ROCKET BARRELS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 307, 28 December 1944, Page 6

ROCKET BARRELS

A SPECIAL PLASTIC NEW YORK. The barrels of "flying bazookas," rocket launchers which the U.S. Army Air Forces have installed on the Thunderbolt and other types of fighter planes, are made from a special paper plastic developed by two U.S. industrial concerns. Enormous amounts of waste paper salvaged by the American people are consumed in manufacturing the big barrels of these modern aeroplane weapons. The resin employed is fire-resistant to withstand the fiery blast of the rocket missile when launched. Paper plastic is used because it is lighter than other types of material and better adapted <» r this job. The bazookas are mounted under each wing, three in a cluster. The weight of the rocket installation is approximately 450 pounds (200 kilograms) and the walls of the barrels are about one-fourth of an inch (six millimetres) thick. All six of the barrels may be fired at the same time or they may be fired individually. U.S. Army officials have referred to fighter plans carrying flying bazookas as "flying artillery." In France there planes were credited with contributing to the destruction of the German Seventh Army in its retreat from the Falaise pocket.