > The weapons, such as the chocolate hand-grenade, designed to explode after the first row of chunks was broken off, were part of a campaign to undermine British resolve using sabotage and propaganda. > > The bomb-makers were nothing if not ingenious. As well as packing explosives into cans of Smedley’s English Grown Plums, the Nazis disguised plastic explosive as Wagon-Lits soap, hid detonators in torch batteries, and made exploding crucifixes, an incendiary Thermos flask and an exploding rat. ---
**Author:** ![Ficer67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/74 "2005-09-07T03:30:38Z")
The Spruce Goose was a good idea, just that the war ended before it could prove itself. We still employ the same principle today, look at the C-5 Galaxy… ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/75 "2005-09-07T04:58:28Z")
The U.S. [“Special Purpose Individual Weapon”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Purpose_Individual_Weapon) project to produce a Flechette-firing automatic rifle. [Springfield’s version](http://www.securityarms.com/20010315/galleryfiles/0400/444.htm) included an underbarrel automatic grenade launcher. There was also the EX-41, an experimental pump-action version of the M-79 grenade launcher. All the sites about it online seem to be dead at the moment, though. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/76 "2005-09-07T05:15:05Z")
> [@Ficer67](#): > > The Spruce Goose was a good idea, just that the war ended before it could prove itself. We still employ the same principle today, look at the C-5 Galaxy… And personally, I would have been interested in seeing an alternate WW2 where the B-36 was used regulary in combat, instead of becoming a historical footnote like it did. ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/77 "2005-09-07T09:55:55Z")
[Monty Python] If we built this large wooden badger… [/Monty Python] ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/78 "2005-09-07T10:26:21Z")
Hadn’t heard of the German Chocolate surprise! (Thanks for that one, Larry.) The British had a similar turn of mind with explosive lumps of coal, but my personal favourite was the land mine disguised as camel crap, for use in North Africa. (Saw it on a documentary about the Special Operations Executive (SOE), where a chap’s top secret assignment was to obtain a representative sample of camel crap from London zoo.) The _really_ cunning version had the imprint of a tyre track already running through it… [http://www.maskelynemagic.com/9mi9soe.html](http://www.maskelynemagic.com/9mi9soe.html) \*\*“I realised that if anyone is driving for hours in the desert it gets so bloody monotonous, if he sees a pile of dung ahead, he’ll drive through it — just for something different. So I came to the conclusion that if we made dummy dung and put in a tyrebuster, a small charge with a metal pin in, we could blow the whole bloody wheel off a German vehicle.” In a separate reference, I came across another unusual character , Carleton Coon , an eccentric anthropologist, trained by the SOE and employed as an agent for the OSS. Coon was famous for his disappearing donkey act : "A compliant and unsuspecting donkey would be loaded with a timing device and a whopping seventy-five pounds of the new plastic explosive, “composition C’. A child would tether this trojan horse to the nearest tent full of German officers and then quietly slip away. At the preordained moment, donkey, tent, and the Wermacht’s best and brightest would all disappear in a thunderous explosion and terrible flash of light. Or so it was hoped.”\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Capt\_B.Phart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Capt\_B.Phart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_B.Phart)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/79 "2005-09-07T14:05:22Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > The Panjandrum was a huge self-propelled demolition bomb - it had a pair of enormous wheels propelled by rim-mounted rockets firing tangentially. It was invented by Aussie novelist Neville Shute – there’s a great bit of footage of it being tested on a beach. A dog starts chasing it, it gets out of control and starts chasing the dog! with rockets getting loose and flying around the sand passed the terrified mutt. There was a series on British tv some time ago which dedicated an episode to the ideas that didn’t make it – the ones that I remember include a German attempt to use retro-rockets instead of parachutes (why I don’t know), the test footage mostly showed the payload (a light truck IIRC) slamming into the ground at full speed, the retros would then fire and blast the wreckage skywards again. (More recently["Credible Sport"](http://www.spectrumwd.com/c130/articles/Credible_Sport.htm) suggests that timing is still everything when having fun with rockets > [@](#): > > There was no trouble in hitting the ground, the hard part was firing the rockets at just the right altitude. No shit!) Also featured was an American idea for making planes invisible by putting bright lights on the leading edge of the wings to eliminate the silhouette. Tests showed it actually worked (so long as the plane was coming straight at you, which an attacking plane would be) From what I’ve heard the pigeon-guided missile had a fair chance of success - after all a pigeon represents a greater amount of image-processing and spatial awareness than even the best guidance systems today. The steering-mechanism/poultry interface may have been a bit clunky, but no worse than a lot of what saw service in WWII In fact much of the stuff that was actually used on D-Day seemed pretty mad - except it (mostly) worked (though as the “Bangalore Torpedo” incident dramatised in Private Ryan showed, the poor sods who had to make them work weren’t always so appreciative of the inventive genius behind them) [Hobart’s Funnies](http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/hobart.htm) [Mulberry and Pluto](http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/England-History/MulberryandPluto.htm) Radar was partly born out of research into using “death-rays” (just… don’t!) to destroy aircraft rather than detect them ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911/80 "2005-09-07T15:13:23Z")
> [@Capt B. Phart](#): > > Also featured was an American idea for making planes invisible by putting bright lights on the leading edge of the wings to eliminate the silhouette. Tests showed it actually worked (so long as the plane was coming straight at you, which an attacking plane would be) Yehudi camoflage. It works on tanks and camps too. Far enough way, the lights blend into the daytime sky and render the object invisible. It was declassified for decades. Then, the military reclassified it. They had decided that they could make stealth aircraft difficult enough to detect by radar that an enemy’s first warning would be visual. Popular Science had an article on lights being mounted on the plane’s underside as well. There is also research into translucent panels in the wings. These would make it more difficult to see an aircraft from beneath. IMHO Yehudi camoflage does not belong in this thread. It may very well work. Some birds of prey have evolved natural Yehudi camoflage. Their wings are largely translucent in sunlight. At hunting altitude, this greatly reduces the shadow they cast on the ground, and makes them invisible to prey looking up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-other-wacky-military-ideas-that-never-made-it/318911.md?page=5)