SILBERVOGEL ANTIPODAL-BOMBER

Silbervogel (Polish silver bird) is a never realized project of a German strategic bomber from the interwar period and World War II. It is assumed that the plane would be approximately 28 meters long with a wingspan of 15 meters. The maximum speed was - according to project - exceed 15 Ma, and maybe even 20 Ma! The machine would be capable of carrying a bomb load of 3000-3500 kg. The design of the Silbervogel aircraft was developed by Eugen Sänger, in collaboration with Irene Bredt. The machine was in fact a sub-orbital plane, which in the first phase of the flight was to be launched from a launcher with a length of about 3000 meters, and after rising to an altitude of about 1500-2000 meters, it was to start its rocket engine and enter the border between the Earth's atmosphere, and outer space. Then, it was supposed to descend into the atmosphere and drop a bomb load at high altitude on the territory of the USA. Ultimately, the machine was to land on the territory of allied Japan. It was assumed that the Silbervogel would have relatively small wings and an almost completely flat lower fuselage. The project was considered in 1942 as a potential candidate for the so-called Amerika Bomber, but it was not finally implemented. As a curiosity, it can be noted that after World War II, a project similar to the Silbervogel assumptions was implemented in the USA under the name X-20 Dyna-Soar.