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WW1 "Le Prieur" air to air rockets

Cjbobrow

Member
The aerial rocket developed by Sous-Lieutenant Yves Le Prieur in May 1915 were used by pilots to attack tethered German observation balloons.


These were little more than a Congreve-style rocket with a cutting-edge installed, they were electrically fired and launched from tubes attached to the struts of biplane fighter aircraft, they were inaccurate even at close range. The attached images (#1 #2) show the simple mechanics of the installed rockets.


It also appears more sophisticated systems were developed and were at least tested.


The second group of images (#3 #4), based on information of the original French caption said that they were experimental anti-balloon rockets being tested at Villacoublay on 20 February 1918.


These are similar to the rockets in the third group of photos, but the fins look different; and the launching tubes (?) are quite different.


This third group of image (#5 #6) shows a more complex cage setup.


Hopefully someone in the Forum has material to share on these two “other” systems?
 

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Thank you for the links... I have already looked at most of this material it deals with the Le Prieur system but not the experimental later developments...
 
Thank you for sharing the images of Le Prieur rockets (Fusées Le Prieur)... these are all well known to me... back to my original question which is about Fusées (rockets) other than the Le Prieur's... the photos I posted show that there were others but I cannot find any material on them or the tests...
 
I found also mentions of "système GABA" against drachen (balloons).
Can't find info on this system.
 
The Gaba (named after his inventor, Commandant Gaba) was an incendiary grenade ("a feu unique"), initially developped for the artilley to be fired from trenches, tested in 1913 at Chalons as an air dropped projectile against balloons, and replaced in 1916 by the "grenade incendiaire air-sol à feux multiples" as the Gaba "could not to be trusted" ("peu fiable") as its utilization was defined as too complex.
extract from a report dated 1912:
"GABA
A la suite des premières expériences exécutées par le service de l'Aéronautique, de concert avec l'Ecole Centrale de Pyrotechnie et la Commission d'expériences de Bourges, et, étant donné les bons résultats obtenus, résultats indiqués dans mon Rapport N° 649 du 29 août 1912, un certain nombre de ces projectiles ont tout d'abord été expédiés à la Section d'aviation du Maroc. Sans attendre leur mise au point complète et, étant donné à la fois, l'intérêt que présentaient ces projectiles et la situation extérieure, j'ai demandé au Ministre par ma lettre N° 10S/2 du 26 novembre 1912, de bien vouloir en prescrire immédiatement un approvisionnement de 1000kgs pour chacune des 5 places de l'Est."
This is supposed to be a photography of the systeme Gaba on a Ni17 (from the site http://albindenis.free.fr/Site_escadrille/escadrille065.htm) but I suspect that it rather shows the "grenades a feux multiples" that succeeded the Gaba:
Systeme Gaba 7cfe8410.jpg
 
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Hello Dreamk,
I have an article with this picture and specialists are very not sure about this system (Gaba system ??)
What do you think ?
Regards
 
As I wrote previously, I have reasons to suspect that this photograph shows in fact the "grenade a feux multiples" that succeeded the Gaba in 1916.
The Gaba was described as difficult and potentially dangerous to operate, while what we have her is a rather straightforward system.
Here's a drawing of the "grenade a feux multiples" taken from Henry Belot's Deminest,and it seems quite compatible with the projectile shown on photograph
Grenade incendiaire air-sol a feux multiples Screenshot 2020-09-21 150520.jpg
 
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