D-188A VTOL Nuke Bomber In The Woods

A piece of artwork that didn’t make it into the two-part D-188 articles in APR issues V2N3 and V2N4 (what do you mean you haven’t purchased these?? What are ya, a commie????) depicts a Bell D-188A being serviced at an unprepared hidey-hole in the woods. The idea was that D-188A’s would be scattered around West Germany, ready for the Russkies to storm across the border; the D-188A’s would take off vertically, fly at Mach 2, nuke the bejeebers out of the Red Menace, and then fly home to, presumably, either a radioactive Teutonic ruin, or a bunch of dirndl-wearin’ frauleins makin’ ready with the steins of beer.

Note that the large rubber tires are actually full of jet fuel; a convenient way to haul the stuff around. Also note the single nuke being loaded into the weapons bay… the payload of the D-188A was fairly small, an unfortunate consequence of being a VTOL aircraft (and thus a fuel hog). The likelihood of this basic plan working well is low… as the Brits and the Marines found with the Harrier, jet engines blasting dirt at close range is a magnificent way to throw a whole lot of dirt into the air, where it can be sucked into the jet engines. Bad for the ground, worse for the aircraft.