10 Failed Inventions in Wars
Many inventions are created for good reasons. But, as we all know, sometimes innovations fail. These flops are a reminder of the high stakes involved with innovation.
Here are 10 inventions that sounded good on paper but were a failure in wars. The failure of these inventions were a result of design complexities and global market trends.
1. Charles De Gaulle Aircraft Carrier
The aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is a ship in the French Navy.. It is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
In March 2019, it led the carrier strike group Task Force 473 on a five-month mission through the Mediterranean Sea. Its embarked air group included Rafale fighter jets.
This documentary-kind comic book dives into the daily life of the French Navy’s flagship. It follows pilots, engineers, cooks, doctors and meteorologists on the ship. The next generation of French carriers will be more maneuverable and versatile. The PA-Ng program aims to replace the Charles de Gaulle in 2038.
2. Rocket Belt
When it comes to military inventions, sometimes the most interesting ones are the ones that almost worked. One such invention was the rocket belt. Wendell Moore, an engineer from Bell Aerosystems, designed a rocket-powered waist harness that allowed a person to fly into battle.
The device was used in the James Bond movie Thunderball and is now at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum annex. However, the rocket belt only flew for about 30 seconds and was never actually used in combat. It was also very expensive to fuel and dangerous.
3. Ball Tank
There are a few things that can make someone splurge on military innovation, and one of those is the promise of a battlefield advantage. Unfortunately, many of these projects end up as expensive, clunky duds.
The Windkanone (or wind cannon) was a bizarre Nazi Wunderwaffen designed to disrupt enemy aircraft with a blast of air. It failed miserably, but at least it didn’t explode! Like the bouncing bomb, it had one major flaw: it couldn’t turn. It was also incredibly slow. This could have been a deadly combination!
4. Flying Aircraft Carrier
A flying aircraft carrier sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. But it actually existed, albeit for a short time. The Navy built two airships with hangars to launch and retrieve fighter bi-planes. However, these airships crashed due to high winds.
Today, the Pentagon may be thinking about bringing back this idea. They are considering a mothership plane that would deploy and recover drones in the sky. This might be a better option than current carriers. But it will take a lot of money to build this.
5. Ramjet Engine
It takes cutting-edge aeronautical engineering to pull a ramjet off the ground. It's also incredibly complex and requires an immense amount of money to develop.
The ramjet is a type of air-breathing engine that uses ram pressure to achieve supersonic combustion. Its propulsion system includes a shock inlet, fuel injectors, combustors, and convergent-divergent ducts.
The ramjet's roots go back to 1913, when French mechanical engineer Rene Lorin published his theory of using ram pressure in a propulsive device. The earliest practical ramjet was patented by Albert Forno in Hungary in 1928.
6. Chemical Castration Bombs
Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes, and World War II was certainly a time of need. But not all of the military’s ideas were as good as they could have been. From bat bombs to exploding rats, these bizarre weapons almost made it into the battlefield but never quite saw the light of day.
The Windkanone was a strange Nazi Wunderwaffen designed to disrupt low-flying enemies with a blast of air. It was powered by a drum-like axle with rockets on each wheel and was loaded with explosives.
7. Peace Bomb
Necessity is the mother of invention, they say, but sometimes military inventions don’t quite work out. Some bad weapons projects even cost lives.
One of those was the Peace Bomb, an experimental crowd control weapon that used flashes of light to cause vertigo, nausea, and puking. Its only saving grace was that you could foil it by just turning your head or putting on your sunglasses.
A dentist named Lytle Adams cooked up this zany idea after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The plan was to drop bombers filled with thousands of compartments containing hibernating bats and timed napalm incendiaries.
8. The Peace Ray
After World War I, many people grew tired of the fighting and dreamed that a weapon could be invented that would end all wars. The idea caught fire when Nikola Tesla promised a beam of energy that could bring down airplanes from 250 miles away, reports Fanning.
He also promised that the beam of energy could vaporize entire armies at the touch of a button. However, he never showed anyone the device or provided proof that it worked. This invention never made it out of the hotel where he was living at the time of his death in 1943.
9. Project Habbakuk
During World War II there was a great demand for steel, but not enough to build all the aircraft carriers needed to protect merchant convoys in the Atlantic. So British inventor Geoffrey Pyke came up with the idea of creating ships made out of ice. His invention was called pykrete, a mixture of ice and wood pulp that was supposedly so strong it could not sink.
A team spent the summer of 1943 on Patricia Lake in Jasper, Canada building a prototype of the ship. Then the refrigeration equipment failed, and the model melted.
10. Flying Aircraft
Almost a century ago, Boeing tried to turn its 747 jet into an airborne aircraft carrier. The idea was to have it carry up to 10 small fighter jets and launch, retrieve, and re-arm them in mid-air.
Unfortunately, it was never a practical idea as plane and aircraft technology improved significantly during that time. But it's a great example of the many inventions that only seemed to be minor fads. Necessity is the mother of invention.. This is why some of the most successful inventions came out of World War II.
