Kramer X4

The Kramer X4 (also known under the name of code RK 344 for Ruhrstahl-Kramer , with Bielefeld - Brackwede) was an air-to-air missile developed in Germany by max Kramer during the Second world war. Its design began in 1943 and at the end of the war, approximately 1300 specimens had been manufactured.

It was intended to make it possible the hunters to attack the Alliés bombers starting from a security distance impossible to reach with the conventional weapons of edge. It was radio-controlled (wire-guided) by the pilot of the being reeled hunter by means of two wire. The reels were integrated in ducted nacelles located at the ends of two of the four wings. To improve the stability of the trajectory, the rocket had one period of rotation of 60 tr/min around its longitudinal axis. An automatic device converted the control signals into clearances of control surfaces by taking account of rotation. The pilot directed the rocket while it maintaining aligned on the target while making use of tracing pyrotechnic devices laid out at the ends of the two other wings to follow it in the darkness.

The principle (improved) of this missile finding in the Franco-German machines HOT and MILAN, this lets suppose that the Opération Paperclip did not only profit in the USA (see also Wernher von Braun, Flettner, SNCASE SE 3000).

The Kramer X4 was primarily made out of aluminum with certain parts out of plywood. The explosion was activated by acoustic detonators reacting to the noise of the planes concerned.

Several shootings of test were carried out on the ground and from plane but it was not implemented during the War.

The rocket exposed to the Deutsches Museum with Munich was lent by the Smithsonian Institution of Washington.

Data sheet

Length: 2,10 m
Diameter: 0,22 m
total Mass: 60 kg
Warhead: 20 kg
maximum Speed: 900 km/h
Carried: 2900 m
Motorization: Engine BMW 109-548 providing a push of 1,37 NR (140 kp)
Lasted of combustion: 22 S.
Carburant: Tonka
Combustive: acid nitric

See too

References

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