The Ruhrstahl X-7 'Rottkäppchen'

[luftwaffemesserschmitt]

Hello,

I came across this piece of text on a site:

The X-7 was powered by two WASAG solid-fuel rockets whose diglycol propellant was in the form of two concentric tubes. The first charge gave a thrust of 68kg (1501b) for two and a half seconds to launch the missile into flight and get it up to its 360km/h (224 mph) operating speed; the second gave 5.5kg (121b) of thrust for eight seconds (which was actually longer by a considerable margin than the flight was likely to last) to sustain it. Maximum range was to have been around 1200m (1310 yards). It is thought that a total of a few hundred Ruhrstahl X-7s were manufactured, and that most were consumed in testing, but there is some evidence to suggest that some made it into the field, and were expended in combat on the Eastern Front during 1945. There are unconfirmed reports that the X-7 performed satisfactorily, and was able to deal even with the JS-1 'Stalin' heavy tank, which was impervious to virtually everything else at anything over short range.


Could it be true that it was used in the field ?

 

[davebender]

Ruhrstahl X-4 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Apparently the original air to air missle used liquid fuel. They switched to Diglycol sold fuel (same as R4M FF rocket) for the Heer anti-tank version.

Ruhrstahl X-4 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

After the war, French engineers tried to develop a domestic version of the X-4, called AA-10. 200 units were manufactured between 1947 and 1950. However, the program was disbanded due to the dangerous pre-flight refuelling involved (the nitric acid and Tonka combination was highly explosive).

Strange that France would switch back to liquid fuel for their version after Germany had already produced a superior solid fuel rocket motor. Otherwise it might have developed into a decent wire guided anti-tank missle 15 years before the somewhat similiar Soviet AT-3 Sagger.

 

[Shortround6]

It could be a range and speed type thing.

The French did develop the solid fuel SS-10 missile for anti-tank use years before the Russian AT-3 Sagger.

see: Nord SS.10 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It seems the liquid fueled missile the French were trying to develop was for air to air use which might have required higher speed and longer range than an anti-tank missile.