11–18 of 18 posts
> On March 10, 1945, one of the last paper balloons descended in the vicinity of the Manhattan Project's production facility at the Hanford Site. This balloon caused a short circuit in the power lines supplying electricity for the nuclear reactor cooling pumps, but backup safety devices restored power almost immediately.
Other relevant / weird WWII reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb (US program) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog (Russian program)
There's a really great Radiolab episode on this topic: http://www.radiolab.org/story/fu-go/
These are still (very rarely) found by hikers in the pacific northwest (source: i'm a bomb tech). Other relevant / weird WWII reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb (US program) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog (Russian program)
Eventually, an Army fighter managed to push one of the balloons around in the air and force it to ground intact, where it was examined and filmed. Wait, what, how??
In the UK during WWII, it was discovered that you could flip over a V1 flying bomb by putting the wingtip of your plane just under the wingtip of the bomb, at which point its gyro would get confused and it would flip over and spiral into the ground. This was apparently much safer than shooting them because otherwise you'd get caught in the shockwave when they exploded (they were bombs, after all).
Here's a terrible Daily Mail article, but it's got the famous photos of someone actually doing it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384740/Kate-Middlet...
BTW, wikipedia claims that in at least one case the V1 engine quenched after tipping, at which point it regained controlled flight and came down to a safe landing near Tilburg, where it was captured for examination...
These are still (very rarely) found by hikers in the pacific northwest (source: i'm a bomb tech). Other relevant / weird WWII reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb (US program) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog (Russian program)