RAE Larynx

Early British pilotless aircraft

"RAE Larynx on cordite fired catapult of destroyer HMS Stronghold, July 1927. The man on the box is Dr. George Gardner, later Director of RAE."[1]

The Royal Aircraft Establishment Larynx (from "Long Range Gun with Lynx engine") was an early British pilotless aircraft, to be used as a guided anti-ship weapon. Started in September 1925, it was an early cruise missile guided by an autopilot.[1]

Design

A small monoplane powered by a 200 hp (150 kW) Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IV engine, it had a top speed of 200 mph (320 km/h), faster than contemporary fighters.[2]

It used autopilot principles developed by Professor Archibald Low[citation needed] and already used in the Ruston Proctor AT, a radio controlled biplane that was intended to be used against German Zeppelin bombers.[citation needed]

Project history

  • First test: 20 July, 1927. Launched from cordite-powered catapult fitted to the S class destroyer HMS Stronghold. Crashed into Bristol Channel.[3]
  • Second test: 1 September, 1927. Thought to have flown 100 miles (160 km) and was then lost.
  • Third test: 15 October, 1927. 112 mile (180 km) flight, hit five miles from target.
  • Two more launches in September and October 1928 from HMS Thanet, another S class destroyer.[3]
  • Two launches May 1929. Launched from land, one overflew target and other was successful.

Specifications

Data from [2]

General characteristics

  • Powerplant: 1 × Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IV radial engine, 200 hp (150 kW)
  • Propellers: 2-bladed

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 200 mph (320 km/h, 170 kn)

See also

  • Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane
  • Kettering Bug
  • V-1 flying bomb

References

  1. ^ a b

    The RAF began work on a true "flying bomb" in September 1925. Compared with the RAE 1921 Target missile, the Larynx (Long Range Gun with Lynx Engine) was smaller, heavier, and faster. In fact, a 200 hp (150 kW) Lynx IV engine gave the device a top speed of about 200 mph (322 km/h), making it faster than contemporary fighters.

  2. ^ a b Gibson, Chris; Buttler, Tony (2007). British Secret Projects: Hypersonics, Ramjets and Missiles. Hinckley: Midland. ISBN 978-1-85780-258-0. OCLC 310094852.
  3. ^ a b Everett, H.R. (2015). Unmanned Systems of World Wars I and II. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-26202-922-3.

External links

  • (1.0) The Aerial Torpedo
  • Remote Piloted Aerial Vehicles : The 'Aerial Target' and 'Aerial Torpedo' in Britain
  • Interwar British Experiments with Pilotless Aircraft pay to access
  • "Automatic Flight" a 1958 Flight article
  • The Mother of All Drones - Article Vintage Wings of Canada Archived 26 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine