A Me-262 V083 outfitted with a 50mm Rheinmetall-Mauser BK-5 cannon was intended to be a heavy bomber destroyer. it was captured by the Americans and shipped to the united states. The jet was named Wilma Jeanne was named by a Watson Whizzers Master-Sergeant Eugene Freiburger wife but latter renamed Happy Hunter II. The prototype (only two made the other V899) was impressive the crew. they were impressed by the recoil-damping system which hardly moved the plane. But some problems were the guns was it was prone to jam and the muzzle flash was bright enough to blind the pilot. the plane was destroyed from the vibrations of the cannon and the tail of the plane to malfunction and go into a uncontrollable dive at speeds of 500 mph the pilot Ludwig Hofmann (a Messerschmitt test pilot from germany) managed to  bailout safely but suffered from contusions and severe bruisin. 

Wilma Jeanne

German fighter pilots of the Luftwaffe’s JG53 scrambling on La Marsa airfield, Tunisia, Spring 1943. Victor Sierra

Scramble! Scramble!

Just came upon some bizarre weapon ideas that came up during WW2.This is one of them :)
This was probably one of the strangest and most radical weapons Germany proposed during the Second World War. It was a candidate for the ‘Amerika Bomber’ initiative, which attempted to develop a bomber which had the range to attack mainland America. It was based upon the idea of placing a plane on a 3 km (2 mile) long rail, which would be propelled to 1900 kph (1200mph), by a rocket-powered sled. Once airborne, the Silbervogel would then fire off its own rocket engines to propel it to a height of 145km (90miles), traveling at 22100 kph (13700 mph). It would then slowly descend into the stratosphere, where the flat body of the plane would generate lift due to the increasing air density. This would cause it to rise again, and the plane would progress around the world in a series of ever shallower ’bounces’. It would then deliver a 4000kg (8800lb) bomb (possibly radiological) to somewhere in America, before landing at a Japanese base in the Pacific. In the end, the project was far beyond the capabilities and resources of Nazi Germany, and only existed as a mock-up. 

