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Article Thomas Jung, 2003.
The
Silberbird was officially called the " Antipodenferngleiter "or
the " Interglobalfernglider"
In 1938
and 1939 Prof. Eugen Sänger twice proposed to the RLM a vehicle unlike
any previously designed. Sleek, thin winged and rocket powered Sängers
"Silbervogel" (Silverbird) was the first serious design for a
vehicle to carry a pilot and a payload to the lower edges of space. Called
the "Antipodenferngleiter " (antipode longrange glider ) or the
"Interglobalferngleiter " (intercontinental longrange glider)
it was intented to be launched from a rocket powered sled. After liftoff
the Sängers own 100 tons engine would fire ,burning fuel-oil and liquid
öxygen. This would boost the Ferngleiter to extemly high speed and
altitude but not to orbit. The plane was designed with a flat underside
so that upon re-entering the atmosphere it would skip off and bounce back
thus increasing the spaceplanes range to worldcruising proportions, depending
on payload and starting angle. The typical mission for the Antipodal bomber
was to to carry a 4000 kg bomb load to NewYork and to land half a world
away at a base in the then Japanese Marianas islands, there to bomb up
and start again and to hit another city like Los Angeles on its return
voyage to Germany. Its proposed payload could range from a ------30 tons---??--
giant bomb (piggy-back bomb) to a single 250 kg medium bomb depending on
sort of planned mission .Calculations even exist about a 60 tons bomb load.
During much of World War Two the Luftwaffe showed only mediocre interest
in the concept, but in summer of 1944 all changed. Today it still is announced
that the Sänger bomber idea was cancelled in 1942, but this simply
is untrue! Beeing introduced to the cream of the cream of the military,
political and aeronautical leaders and specialists of the Third Reich in
August 1944 the Sänger bomber thereafter became one of the "White
hopes " of the Germans to fend off a nearly certain total defeat.
So, under the auspices of Oberst Siegfried Knemeyer the Sänger Antipodal
bomber became one of three chosen concepts to bring a "miracle weapon"
to the USA. Today it has been proven by modern research that this was to
be nothing short than an early Uranium bomb or an Isotopic "radioactive
dirt" bomb... Col. Knemeyers two concurrent carriers were the Intercontinental-
Jet -bomber ( winner of the developpment contest : HO XVIII ) and the EMW
A-9/10 of Werher v Braun. Besides this, the German Kriegsmarine was testing
adaptions of the Fi-103 and A-4 to be transported by submarines over the
Atlantic. The prototype of Sänger Antipodal Ferngleiter finally was
to be realised 1944/45 by DFS/ Siebel in Bad Ainring and Halle in cooperation
with Junkers . At the end of Jan.1945 the whole developpment of the spaceplane
came under the control of the SS, which applied great pressure to continue
with its realisation. According to newest available evidence the first
protoype already was under construction and nearing completion when the
war ended in May 1945 . Whether the concept of Prof . Sängers "Silverbird
" really would have worked in earnest as promised is totally unknown
till today. In spite of several attempts since 1945 no one yet has been
able to test or even realise his promising revolutionary spaceplane concept
ideas .
FIN
Books of the Aauthor available at: www.deutsche-wunderwaffen.de
(Secret Nuclear Weapons of the Third Reich
and their Carrier Systems; -Von der V-1 bis zur A-9; -Von der Amerikarakete
zur Orbitalstation.)
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