• CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    24 days ago

    Hmm. I’m guessing they had problems with getting enough propulsion going? The modern approach would involve some very synchronized stages, but WWII tech would make that difficult.

    Otherwise, this would be a pretty cheap way of doing the Blitz.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        24 days ago

        Yeah. Now it’d be easy to programmably trigger each charge on the order of microseconds or less, and we can make some pretty fast-shutting valves. Barrel wear is harder and would probably involve simulational fluid dynamics. More likely we’d just build a coilgun, which removes that issue very nicely, and uses similar control electronics.

        Of course, if you want to destroy a city there’s also nukes now, and anything else tends to either move or be very well protected. People have talked about this for space travel, but the trade-off between G-forces and length hurts at least as much as the rocket equation (despite being “only” quadratic instead of exponential).