what's more dangerous than a bouncing tire a bouncing bomb but it's not what you think at the beginning of world war ii british invented the bouncing bomb to destroy enemy dams and battleships a bouncing bomb was designed to bounce to a target across the water to avoid obstacles like torpedo nets these bombs could even bounce off the ground upon hitting its target the bomb would sink and explode underwater at a predetermined depth to deliver maximum damage one important realization was the effect of adding backspin to the bombs commonly known as the magnus effect with a
backspin of 500 rpm after hitting its target the bouncing bomb would move back towards the surface as it sank but dropping these bombs was risky since they had to be dropped about 60 feet or 18 meters off the surface this put the pilots in danger as the bombs could bounce back and hit the aircraft before the pilot had enough time to move away during operation chassis in 1943 the royal air force breached two german dams using bouncing bombs causing widespread flooding
