Operation Outward was the name given to the British World War II program to attack Germany by means of free-flying balloons. It made use of cheap, simple gas balloons filled with hydrogen. They carried one of two types of payload: a trailing steel wire intended to damage high voltage power lines by producing a short circuit, or three incendiary devices - 6-pound (2.7 kg) flexible socks filled with flammable material - that were intended to start fires in forests and heathland.
A total of 99,142 Outward balloons were launched: 53,343 carried incendiaries and 45,599 carried steel wires. Compared to Japan's better known fire balloons, Outward balloons were crude. They had to travel a much shorter distance so they flew at a lower altitude - 16,000 feet (4,900 m), compared with 38,000 feet (12,000 m) - and had only a simple mechanism to regulate altitude by means of dropping ballast or venting lifting gas. This meant the balloons were simple to mass produce and only cost 35 shillings each (£71 when adjusted for inflation).
Read more about Operation Outward: History and Development, Design, Deployment
Famous quotes containing the words operation and/or outward:
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
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“Mine eye’s due is thine outward part,
And my heart’s right thine inward love of heart.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)