The proximity fuze

Abstract

The ballistic accuracy and range of guns in 1914 was adequate for shooting at aircraft, but the method of aiming had not evolved beyond 1871 and was incapable of dealing with the small size, high speed, and agility of the airplane. It was realized that direct hits by projectiles could not be expected except by machine gun and automatic cannon, so the high explosive shells of heavier guns would have to be detonated through the time fuzes used for shrapnel. Pointing the gun and cutting the fuze required accurate location of the target and calculation of where it would be when the shell completed its flight. Of the inaccuracies in causing a shell to explode near an airplane, that of the fuze, especially the accurate determination of the flight time, was by far the worst. The development of a solution to this problem, a fuze that felt the influence of the plane in some manner, is reviewed. >