• skillissuer
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    9 months ago

    this principle (in highly modernized implementation) was later used in cold war era (maybe even ww2 era) air-dropped bombs and later in american common 120mm/81mm/60mm mortar fuze M734. sometimes it’s mechanical, sometimes propeller drives tiny generator and fuze is electric

    • SSTF@lemmy.worldM
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      9 months ago

      Absolutely, propeller armed fuzes were used in WW2!

      As an example, a WW2 American 500 pound bomb could and would be fitted with two fuzes, both propeller armed. An AN-M 103 at the nose, and an AN-M101 in the rear. Other countries had other models on the same idea.

      Even past the cold war, using propellers as arming systems on bombs continued. Propeller fuzes for 80 series bombs are found in the Afghan Quick Reference Guide, a book meant to help ID ordnance likely to be found in the field. Any American GP bombs found in Afghanistan would be from 2001 or later.

      Propellers are just a really good system for arming something that’s being forcefully propelled, or dropped from a plane.