Bouncing a Bomb Back Into the Tail of Your Own Plane

the concept of a bouncing bomb sounds like a notion ripped straight out of a cartoon nonetheless a team of skilled british engineers attempted to devise such an artifact with the objective of busting german dams apart although the concept of a bouncing bomb sounded simple it proved to be far more complicated to put into action setting off the device was a tricky equation it had to be dropped at the right time speed and distance from the water several prototypes crossed the pond for testing at eglin air force base where they were renamed as speedy bombs sadly the united states withdrew its interest in the project after a tragic accident in 1945 this incredible footage shows how the bomb bounced back into the plane immediately tearing off the tail causing the bomber to nose crash straight into the water turning into a mess of debris within seconds the incident destroyed the a26 invader [Music] in 1942 barnes wallace an engineer for vickers engineering had a eureka moment as he played in the garden with his family skipping marbles over water tanks would it be possible to bounce a four-ton bomb across the water allowing it to sink next to a target and explode the british had wanted to destroy german dam since the beginning of world war ii but such an endeavor was impossible at the time a bouncing bomb could be the answer to this problem over several months barnes developed the bouncing bombs also known as dam breakers in the vickers factory and barrow cumbria under barnes supervision a team of engineers successfully manufactured the bouncing bomb and designed multiple upgrades for the aircraft that would carry these artifacts the bombs then went to the royal ordnance factories in south wales and lancashire to be filled with a new explosive 50 more powerful than tnt known as torpex there were two kinds of bouncing bombs upkeeps to be used on dams and high balls a similar bouncing bomb designed to attack enemy ships the bombs contained three pistols that measured the water's hydrostatic pressure as they sank when the artifact reached a depth of 30 feet it would detonate the highball also had a 90 second time fuse in case said mechanism failed the bomb had a cylindrical shape and measured 16 inches long and 50 inches in diameter 65 percent of its 9 250 pounds of weight belonged to its explosive charge before being released from the modified aircraft the bombs were held by v-shaped mechanical arms inside the craft the planes would have to fly at a height of 60 feet and a speed of approximately 250 miles per hour the planes were modified to include two spotlights on their undercarriages that would signal when the aircraft was exactly 60 feet from the water [Music] setting them off was a tricky equation the high ball needed to be dropped at the right speed distance and height above the water [Music] after brief flight testing in the uk the kit was sent to right field ohio there british officials aided in the installation of the kit and an a26c invader 25 high balls which were renamed to speedy bombs was also sent for testing in air force trials some british engineers were present at the beginning of the a26 test drops in the ocean near edmond air force base in florida on april 28 1945 a douglas a-26 invader assigned to the 611th base unit at right field suffered a terrible accident as it broke apart in mid-air during one of the said drop tests it was all captured on video a speedy bouncing bomb was dropped low at about 10 feet but it bounced back into the aircraft and immediately tore off the tail which caused the bomber to nose crash straight into the water within seconds the aircraft imploded and its debris fell into the ocean the tragic accident claimed the lives of all four of its main crew pilot bryce l anderson sergeant russell l boyer sergeant dale t jackson and corporal burton j nabaris this bouncing bomb never saw operational service with the usaaf after the accident american interest in the speedy weapon faded and only one a26 invader was ever converted over 65 years after its invention and subsequent testing in 2010 a diving project in lux driven successfully located several bouncing bomb prototypes under 114 feet of water and in july 2017 two high balls were successfully recovered from lux driven in a joint operation from the east chester subaqua club and the royal navy one of the bouncing bombs is now displayed at the havaland aircraft museum in the village of schenley the other one is exhibited at the brookman's museum in surrey you

Channel: Dark Footage

Views: 251,208

Rating: 4.9389267 out of 5

Keywords: footage, video, caught on camera, caught on tape, military, experiment, test, air force, airplane, aircraft, dark footage, darkdocs, dark docs, dark skies

Id: FEgbi6n1C0E

Length: 5min 40sec (340 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 11 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Bosstrad]

=( poor guy , that's pretty upsetting.
I hope he/she was ok.