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Indie Author, Full length Movie and OTT Screen Writer, Illustrator.
A Brief Word
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The development of military transport design during the Second World War era, is of special interest to the author.
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The series is a tribute to the vision, far-sight and perseverance of the innovators of this period, who conceived radical military transport designs and innovations in the face of limited technical means, scarce raw materials, and dangers from enemy action.
As we know, these were desperate times in the conflict of nations, that demanded and often received the best talent and facilities that the nations at war could muster!
The quantum of innovations, conceived and operationalized during the six-year conflict, (circa, 1939-1945), has never been equaled, ever; and can be rightly called the 'transformation era' of military transportation, that reached its zenith, during this period.
Though these designs were used in war, the benefits of that research and the body of knowledge that developed them, (not withstanding the destructive forces that used them as weapons of mass destruction); are being reaped today by humankind, transforming our world into a safer more meaningful place.
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In aviation, for instance concepts like stressed skin fuselage, cantilever wings, retractable undercarriages, variable pitch propellers, direct fuel injection, radio telephony, radio direction finding, radar tracking, blind flying instruments, power assisted flight controls, automatic pilots, pressurized cockpits, jet engines and rocket propulsion have transformed aircraft into reliable and safe transports capable of unerringly traversing continents; precursor to the modern air transport network, as we know today!
Compared to the wood, wire, fabric open cockpit wonders only two decades prior during the First World War era (circa, 1914-18); when aircraft used wing-rocking motions, hand signals and flares to communicate, visual dead reckoning to navigate and fielded no on board safety devices like engine fire suppressants, self sealing fuel tanks, wing flaps, spoilers and wheel brakes, these innovations developed a few decades later, were nothing short of miraculous!
The innovations in marine and over land transport were equally radical and contributory!
Transportation; a principal area of human endeavor, has boldly lead us into the 21st century and contributed to our overall progress, in no uncertain manner!
Join me as I take you through the unforgettable legacy of transport designers from the 1939-1945 era, and their extraordinary contribution to humanity !
The Author
Military Transport Designers (Circa 1939-1945)
Walter Hellmuth - Designer and Inventor
Developed the V-80 experimental high test peroxide submersible and the Type XVIII, U-Boat, that metamorphosed into the Type XXI Elektroboot, spawning a new generation of submarines. After the war, the Type XXI lent its wind tunnel tested, hull design and radical propulsion system, (the high capacity electric batteries and heavy duty drive electrical motors) to the Soviet Whiskey and Zulu class, who adopted its features, as well as the American Tang class submarines and 52 other war conversion U.S. submarines under the Guppy - Greater underwater propulsive power program, pioneering diesel electric submarine design well into the cold war era and beyond.
Precursor to the present day nuclear mammoths -the Russian Victor and Oscar class and the American Los Angeles class designs that trawl the subterranean depths of the world's oceans, today!
Kurt Tank - Aircraft Designer
Developed the Focke Wulf Fw-200 four engine passenger airliner, that metamorphosed into the long range maritime reconnaissance bomber of the Luftwaffe, that earned notoriety in the North Atlantic, where it attacked allied shipping with impunity and carried out reconnaissance duties for Admiral Karl Donitz's Unterseebootwaffe. His other successful design was the Luftwaffe's Focke Wulf Fw-190 radial engine fighter, nicknamed the 'Butcher Bird' by Allied airmen.
He was also instrumental in designing India's first sub sonic, single seat jet fighter bomber- the Marut, HF 24, which joined the Indian Air Force, operational squadrons in the late 1960's and saw combat during the 1971 India- Pakistan war .
Horten Brothers, Walter and Reimar – Stealth Aircraft Designers
The Horten Brothers, Walter (born, 1914) and Reimar (born, 1915), pioneered the concept of the delta wing stealth aircraft, clad in non-metallic fused material coated with carbon/coal paste, that could absorb radar waves and penetrate the enemies air defence undetected. Dismayed by the death of their eldest brother, Wolfram, (born, 1913), killed while piloting a Heinkel He-111 over England, at the height of the Battle of Britain, the brothers realised that the only way to defeat the sophisticated British advanced warning system (‘Chain Home’ and ‘Chain Low’), from extracting a terrible toll of German aircrews; was stealth technology!
The death of Wolfram and the loss of hundreds of Luftwaffe aircrews, prompted the brothers to design and develop the world’s first working delta winged, radar wave absorbing, jet powered, stealth interceptor- the Horten HO-229.
After Germanys defeat the HO-229, was shipped to the USA for evaluation and in a way became the true precursor of today’s Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk and Northrop Grumman ‘B-2 Spirit’, used with devastating effect at the beginning of ‘Operation Desert Storm’ in somewhat similar circumstances to those faced by the brothers in 1940, during the Battle of Britain.
Decimating Iraqi, early warning radars and SAM capabilities from afar, without a single enemy missile being fired at them, they render Saddam’s forces blind and sightless, within the first few hours of the campaign, opening the path for conventional aircraft! The concept of radar deflecting / absorbing technology, painstakingly pioneered by the Horten brothers, saved countless lives, as nonstop coalition air sorties by conventional aircraft followed, ending with the liberation of Kuwait and the subsequent fall of Saddam Hussain, during the second Gulf campaign!