Le Prieur rockets

AHC-ED · 13 June 2012, 03:57 PM

Most images I have seen show the rockets as having a long pointed nose. However there is one photo taken from the rear starboard side of a Nieuport 11 which suggests to me that the nose may have been rounded but with a sharp blade inserted in the front. Particularly the bottom rocket.

Does anyone have any definitive thoughts on the matter or is this an optical illusion -on my part?

Gregvan · 13 June 2012, 04:26 PM

Hello Eric,

I'm sure you're right about small blades being affixed to the noses of the LePrieur rockets - at least in the case of Reservat's well-photographed machine. In the detail of the photo below, I'm sure you can see them on the lower two rockets at least. You can't see them as well on the upper two, but that's due to the dark background - they're there. They extend from the tip to less than halfway back on the 'nose cone' of each rocket. Presumably they were to aid in puncturing the envelope of the balloon. Hope this helps.

AHC-ED · 13 June 2012, 06:14 PM

Thanks Greg, I'm glad to have had at least one part of my theory confirmed.

If you go to The Vinatage Aviator site and look at Album III of their 1914-18 Photographs under Nieuport 11, you'll find the picture I'm thinking of. The fullscreen size shows it particularly well.

Cheers,

Epee · 14 June 2012, 09:07 AM

How long were the Le Prieur rockets used? I've seen them photographed or depicted on early Nieuports and on Visions; when did they cease being used?

AHC-ED · 14 June 2012, 01:19 PM

I can't really say. It may have been that 1916 was their heyday with occasional use later on. I would imagine that the introduction of incendiary bullets would have provided far greater accuracy thanmn the rockets. Pure supposition on my part as I can't find any deifinite references.

Cheers,

Alien · 14 June 2012, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AHC-ED

I can't really say. It may have been that 1916 was their heyday with occasional use later on. I would imagine that the introduction of incendiary bullets would have provided far greater accuracy thanmn the rockets. Pure supposition on my part as I can't find any deifinite references.

I agree, both as to their use in 1916 and to my lack of references to prove it. However I got the impression that they weren't used after 1916, due to the superior accuracy of incendiaries and to the fire hazard from the rockets.

AHC-ED · 14 June 2012, 03:57 PM

Wouldn't you just know it? I DID find some reference material hidden away.

Seems the RFC stopped their use in the Spring of 1917, the French by August 1917, but there was an Italain, Sottetenete Giovani Ancilotto of 77a Squadriglia, who in November and December 1917 used a Nieuport 11 (No. 2265) equipped with the rockets to destory 3 balloons. His final victim left him with a memento of burnt fabric draped over his flying wires! (Thanks to Jon Guttman's "The Origin of the Fighter Aircraft".)

Cheers,

Gregvan · 14 June 2012, 09:02 PM

Hi,

The Le Prieurs seem to have been used on the Italian Front long after they fell into disuse on the Western Front. According to Jon Guttman's excellent Osprey book, Balloon Busting Aces of World War I, Flavio Barrachini was still attacking Austrian balloons with his Le Prieur rocket-equipped fighter as late as June 1918. On 21 June he achieved his last balloon victory against the Ballon Kompagnie 4 - the Austrians recorded their loss to a "French fighter equipped with rockets". Barrachini's Squadriglia was mostly equipped with Hanriots, but he may have been flying a Nieuport 27 - a photo of a squadron line-up shows one Nieuport (usually flown by Sergente Palpacelli) equipped with Le Prieurs.

There are at least a couple of photos of Italian Spads still sporting Le Prieurs in 1918.

Greg

Gregvan · 14 June 2012, 09:24 PM

Here's an Italian Spad VII of the 77a Squadriglia with ace Sottotenente Michele Allasia in the cockpit, complete with Le Prieurs on the port struts. Said to have been taken in 1918. Not the greatest photo, but maybe it's of interest.

Bobrah · 15 June 2012, 02:22 AM

Hello,
Rockets Le Prieur were used also in Russia on Spad VII on 1917 and normally by the French Ace Georges Marcel Lachmann

Rockets were normally propeled by the escaping of the black powder ("Poudre noire"), and there was a knife (or blade) on the front of the rocket for to make an hole in the balloon, when the gas of the balloon was in contact with the hot black powder ejected by the twyer of the rocket inside the balloon, the gas of the balloon was burnt.
Of my opinion (i am not a mechanic or a pilot of this period too

), only one rocket on his target was enough on a ballon for burnt.

Rockets were used also on Farman aircraft.

On Gregvan's photograph, we can to see well the knifes (or blade) (Form in triangle).

Some photographies that I know by a News-Paper:

http://images.mesdiscussions.net/pag.../Image0087.jpg

http://images.mesdiscussions.net/pag.../Image0089.jpg

(Source of photographies on links: News-paper "Le Miroir" of June 1916).

Greetings.