Vortex Gun
Terry Bastian ( tbastian@dmv.com )
Fri, 25 Sep 1998 22:51:57 -0400
Vortex Gun
The Vortex Gun was designed and built by Dr. Zimmermeyer at an experimental
institute in the Tyrol at Lofer. It basically was a mortar barrel of a
large caliber sunk in the ground, and the shells contained coal-dust and a
slow-burning explosive. The shells, once fired, were intended to have the
function of creating an artificial whirlwind or tornado which would
hopefully make enemy airplanes lose control and thus knock them out of the
sky. If all circumstances were perfect and favorable, the strange device
seemed to work fairly well. Numerous high-speed films were taken and
processed for analysis and study, which concluded that the forward-moving
explosion of the coal dust was in fact able to start the formation of a
fairly large vortex. Although it was unknown whether the pressure changes
of the tornado would be strong enough to cause frame failure in enemy
aircraft caught in the air current, it was known that the pressure on wing
loading might be excessive. In the years before this invention, it was
known that clear-air tubulence had brought down large airliners and broken
them into pieces. It seemed possible and feasible that Dr. Zimmermeyer's
unlikely-sounding cannon could have the same effects too. The range of the
prototype was estimated to be about a hundred yards, even though the gun
was never used in practice. But similarly designed guns and shells were
deployed against Polish freedom fighters in Warsaw towards the end of the war.