A Replacement for Parachutes

[MIflyer]

What if, rather than having airborne troops parachuting out of airplanes that you gave each soldier his own little airplane to fly into the landing zone?

That was the idea that Lockheed came up with in WWII. The result was the Little Dipper, an airplane that was hoped would not only improve air assault operations but give Lockheed a foot in the door for what was projected as the burgeoning private aircraft market after the war. Really too bad they did not build 20 or 30 thousand of these little scooters!

From an old issue of Air Progress.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Well, that's some expensive infantry.

 

[fubar57]

Cool but not much room for gear

 

[fubar57]

PUBLIC DOMAIN​

 

[Milosh]

http://www.airwar.ru/image/idop/la/ldipper/ldipper-1.gif

 

[msxyz]

Well, that's the same concept of towing a disposable glider full of paratroopers, though this seems more inefficient because each airplane carries only one man, it has an engine and the passenger is also the pilot, thus he needs some basic training on how to drive this thing back down to earth without getting killed.

 

[GrauGeist]

The LZ would had to be not only some-what improved, but a large area, which wasn't readily available in Europe at the time.
The gliders landing in France in June '44 had a hell of a time, especially with hedgerows.

Great idea, though. I knew a guy who owned a surplus Interstate TDR and flew it out of SNA on occasion.
The average person had no idea that it was a flying bomb at one point.

 

[Frog]

Russian alternative : jump in the snow.

 

[MIflyer]

I thought about how much fun it would be to build one of those from scratch. Then I realized that my Ercoupe is pretty much the same thing and holds two people. Someone has built one, though.

 

[Dimlee]

C-69 as a mothership. How many Little Dippers under the wing?

 

[Elvis]

What if, rather than having airborne troops parachuting out of airplanes that you gave each soldier his own little airplane to fly into the landing zone?

That was the idea that Lockheed came up with in WWII. The result was the Little Dipper, an airplane that was hoped would not only improve air assault operations but give Lockheed a foot in the door for what was projected as the burgeoning private aircraft market after the war. Really too bad they did not build 20 or 30 thousand of these little scooters!

From an old issue of Air Progress.
View attachment 650913View attachment 650914

Those pictures look awfully familiar.
The name of the airplane rings a distant bell, too.
I think I had that issue of Air Progress.

 

[Graeme]

Those pictures look awfully familiar.

Reminds me of that well known image of the Wee Bee under the the B-36.

 

[SaparotRob]

Don't think that's a B-36.

 

[GrauGeist]

Don't think that's a B-36.

That's the XC-99, developed from the B-36 - so technically, it is a B-36, sort of.

 

[Graeme]

Good catch gents!

 

[SaparotRob]

That's the XC-99, developed from the B-36 - so technically, it is a B-36, sort of.

No it ain't. XC-99 imagine "does not equal sign" B-36. A B-36 cannot carry hundreds of passengers. Different fuselage.
Hey c'mon man! I finally knew one!

 

[GrauGeist]

The Convair Model 37 was never built.

The XC-99 was a one-off (like the B-19) cargo plane that could carry 100K of cargo or 400 troops.

It was built up from a B-36 airframe much like how the X/YC-97 was built up from a B-29 airframe, though the production C-97 had some modifications.

 

[tyrodtom]

Can you imagine how much time it would take to train enough men for these to be used in any effective numbers.
You have to train fully effective infantry, or paratroopers, to fly .

I see a lot of casualties in training, and even more in combat.

 

[MIflyer]

Well, when you think about it, a few thousand of those little scooters flying into a combat area would send the Luftwaffe into hysterics. Strap some M-3 grease guns under the wings and you have instant CAS. And as far as any gear they could be carrying, it was normal procedure for paratroops to have a lot of their equipment dropped in separate packages.

By the way, I was never that impressed with the Airborne until I read September Hope, about the American end of Operation Market Garden. Talk about some tough soldiers!

 

[GrauGeist]

I can only imagine the sound of an inbound unit to an LZ with those things.

Like a swarm of Murder Hornets!