Paul. During WWII, HM War Office had a top secret development cell at Porlock, Somerset UK. Neville Shute worked there as a Development Engineer, amongst other madmen. They came up with some of the strangest secret weapons ever seen on this planet and one of these was the 'Harvey Rocket' which was a standard 3" signal rocket plus a crude warhead and a contact fuse. Launched up a bit of scrap steel U channel, it was fired by just 2 of those minature switches, [ one of them was the safety switch! ] a radio battery + electric fusee. I think the idea was to build an anti-aircraft missile for less than 50 pence! Presented to a plainly hostile and disinterested audience of Top Brass at Portland, UK, 'Harvey' did not disappoint their dismal expectations. Test firings veered wildly in all directions and it was plainly utterly useless. A General spoke up saying it looked unsteady and inaccurate.
Shute bristled, and replied that of course, what did they expect! - they needed something to
aim at! Ordered by the General to 'aim at' a bunch of tethered inflatables guarding the fleet across the harbor, Shute took careful aim, and pressed his little F. W. Woolworth's 6 penny switches.
Whoooooooosssshhhh!!!!!!! 'Harvey' scorched over the water....... and scored a direct-hit on one of the Blimp tethering cables! A very expensive Inflatable soared up into the statosphere, its crew baling out as fast as possible!
'Harvey' was never seen again!
Alan
ps. Found this:
http://www.nevilshute.org Memory plays tricks over the decades - it was called the 'Harvey Projector'- [ah! now
that sounds a bit more technological!]
This and other tales of Shute Norway's wartime designs could be found in Gerald Pawle's book 'The Secret War' which is now, I think, sadly out of print.
Alan
[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 03-15-2006).]
