Article The Luftfaust , Fliegerfaust and Fliegerschreck

The Luftfaust , Fliegerfaust and Fliegerschreck

The Luftfaust

Man Portable anti aircraft missile systems

In 1945 the Luftfaust was designed by ‘Hugo Schneider’ of Leipzig and by the end of that year the German army were ready to field test the weapon system. The early version 'Luftfaus A' had only four shorter barrels however in this article we will be looking at the 'Lufthaus B'

Un skilled labour was employed to make the Luftfaus however it is believed approximately 10000 units were made by the end of the war. Information on how many were issued and the use against allied aircraft is not available.
The introduction of the ‘Luftfaus’ was an attempt by the Germans to reduce the dominance of Allied air superiority.
The Luftfaus was inexpensive but had the potential to be lethal to allied aircraft, it was made up of eight steel tubes arranged in a circular pattern around a central ninth tube all held in place by four steel plates.

The weapon was fired by a simple trigger and its ammunition was arranged in clips that were breach loaded. The ammunition was a 20mm High explosive, spin stabilised solid fuel round, the stabilisation came in the form of holes drilled into the ammunition itself.

The rounds were fired in two stages with a 0.2 second gap between salvos.

The Luftfaus in a transport case with pre loaded ammunition cartridges

The next image would suggest that the Luftfaus was issued to front line troops as one can be seen discarded in front of the Hotel Adlon, in Unter den Linden, Berlin

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The Fliegerfaust

The Fliegerfaust never got past the design stage however it would have been a significant improvement on the ‘Luftfaus’. The proposed changes would have incorporated a 30mm projectile in a six barrelled configuration.



The Fliegerschreck

The Fliegerschreck was by the end of the war almost ready for field trials and was to use a new form of ammunition that could be used by the Panzerschreck, which enabled the Panzerschreck to be used for both the anti aircraft and anti tank roles.

The new ammunition was to contain an explosive charge and 144 small incendiary sub munitions that would be fitted to a standard rocket motor. The new warhead was ready in 1945 however none were ever issued to front line troops.
The Fliegerschreck would incorporate a new AA sighting system similar to that used by the MG 42 Machine gun

References

World War II Data Book Hitler's Secret Weapons 1933-1945 -ISBN 1906626871

 

[Firefox]

Wasn't this an article on the old website?. Glad you kept hold of this and the others you have saved

 

[Jack-Sparrow]

Some more pics of the Luftfaus

 

[The Hood]

Nice thread anybody have any other information about these weapons? I did not know that the Germans had MANPAD in WW2

 

[Marsch]

For anti-aircraft defense, the Army did not only have the "Fliegerschreck" but also the "Fliegerfaust".
It is well known that at the end of the Second World War the US armed forces captured a weapon at Hugo Schneider (HASAG) in Leipzig, which was classified as "revolutionary" in their reports.

The German weapon designation was first Luftfaust and from 04.02.1945 onwards Fliegerfaust.
In 1944 by the company HASAG (H. Schneider AG, Leipzig) first developed "Luftfaust-A", a one-man anti-aircraft weapon, four tubes were combined into a bundle. The 90 g heavy grenade with 2 cm caliber, which carried 19 g of explosives was shot in a volley. These missiles were mounted on a rocket propellant. They reached a maximum speed of 380 m/s after firing.

The Luftfaust-A was a simple recoilless one-man weapon for low-flying defense, which should be handled as a disposable weapon analogous to the Panzerfaust. From four 100 mm long, seamlessly drawn, slightly fan-shaped steel tubes with an outer diameter of 30 mm, wing-stabilized 2 cm projectiles could be fired at the same time. The air fistulas were connected in the middle by welded short pipe sections, which formed a continuous ignition channel. The firing device (with folding sight) of the Panzerfaust was located on the uppermost air tube. The tubes were connected behind by welded-on sheet metal spacers. The slightly diverging pipe mouths were not so stabilized. The second tube on the front side and on the third tube laterally in the rear area each have a welded eyelet for attaching a carrying strap.

Since not only an insufficient coverage of the hit circle, but also a too large scattering showed in the testing, one went over to more and longer tubes.
The further development, called "Luftfaust-B", had nine tubes of 1,500 mm in length. The nine shells were fired in two salvos with 0.2 sec. distance and formed a hit circle of about 60 m in diameter at a distance of 500 m. The 6.5 kg heavy Luftfaust was simply placed with the rear part on the shoulder, there was no recoil.
The Luftfaust-B (from Febr. 1945: Fliegerfaust) was a ninefold with which a shotgun of 9 missiles could be fired. The device (6.0 kg) with loaded magazine had a weight of about 8.5 kg, and was thus not much heavier than a normal carbine. The circular air ducts were seam-welded steel tubes held together by four rosettes. Two central rosettes took up the firing device (power generator from Körting, Leipzig). The electrical energy generated was enough to cause up to 20 incandescent igniters to ignite.

The magazine was intended as a consumable magazine. Two simple tin plates held nine missiles together. While charging, the front plate pushed up the rear, connecting two pins to the contact ring to which the rocket jets of the rockets were connected. After the magazine was introduced, the shutter had to be closed by turning it clockwise. As a result, a secure contact was made, the magazine secured against falling out and the Luftfaust was secured electronically.

After that, the shooter could bring the weapon on his shoulder. The tensioning lever was used to tension the firing pin of the generator. After unlocking the rockets could be fired using the trigger. Three meters behind the shooter no persons were allowed to stay. Allegedly, the shooter just felt a stream of warm air flow past the face.

General information about ammunition:
Since no ammunition with separate propellant could be used in a magazine, the 2 cm Sprbrgr L 'track W had to be connected to the propellant charge. For this purpose, a driving set sleeve made of a seamless precision steel tube with a wall thickness of 0.6 mm was choked in its guide ring groove. In the combustion chamber was a 42 g heavy diglycol tube which was determined in the longitudinal direction by a respective, stamped sheet metal cage. The front cage had the task during the ignition of the propellant to allow sufficient gas formation, while the rear cage when burned the entire surface of the rocket propellant within 0.5 seconds ensured an unobstructed gas leakage.

Ammunition (1st version):
In order to ensure a stable trajectory, the rocket was first provided with guide plates of spring steel in accordance with the projectiles of the Luftfaust-A with a tail four, evenly distributed on the circumference. The spring plates were rolled up at rest on the tailplane base.
Behind the rocket was a black powder starting charge arranged in a cardboard cartouche. The starting charge was initiated by means of an electric glow plug igniter. It brought the rocket to an initial speed of about 100 m/s and ignited the propellant of the rocket, after it had already left the launcher. The projectile flew stable with the starting charge, but if additionally the gas energy of the propellant escaped from the rocket, a strong deviation in the trajectory occurred.
stellend gewährleistet.

Ammunition (2nd version):
The burning of the rocket propellant had to be done in the tube of the Luftfaust in order to achieve a clean trajectory. Therefore, in the second version of the missile, the black powder starter cartridge was dispensed with and instead the electric glow plug igniter was inserted into the tail unit just behind the central nozzle. Although this significantly improved the flight characteristics of the rocket, stabilization with tail surfaces was still unsatisfactory.

Ammunition (3rd version):
In the final version, a new path was taken and stabilized the rocket by (angle of) twist. This was a simpler construction of the propellant sleeve, which was initially completed by a metal disc, which had a central nozzle and four swirl nozzles. Since the production of the nozzle disk made of metal difficulties, one began to manufacture it from porcelain.

In March 1945, an order for 10,000 weapons with 4 million rounds of ammunition was launched. However, at the end of April, only 80 of these weapons were in troop trials.
An enlarged version was the "Fliegerfaust" with six tubes of 3 cm caliber. Here, the 3-cm-mine projectile of the MK 108, which carried 75 grams of explosive at 0.33 kg weight, should be fired. This weapon did not go beyond the experimental stage. Another planned weapon was the "Hand-Föhn". Here, three tubes had been combined into a bundle, from which the missile-explosive grenade 4609 was fired. This was the improved RZ 73, a 330mm long, spin-stabilized 73mm caliber rocket engine developed by the Luftwaffe. It weighed 3.2 kg, carried 0.3 kg of explosives and reached a max. Speed of 360 m/s.
Another development towards the end of the war was the anti-aircraft rocket launcher "Föhn". This weapon used 7.3 cm rocket blasting grenades as projectiles. Since these rockets at the time but had a tremendous dispersion, several rockets should be shot down at the same time. This resulted in versions with 3, 5, 7, 24, 28 and 35 launch rails. The most known designs were:

- The first version of the "Föhn" with 35 rails for the 3.7 cm rocket-detonating grenade.

- The improved version "Föhn 500" with 28 rails for the 3.7 cm rocket-detonating grenade.

- The "Föhn 55" with 48 shots 5.5 cm rockets "Orkan".

- The "Eisenbahn-Föhn" (presumably for use from trains).

- The 7.3 cm "Festungswerfer" with 28 baskets on a gun carriage.

With the 15,000 shots, which were consumed by the end of November 1944 in the troop trials, probably only one plane was shot down. During December, two kills were achieved with a consumption of almost 5,000 shots, which was still more than 70 launcher volleys for downing one aircraft. The biggest weakness of the weapon was the low range of only 1,200 m.

Within the development program for the "Planet" project, which was to create new types of anti-aircraft missiles, the Army also had a pattern that was to be used against low-flying aircraft. In the warhead of 97 mm diameter, there were seven small missiles with attached 30 mm caliber mines, as used in the MK 108. When firing the rocket bundle should be ejected after a short flight time on the shotgun principle. As a result of the staggered nozzles, these missiles should then fly for about 25 seconds on circular orbits having a radius of about 100 m. Through these trajectories, a cube with an edge length of about 400 m would have been covered so that an approaching aircraft with high probability would have come into contact with the highly sensitive impact fuse of one of these projectiles. To shoot a tube was provided, as it was already used in the "Panzerschreck". The entire development »Planet«, which only ran since mid-January 1945 at the Reich Research Office, has not gone beyond numerous studies for small rockets, for the various trajectories and so on.

Source:

Private Website

Google translated with just some minor corrections from my side but I hope it's somewhat comprehensible.

 

[Marsch]

@BravoZulu: I assume you mean the one next to the "Insert link (Ctrl+K)" thing next to the "Insert image" button? If yes then I've just tried it in an other thread with no success see:

Question? - Why not nickname?

Why not Soviet tanks had't nickname T-54/55/62 T-72 and Chinese tanks T-59/69 but Western tanks had nickname?

www.militaryimages.net

 

[Marsch]

Yes, that's exactly what I did.