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300 lb surface to air rockets

Paul A H

New Member
Edit - just realised I called the topic 'surface to air' when I meant to say 'air to surface' - sorry

Hi everyone

This is my first post here and I'm hoping you will be able assist me in some research I am undertaking. There is a photograph in the Alfred Price Spitfire book of a Supermarine Spiteful aircraft loaded with 4 x 300 lb rockets. The caption states that each of these 'triplex' rockets was comprised of a 7.2 inch howizter shell which fixed to three 3 inch rocket motors (as used on the RP-3 rocket). It appears to have stabilising fins at the rear.

Does anyone have any more information about these rockets, such as photographs, drawings or specifications?

Thanks in advance.

Paul
 
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The first step would be to post the photo of the rocket that you are talking about.
 
Good idea - here is a crop that I have tweaked to get the best picture I could. Apparently the same weapon was also prepared for the Supermarine Attacker but it seems it never went into service.
 

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The U.S. had a similar device in the Pacific theatre in WWII using 500 Lb. bombs and 5 inch rocket motors, but I think they were surface to surface only.
 
The Triplex rocket was a 180lb (and not a 300lb) rocket developed by the British in 1945. A 7.2" howitzer shell was mounted on 3 collated standard 3" air ground rocket motors. An adapter ring (about 6" diameter) was screwed onto the base of the 7.2in shell to accept the three 3in rocket motorss (see attached pics). It equipped the Hawker Sea Fury, the Supermarine Spiteful and Attacker. The only operational aircraft among these three was the Hawker Sea Fury, and there is no record of any operational use of the Triplex on this plane. It's worthy to note that the Fury had wing structural problems that became obvious during the Korean and compelled to stop using the standard duplex RP-3 installation on this plane, replacing it by single rocket attachments. Thus, repeated launching the Triplex rocket would probably have become quite hazardous, so may be this explains its fast fall into oblivion..

PS If someone has access to the UK National Archives at Kew, I found in their online catalogue the foollowing document Reference: AVIA 18/1683 Description: Aircraft rocket weapons: Triplex rocket motor unit with 180 lb head Date: 1945 Former reference in its original department AAEE/Arm 75
Legal status: Public Record
Experimental 300 lb Triplex Rocket 1.jpg Experimental 300 lb Triplex Rocket 2.jpg

One question remains - which kind of 7.2" shell was used? (the standard HE 7.2" shell weighted 220lb including fuze, not 180lb)
 
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The U.S. had a similar device in the Pacific theatre in WWII using 500 Lb. bombs and 5 inch rocket motors, but I think they were surface to surface only.

500lb or 250lb? I think I've got one of the bombs somewhere, and I believe it shows up in 1-2 of the books put out at the end of the war - "Miscellaneous Weapons" maybe? And don't forget the 11-inch Tiny Tim air-ground rocket.
 
The Tiny Tim Mk1 mod 0 was standard SAP AN-M68A1 500lb bomb without suspension lugs, with a new base plug to take a Mk157 mod 1 fuze and an adapter ring welded around after end as a means for attaching a rocket motor (11.75" diameter, as the AN-M68 bomb itself). The Tiny Tim Mk 1 was similar. The Tiny Tim Mk3 had a real solid nosed "common" head, instead of the 500lb bomb.
 
500lb or 250lb? I think I've got one of the bombs somewhere, and I believe it shows up in 1-2 of the books put out at the end of the war - "Miscellaneous Weapons" maybe? And don't forget the 11-inch Tiny Tim air-ground rocket.

Sorry, not Miscellaneous Weapons, but Weapons of WWII by Barnes, 1947. These two books are a treasure trove of info on rare WWII weapons. Here are the two pages on the rockets, they compare it with the German 28cm, but I think it is much closer to the Japanese pusher rockets.



Untitled-1.jpgUntitled-2.jpg
 
It does not say in the book. I would guess a variant of the MK series used by the 4.5-inch beach barrage rocket (MK127?).
 
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