DEATH RAYS A SECRET WEAPON?
Williams, Major Al
Death Ravs A Secret Weapon? By MAJOR AL WILLIAMS 1REMEMBER that prior to this war there were many in high places who were worrying about the development of so-called death rays which might kill...
...So pressing was this worry that several Englishmen, among them Lord Beaverbrook, requested me to keep my eyes open during my flight over Europe in the Summer of 1938 for any hint of death rays invented by the Germans...
...These and other thoughts smacking of attempts to estimate the shape of mechanical things to come are inspired by Winston Churchill's recent warning concerning the concentration of the Nazis on the development of radio-controlled bomber planes...
...This will introduce us to the potentialities of the air wars of the future...
...Just think what that would mean...
...Then the French, began to have forced landings, and all in about the same place and almost at the same point in German territory...
...To possess such a ray would be only half the game, beeause it wouldn't be long before the other side would discover what was going on and devise an ignition shield to neutralize its effect on magnetos and, in turn, develop its own ignition-jamming equipment...
...The gasoline engine, you know, is equipped with an ignition system (magneto, on an aircraft engine, and battery ignition in automobiles) which supplies the spark to fire the charge in the combustion chamber...
...The question naturally poses itself, what improvements have been made in this fascinating invention...
...It is likely, therefore, that before the end of this conflict sizable formations of pilotless bombers actually will undertake major bombardment missions...
...But that isn't all the story by a long shot...
...The point I am going to make here is that even if either side should get such a ray working, it would be folly to use it until it had equipped its own bombers with Diesel engines...
...His announcement of such a possibility has set many minds to working overtime...
...By MAJOR AL WILLIAMS 1REMEMBER that prior to this war there were many in high places who were worrying about the development of so-called death rays which might kill human beings...
...Some years ago there was quite a scare in aviation circles to the effect that the Germans actually had developed an ignition-jamming wave...
...Eventually it was discovered that some engineer in the French aircraft motor shops had made an alteration in a bearing in the French engines and had decided to test out his idea by sending all the altered engines to this one airline which was traversing German terrain...
...Rather than death rays., possessed of lethal capacity, it would seem that the one ray we have to worry about more than any other is an electrical ray or wave which would jam the ignition of internal combustion engines...
...For instance, if one side or the other did manage to get distance with such an ignition-jamming electrical ray, it would be shortsighted folly to employ it as soon as it was ready to be used on a major scale...
...Under the emergency pressure of war, the entire field of aeronautical engineering has been pushed ahead about 15 years...
...The Diesel engine, which burns heavy oil, has no ignition system and the charge of air and oil in the cylinder head is fired by the great heat created by compressing such a charge...
...Under Pressure Of War I suppose all this can be dismissed as some things to worry about when you have nothing else to do...
...It Would Be Folly I'll admit that this is the most fantastic thing I can think of, but so were many other developments until someone found the answers and put mysterious ideas into practical form...
...The outfit that devises the electric ray which can jam the ignition systems of internal combustion engines will create the greatest mystery the world has ever read or heard...
...The eventual result of this development will be that whole flocks of pilotless aircraft, loaded with bombs, will be controlled, not from radio stations on ships or land, but by a single aircraft flying at sub-stratosphere altitudes...
...But the super-batty fancy of today becomes a startling reality tomorrow when men must find new answers under the pressure of war necessity...
...It seems that the French were dispatching planes right across German territory without consulting the Heinies...
...Bomber formations departing and none returning— No report...
...A dozen or more years ago the Italians had developed such an electrical ray which jammed the ignition of an automobile engine from a distance of about 14 feet...
...Remember that airplanes have been launched, maneuvered, and landed under radio control for years...
Vol. 7 • November 1943 • No. 45
