weapons – Page 114 – The Unwanted Blog

One of the lesser known rocket projects from WWII Germany is the MF-5. I’ve found very little about this two-stage missile over the years… a mention in Ordway’s “International Missile and Spacecraft Guide” and a few drawings found buried in the NASM archive more than a decade ago.

According to Ordway, the “Nutcracker” was developed for the German Navy by Rheinmetall-Borsig at Marienfelde-Berlin. It was intended for use against low-flying aircraft. It was the fifth of the “Marine Flak” series; work began on it in July 1944, but was stopped in September. A Telefunken Kogge system was used for radio-remote control… but left unexplained was exactly how the missile was tracked. If it was meant for launch specifically from submarines, then presumably that means it was meant for underwater launch, in which case only a periscope would be available to track both the missile and the target… which seems a dubious prospect.

Length according to the drawing was 3238 mm, span over the main wing, 1290 mm. Other data from Ordway:

Weight: 473 pounds

Warhead: 25 pounds

Velocity: 536 mph

First stage thrust: 1,040 lbs for 0.9 seconds

Second stage thrust: 510 pounds for 10 seconds

Victory for father who stabbed axe thug to protect family

Kenneth Blight, 51, walked free from the Appeal Court after the country’s most senior judge threw out an application from the Attorney General to increase his original sentence.

Baroness Scotland QC pursued the father-of-three after he was given a two-year suspended jail term for stabbing drug-crazed teenager Andrew Nelson in a bid to protect his partner and children in their home.

She argued the original sentence was ‘unduly lenient’.

But in a stinging judgment that could signal greater rights for homeowners to protect themselves from intruders, her application was dismissed by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge.

The real question is why was Mr. Blight convicted of any crime in the first place, since he manifestly did not commit a crime.

No, not Branigan.

Boeing 747 uses laser to destroy missile

A U.S. military aircraft, equipped with an airborne laser device, successfully shot down a test missile in the sky off the central California coast Thursday night.

The high-energy laser, mounted on the nose of a modified Boeing 747-400F, was focused on the missile target during its boosting phase. The laser beam burned a hole in the side of the missile.

It was the first time that a laser weapon has engaged and destroyed an in-flight ballistic missile, and is the first time that any system has accomplished destroyed a missile as it was in its boosting phase.

There is a video of the test at the link. It takes several seconds to destroy the missile, the laser tracking it the whole time. it’s not like sci-fi, sadly.

A DAD who cut a thug’s ear off with a Samurai sword has been cleared by a jury

Builder David Fullard, 46, leapt into action as the brute and a pal forced their way into his home and threatened to rape his girlfriend and kill his sons.

He grabbed the antique sword and sliced off the left lug of the yob – named Michael SEVERS.

Prosecutors said Mr Fullard went too far for self-defence and charged him with unlawful wounding. He faced up to EIGHT YEARS in jail.

A jury took less than 50 minutes to acquit him at Hull Crown Court.

Now, to fire the prosecutors for dereliction of duty, and put them on trial for corruption and crimes against humanity.

Someone breaks into your home and threatens your family, if getting their ears lopped off is all that happens to ’em, they should consider themselves fortunate. If they threaten to rape your girl, I as a jurist would have a hard time convicting you of anything, no matter how medieval you got on their asses. “They were going to hurt my girl” should be a universally recognized legal defence along the lines of “They needed killin’,” but more abruptly “case-closed-worthy.”

Sadly, the stoy isn’t entirely full of win. There’s this:

Yesterday the two jobless thugs got six-month suspended sentences and 100 hours of community service after admitting affray.

Oy.

So far there have been Aircraft Documents, Aircraft Drawings, Spacecraft Documents, Spacecraft Drawings, Aerospace Projects Review and Justo Miranda’s “Reichdreams” series. I will soon be doing much the same with a few military manuals and general non-aerospace historical documents that might be of interest. I have a half dozen or so small-format “comic book” style instructional manuals on things such as anti-tank warfare and using your Vulcan anti-aircraft cannon that I will be making available. Since these are pretty small items, the prices will be appropriately small… maybe two bucks.

<> If you have anything along these lines just taking up space that you’d be interested in loaning, renting or selling to me (or if you know of a source for such), let me know what you have.

Remember, we don’t need the F-22, because it’s an obsolete throwback to the Cold War. Anyone who thinks that the US should have advanced warplanes is clearly a paranoid warmongering reactionary.

Many more photos and vids available on this thread:

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,9186.0.html

Justo Miranda’s “Unknown!” volume 4 is now available for download. This issue includes 60 pages of technical illustrations with 1/72, 1/24 and 1/5 scale drawings and English text. The Unknown! series is at the bottom of this page:

http://www.up-ship.com/blog/drawndoc/rd/rd.htm

*Horten Ho XIII B German supersonic delta fighter
*Henschel P.75 German canard-pusher heavy fighter, *”Einpersonenfluggerät” German flying belt
*”Panzerblitz I” German antitank airborne rocket series
*Curtiss-Wright P-248-01 (CW-21B “Demon” + Allison engine)
*Twin-engined variant of Curtiss P.40, Davis “Manta fighter” (twin boom airframe)
*Davis “Manta fighter” (conventional airframe)
*Kawanishi “Baika” model 1 (detachable undercarriage)
*Kawanishi “Baika” model 2 (submarine launched variant)
*Kawanishi “Baika” model 3 (air launched variant)
*Blackburn B-37 “Firebrand” Mk I & Mk II British naval fighter
*Fiat G.50V, G.52 & G.53 in line engined variants
*French flying guns in WWII : MAC 34, Oerlikon FFS, HS.7, HS.9 & HS.404
*French baby fighters Potez 230, Roussel R.30 & Bloch 700/720

Unknown #4 can be purchased for download for $16.

A couple shots of a few of the SPIW prototype rifles at the Rock Island Arsenal museum. These examples are pretty rough… the museum has better.

Here’s a missile I’ve not seen too much on… the early/mid-1950’s “Cannon Ball” developed by Johns Hopkins for the Navy and the Army. Some aspects of its design are suprisingly modern-looking, while some are creakingly antiquated. It was a spherical anti-armor missile (apparently also adapted for anti-submarine use) with an impressively large shapred charge warhead. The solid propellant seems to have been wrapped around the central cylindrical core formed by the warhead, and contained within the spherical shell. A single propulsion nozzle was located off-axis; three sets of control jets (attitude control thrusters) were located equidistant around the perimeter.

It was controlled remotely via radio. Sadly, the control system seems to have been a nightmare… there were *two* pilots, one controlling pitch, the other yaw. They guided it by watching the smoke trail its rocket left behind.

The basic design is very similar to modern hit-to-kill anti-missile systems. Simply replace the warhead with an optical sensor and some computers, and you’ll be pretty much there.

<> A bit more on Cannonball is here.

In the US, we have the “Castle Doctrine” (at least in most states) which means that if someone breaks into your home and poses a threat, you can use deadly force to defend yourself, without first having to resort to running away and cowering in the furthest corner. Britain, on the other hand, does not seem to have that. When even millionaires can’t buy themselves some justice, you know the legal system is well and truly screwed. Witness the case of Munir Hussain:

Mr Hussain’s nightmare began on September 3 last year when he, his wife, 18-year-old daughter and two sons aged 18 and 15 returned from their mosque during Ramadan to find three intruders in their home in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

They were tied up and told to get on the floor if they did not want to be killed. One of Mr Hussain’s sons managed to escape and alerted Mr Hussain’s younger brother Tokeer, 35, who lived a few doors away.

Mr Hussain made a break for freedom by throwing a coffee table at his attackers. He and Tokeer chased the gang and brought Salem to the ground in a front garden.

Reading Crown Court heard how Mr Hussain and his brother then beat Salem while he lay on the ground, using a cricket bat, a pole and a hockey stick – leaving him with a fractured skull and brain damage following the ‘sustained’ attack.

Alright, so far I imagine that most readers of the Unwanted Blog would have a reaction that is essentially “good job Mr. Hussain.” Violent criminals assaulted his family and presented them with terror and the immediate threat of death; when the opportunity came to turn the tables, Munir and his brother did so and laid a beatdown on a man who posed a clear and present danger to him, his wife and his *children.* Now, the proper response of society at large would be a handshake from the chief of police, a pat on the back from the mayor, and a loud “thank you” from a grateful public. But what actually happened?

Judge John Reddihough said some members of the public would think that 56-year-old Salem ‘deserved what happened to him’ and that Mr Hussain ‘should not have been prosecuted’.

But had he spared Mr Hussain jail, the judge said, the ‘rule of law’ would collapse.

He said: ‘If persons were permitted to take the law into their own hands and inflict their own instant and violent punishment on an apprehended offender rather than letting the criminal justice system take its course, then the rule of law and our system of criminal justice, which are hallmarks of a civilised society, would collapse.’

Munir Hussain has been sentenced to 30 months in prison, and his brother to 39. Waled Salem, the man who broke into Hussains home, threatened the family, then got his ass handed to him, has been given a “non custodial sentence.”

The article includes this helpful sidebar:

If you use force which is ‘not excessive’ against burglars then the law is on your side.
Last year’s Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill contained clauses to protect people from prosecution if they act instinctively and out of fear for their safety.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw said:

‘Law-abiding citizens should not be put off tackling criminals by fear of excessive investigation.
‘For a passer-by witnessing a street crime or a householder faced with a burglar, we are reassuring them that if they use force which is not excessive or disproportionate, the law really is behind them.’

The problem is that the British Nanny State does not seem to understand what “excessive” is in this context. Using a flamethrower or a heavy machinegun or an RPG against someone who has tried to kill your family is excessive, because the weapons themselves very likely will cause collateral damage to your neighbors and their property. But in this case, the weapons used were a pole, a hockey stick and a cricket bat. These will *not* cause collateral damage to innocent bystanders; they are in fact extremely short-ranged weapons. And since the threat posed was “death,” then no amount of force, so long as it is reasonably precise and focussed solely on the criminal, can be excessive. It’s not like you can kill the man twice.

So, for me there are two lessons to take from this:

1) The Founding Fathers knew what they were doign when they dragged us away from this sort of horrible governance

2) Always remember the the Rule Of SSS:

A) Shoot

B) Shovel

C) Shut up

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One other reason to be glad for the separation from Mother England:

Mother’s fury at Tesco Christmas card that pokes fun at ginger children

The actual story is not terribly important, but it is just another in a long, incomprehensible line of items that show that in Britain, redheads seem to be seen as lesser people or some such. While in the US, redheads – barring recent showings of a certain episode of South Park – are not seen the same way. We see them… somewhat differently (go ahead and do a Google image search for “redhead” and try to find something that’s safe for work).