FX.co ★ Top 7 greatest inventions during World War II

Space exploration

In the wartime, the Third Reich paid great attention to new scientific developments. German scientists managed to build V-2 ballistic missiles, guided aerial bombs, and rocket-plane aircraft. Initially, they were used to bombard European cities. After the war, most of the ideas behind those mechanical monsters were implemented in space developments, e.g. orbital flights, moon landings, and space telescopes.

Operating on liquid fuel and inertial navigation, ballistic missiles terrified civilians. However, after the war, the scientist found another way to use them.

The American Redstone PGM-11 missile ran on the same fuel configuration. It was in active service until 1964. WRESAT, the first Australian satellite, was sent into space in 1967 using a modified American Redstone rocket. V-2 also became a prototype for the Soviet ballistic missiles "R" series. The Soviets used a modified R-7 to launch Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961.

First programmable computer

Electronic computer "Colossus", created by British codebreakers to decipher the Lorentz code, became the first programmable computer in the world. It consisted of 1,500 electronic lamps. Later, the number of lamps increased to 2,500.

With its help, Brits were able to crack the encryption key. Each character was compiled with pseudo-random bits, for instance, 10010 XOR 11001 = 01011. Earlier, it took several weeks to decipher the secret messages. In 1944, from the moment of the allies landing in Normandy, the result of the missions became known within a few hours. This device was also used to misinform the German troops. In 1994, a working model of the Colossus Mark II was rebuild. Notably, that computer ran at about the same speed as a laptop with a Pentium 2 processor.

Turbojet aircraft

British engineer Frank Whittle is believed to have made the turbojet engine. He received a patent for his invention in 1930. However, the British government found his invention irrelevant, whereas the Third Reich took interest in that idea.

The Messerschmitt Me-262 was the first Luftwaffe jet fighter. Then Germans invented the first Arado Ar 234 jet bomber, the Heinkel He 162 ("Sparrow") 1-engine jet fighter, and a number of others. Armed with a 30-millimeter gunfighter Me-262 could combat even with elusive enemy aircraft attacks. It was a qualitative leap in aircraft construction.

Nuclear weapon

At the outbreak of world war II, people were aware of the potential of nuclear power, but nobody dared to test it.

During the war, the Italian-born nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi created man's first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. In 1943, the Manhattan project headed by American physicist Robert Oppenheimer and Lieutenant General Leslie Groves was launched.

This was the trigger point of the Cold War and the dawn of the atomic weapons era. Shortly after the research was completed, the United States dropped two bombs created during the Manhattan project on the Japanese cities – Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Radio navigation

Robert Watson-Watt and his assistant Arnold Wilkins were pioneers in this field. In 1930, they were invited to investigate the possibility of developing a death ray, a new weapon allegedly constructing in the Third Reich.

Scientists accomplished their mission with flying colors, successfully conducting the world's first radar experiment to detect an enemy bomber. The results of the tests were a huge contribution to the field of air defense. In 1935, R. Watson-Watt received a patent for the invention of radar.

The Soviet version of the radar, designed and installed by Yuri Konstantinovich Korovin in Leningrad, was tested a little earlier in January 1934, but for an unknown reason was not patented.

Penicillin

Penicillin was accidentally discovered by Alexander Fleming during laboratory studies in 1928. However, an extract from the mold was obtained only 10 years later.

Australian scientist Howard Florey and British biochemist Ernst Cheyne continued to study penicillin further so that it could be properly produced as a drug. In 1941, they developed and successfully tested a complex drug and soon its production was put on stream.

Scientists, who have made an invaluable contribution to the medicine, were awarded the Nobel prize in 1945.

Scuba set

For the first time, the elements of this equipment, namely a container with compressed air and a hose, were used in 1860. French mining engineer Benoit Roucairol applied his invention in the mine for regulating the air supply from the surface.

In 1878, there was a device for a long stay under water. It had a closed-circuit underwater breathing apparatus that threatened to turn pure oxygen into a toxic gas. Despite the fact this invention remained understudied, it was actively used during the Second World War. Such aqualungs became rescue equipment for the submarine fleet.

Later, in 1943, the mechanism was improved: naval officer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and engineer Emile Gagnan, who worked in German-occupied France, created an open-circuit breathing apparatus where the exhalation is made directly into the water. This safe type of scuba set we use in our days.