Drone designer enters the chat.
Unfortunately, as this is terriying, I can see this beinh developed. The lower altitude would make it viable
A nozzle extending through the rear facing downwards, behind any tail surface.
A tandem wing with adjustable wing or flap system, blown wings, this could approach at controlled speed, alter distribution of lift so that the reactive upeards force at the tail from the liquid ejection, will not cause nose down pitching.
And from what I’ve seen they’ve stopped using incendiary drones because they’re largely ineffective. Excellent physiological weapon, but surprisingly did very little to the fighting positions they were used on or the infantry inside them.
I thought they were effective, but only for a specific time of year when the summer dry spell is at its peak.
And useful as much for exposing enemy positions in foliage as directly destroying them.
Various Soviet-designed thermobaric weapons are classed as flamethrowers, mostly due to a loose translation. So the TOS-1(A) is translated as "Heavy Flamethrower System". The shoulder launched RPO-A "Shmel" translates as 'rocket-propelled infantry flamethrower "Bumblebee"'.
As far as I know nobody has used an actual traditional flamethrower in the conflict. The last Soviet designed flamethrower is the LPO-50 from the 1950s and was retired decades ago. The last US designed flamethrower is the M9, from the early 1960s. It was replaced by the quad barrel [M202](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M202_FLASH#/media/File:A372974.tif) which fired four rocket propelled incendiary grenades. Later replaced by the SMAW, specifically the SMAW-NE "Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon, Novel Explosive". Another thermobaric weapon.
Traditional flame throwers as in man portable units have been long long gone.
IIRC there was footage from back in the winter of 2022 of Russians dropping shitloads of WP on some town and the forest nearby at night.
It was strangely beautiful.
Or hell imagine a small fpv drone with a grenade sized incendiary.
Make it go zoom into the slit of a bunker.
I would not like to be in there when it happens.
Since when did my ideas for Cyberpunk ttrpg weapons become relevant to real life?
Honestly, it would have potential as a wildland firefighting tool for burning in fire breaks ahead of a main fire.
I *would* say it would be useful in weaponizing forest fires, but that’s literally a war crime.
That is one _most exceedingly_ frightful weapon!
... but Churchill _did authorise the use of mustard gas_ in the event of a land invasion of Britain ... so it figures.
For all the criticism of this for being inneffective, apparently dangerous for flight and ground crews, and exposing the aircraft to ground fire: within ten years of this footage the USA would be using upwards of a million of liters of napalm *a week* from aircraft, both from bombs and directly like this.
This video shows something pretty janky, but the technology was still in its infancy and would become a defining element of warfare for the post-WW2 period. This is only seven months after napalm's first ever use in warfare!
Sure - if it was an interim idea to check things like spread etc it was probably very worthwhile if still rather hazardous.
But it the plan was ever to make it operational in that form, I think we can be very thankful for the pilots that someone put a stop to it before that happened.
Could you point me towards more examples of direct flamethrowing from aircraft? I've not encountered it before, only bomb-like naplam, and it sounds fascinating.
Experiments, including this one, demonstrated that it was actually better to drop the tank and have it burst above the ground - so the first generation of napalm-dropping planes dropped 'bombs' that were simple dispersion tanks designed to disperse after dropping.
This was done for crew safety, but mostly by allowing for a higher altitude flight! The tanks could be set to disperse very soon after detaching for a wide dispersal, or to stay intact until very close to the ground for a more focused attack. Later developments would turn the tanks into more true 'bombs' that had stabilising fins and could be dropped from much greater heights with accuracy.
The only non-experimental direct flamethrowing aircraft I know of are firefighting helicopters. As far as I know, no direct-attack flamethrowers were used in anger from an aircraft.
I’m not finding much about any early napalm tanks that burst above the ground. All I’m seeing is the later versions of purposefully ungainly tanks that tumble and break up on impact.
people forget just how terrifying flamethrowers were (+still are).......theres a reason underground pop-up flame-thrower weapons were being trialled during the world wars...
One was used on an aircraft during the Battle of Britain by the Germans iirc. Though at speed and altitude it didn't really work as a flamethrower, it mostly spat fuel - still useful to block vision, not quite the point
Napalm had already been invented, in 1942. And even before that they used various thickened fuel mixtures because they had realized that viscous fuel can make a longer coherent jet.
Unfortunately, as this is terriying, I can see this being developed by drone designers. The lower altitude would make it viable
A nozzle extending through the rear facing downwards, behind any tail surface.
A tandem wing with adjustable wings or flap system, blown wings, this could approach at controlled speed, alter distribution of lift between fore and aft wings by adjusting flaps or wing angle of attack, so that the reactive upwards force at the tail from the liquid ejection, will not cause nose down pitching.
Thermite is a different thing, and that is dropped from multicopters maibly to set fire to tree lines.
Wings generate lift much more efficiently, to attack a trench with significant ammount of napalm to area destroy it, you would need much more mass than multicopters can easily carry, and to have the effect of a surprise fast attack a winged craft is preferable.
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