Echoes of the Second World War by Trish Marx

Echoes of the Second World War by Trish Marx

The Natter rocket plane, a WI German weapon, marked a key milestone in vertical rocket-powered flight.

Well before Yuri Gagarin or Alan Shepard, Lothar Sieber became the first man to take off vertically from the ground under rocket power on March 1, 1945. The plane crashed after flying for 55 seconds and he was killed. The launch marked a milestone on the road to spaceflight, even though it remained virtually unknown to the general public for more than half a century.

But the Natter was a weapon of war born out in the closing months of World War I when Germany was desperately looking for 'wonder weapons' to fight the inevitable defeat.

A vertical take-off rocket fighter, the Natter would reach the Allied bomber altitude in seconds, then the pilot would get within firing distance of a bomber, and fire all 24 rockets into the nose in a single shot. Its fuel running out, the pilot will then glide the plane at high speed to a lower altitude, at which point he will trigger the plane to break up, a large parachute opening at the rear, popping off the nose and the pilot with it. The pilot and the tail with the Walter rocket engine would land under their separate parachutes, while the disposable nose, fuselage and wings were to crash to the ground.

The Natter is unquestionably an exciting aircraft but it is safe to assume that it would have been a failure as a bomber interceptor.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780356167541
ISBN 10	0356167542
Title	Echoes of the Second World War
Author	Trish Marx
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Macdonalds Children's Books
Year published	1989-01-01
Number of pages	96
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.