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Fritz X was the most common name for a German guided anti-ship glide bomb used during World War II. ''Fritz X'' was the world's first precision guided weapon, and the first to sink a ship in combat. ''Fritz X'' was a nickname used both by Allied and Luftwaffe personnel. Alternate names include Ruhrstahl SD 1400 X, Kramer X-1, PC 1400X or FX 1400 (the latter, along with the unguided PC 1400 ordnance's ''Fritz'' nickname, is the origin for the name "Fritz X"). Along with the USAAF's similar Azon weapon of the same period in World War II, it is one of the precursors of today's anti-ship missiles and precision-guided weapons. == History == The Fritz X was a further development of the armour-piercing high-explosive bomb PC 1400 (''Panzersprengbombe, Cylindrisch 1400 kg''〔German Wikipedia's WW II PC-series bomb specifications, German for "armor-piercing bomb, cylindrical".〕) and itself bearing the nickname ''Fritz''. It was a penetration weapon intended to be used against heavily protected targets such as heavy cruisers and battleships. It was given a more aerodynamic nose, four stub wings, and a box shaped tail unit, consisting of a roughly 12-sided annular set of fixed surfaces, and a cruciform tail with thick surfaces within the annulus, which themselves contained the aerodynamic controls. The Luftwaffe recognized the difficulty of hitting moving ships during the Spanish Civil War.〔Fitzsimons, Bernard, ed. "Fritz-X", in ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare'' (London: Phoebus, 1978), Volume 10, p.1037.〕 ''Dipl. engineer'' Max Kramer, who worked at the DVL, had been experimenting since 1938 with remote-controlled free-falling 250 kg bombs, and in 1939 fitted radio-controlled spoilers.〔Fitzsimons, "Fritz-X", p.1037.〕 In 1940, Ruhrstahl was invited to join the development, since they already had experience in the development and production of unguided bombs.〔Christopher, John. ''The Race for Hitler's X-Planes'' (The Mill, Gloucestershire: History Press, 2013), p.134.〕 The dual-axis, single-joystick-equipped ''Funkgerät (FuG 203) Kehl''〔Named for the German town of Kehl, at the time, a suburb of Strasbourg.〕 series of radio-control transmitter sets on board the deploying aircraft, were used to send the control signals to the Fritz-X, with the ordnance itself picking up the signals through a ''Funkgerät (FuG 230) Straßburg'' receiver, named for the city, within it to send the signals on to the movable spoilers in the Fritz-X's thick vertical and horizontal tail fin surfaces, within the annular tailfin structure. The ''Straßburg'' receiver's antennas were aerodynamically integrated into the trailing edge of the annular surfaces of the tailfin, within a quartet of "bulged" sections in the trailing edge. This design feature of the Fritz X's receiver installation is not entirely unlike the Azon, which had its own receiving antennas placed in the quartet of diagonal struts bracing the fixed sections of its tailfins, Minimum launch height was ( was preferred) and a range of was necessary.〔Christopher, p.134.〕 The operator had to keep the bomb in sight at all times (a tail flare was provided, as with the Azon) and the control aircraft had to hold course,〔 which made evading gunfire or fighters impossible. Approximately 1400 examples, including trial models, were produced.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Fritz X」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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