Historical superweapons

Post impractical, unreasonable behemoths of war before nuclear weapons made everything boring.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

this shit fired less than 100 times
a 75 mm French cannon somewhere in Flanders during WW1 probably made bigger contribution than this

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>>The Basilic, or The Ottoman Cannon was a supercannon designed by Urban, a Wallachian cannon engineer, Saruca Usta and architect Muslihiddin Usta at a time when cannons were still new. It was horribly inaccurate, but when it hit, it caused massive damage to Constantinople's walls. Additionally, due to the material the cannon was constructed of, and the intense heat created by the charge, the cannon had to be cooled with olive oil between shots to prevent cracking. The heat also prevented the cannon from being fired more than three times per day. Ultimately, it lasted all of six weeks before becoming non-functional.

>Length: ~24 feet (7.32 m)
>Diameter: 2.5 feet (76.2 cm)
>Cannonball: 1200 lb (544 kg)
>Range: ~1 mile (1.6 km)

it was the only thing that could breach the walls of Istanbul though

In a similar vein...

>The Dardanelles Gun was cast in bronze in 1464 by Munir Ali with a weight of 16.8 t and a length of 5.18 m (17.0 ft), being capable of firing stone balls of up to 0.63 m diameter (24.8 in).[1] The powder chamber and the barrel are connected by the way of a screw mechanism, allowing easier transport of the unwieldy device.
>Along with other huge cannons, the Dardanelles Gun was still present for duty more than 340 years later in 1807, when a Royal Navy force appeared and commenced the Dardanelles Operation. Turkish forces loaded the ancient relics with propellant and projectiles, then fired them at the British ships. The British squadron suffered 28 casualties from this bombardment.[4]

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>impractical

6How did they put the cannonballs in?

It wasn't that effective against the walls of Constantinople.

The time between shots let the damage be repaired. Turks only got in because someone opened a gate for 'em

I don't think the tsar cannon has even been fired once

I imagine seeing that massive thing firing and wrecking the walls had unintended psychological effects on the defenders though.

pussy shit....behold en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_HARP

carefully

turkey man is very stronk

The Santísima Trinidad, which was armed with 140 cannons

i was supposed to post it with the Schewerev Gustav

This retarded piece of shit.

>poor aul' tam o'shanter
>he can't handle the banter
>as his shitty castle wall
>into crappy rubble does fall
>as this mighty siege machine
>as mighty as my liege's peen
>knocks jock castles into dust
>so well our soldiers' swords do rust

she was only viable for a specific period where there was a need for ships with large guns but middling armor to match cruiser speed

*unsinkable*

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> tfw radar destroyed aerial warfare

relevant

>tfw no flying aircraft carrier

>glider so heavy it needs rocket boosters and three tow planes just to get off the ground

IT'S CALLED THE HERCULES AND IT WILL FLY GODDAMMIT

This counts, I assume?

That wasn't really impractical though, it was actually pretty effective given the technology of the time.

>Dont talk to me or my son ever again

Thats metal as fuck, did it carry tanks?? Why

y? Isnt the b29 still used today?

>missing the massive B-36 in the pic
user pls

>don't talk to me or my sons ever again

The Coastal Warlords of Japan built bigass fighting craft known as "Atakabune." Essentially floating fortresses, they were juggernauts in the boarding based naval warfare of the Samurai in the 16th Century.

The largest of these was completed in the 1591 during the reign of the Toyotomi Protectorate. It was named "Nihon Maru" and was personal flagship of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the "national" flagship of the Japanese "navy" (really a collection of feudally owned fleets bunked in together to form the navy). The thing was so massive, it couldn't sail for long distances, so it had to be towed for long haul transportation.

Despite its size, the Nihon Maru only served to be a national embarrassment when, during the Invasion of Korea, in the Battle of Angol'po, the Nihon Maru was holed by Korean naval gunnery (Feudal Japs had 0 cannon, both on land and at sea lol). It pulled out of the fight and was towed back to Japan before it can humiliate the Samurai by sinking.

>y? Isnt the b29 still used today?
No, the oldest one we still use today is the B-52, which is a step up from the B-36.

Yes.
Messerschmidt eventually gave up on the towing, and turned the design into a "powered glider" using captured French engines. They also stuck some machine gun turrets onto the later models to protect them from Allied fighters. It was basically an oversized wood and canvas transport plane that had all of the defects of a glider and none of the advantages.

In a similar theme, a millenia or so ago in China, during eve of the Three Kingdoms period, the Cao controlled North faced the rebel South in the Battle of Chibi, somewhere along the Yangtze.

Since the Southern forces were known sailors, the Cao faction aimed to tip the balance by building massive floating fortresses to spearhead their attacks downriver.

Presumably these were lost during the iconic battle's Fire Attack by Southern forces.

That's a very nice model, sir.

>Dives from behind you
Nothin personnel, tovarisch.

The Wasa was painted red though, it was in the 90s that people thought it was blue.

>wallachian

romanian gypsies will never stop to amuse me