I recently read an article about experimental aircraft Nazis had made during WW2. And one aircraft caught my attention.It was a experimental aircraft Named “Die Glocke” It was first described by a polish journalist who claimed to have seen the aircraft. Does anyone know of any real proof that such aircraft existed? Also, would it have been possible to build it?
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$\begingroup$ If it had gotten to the prototype stage, there would certainly be pictures somewhere. I was always more impressed by the fact that they had a heavy lift helicopter in operational use. $\endgroup$– John KCommented Jun 24, 2022 at 4:26
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$\begingroup$ What article were you reading? $\endgroup$– 300D7309EF17Commented Aug 2, 2022 at 15:27
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There is no indication that Nazi Germany made any significant efforts towards hovercraft development, jet-powered or otherwise. Also, "Die Glocke" specifically is generally thought to be a relatively-recent conspiracy theory/hoax.
Polish author Igor Witkovsky specialises in... "historical" books exploring Nazi wonder weapons. The english wiki article on "Die Glocke" identifies him as the point of origin for this rumour; there seems to be no mention in any media of this contraption prior to publication of his book "Prawda o Wunderwaffe" in 2001 (note that Witkowsky also published a book dealing with Nazi UFOs in 1997, and it had no mention of "Die Glocke"). The author claims that Germans managed to create a device capable of controlling gravity, and that's what this machine was. I am not going to discuss here why this specific claim is ridiculous, if you are interested, you may ask on Physics.SE about it. Obviously, such aircraft never existed.
Since you are not asking about a gravity-defying flying saucer, but a much more reasonable hovercraft - let's also discuss if this or similar aircraft could actually be built during WW2. There is no known hovercraft developed in Nazi Germany, save for the failed Austrian project for a hovering torpedo boat undertaken in early 1930s. Moreover, the only more-or-less successful project of a jet-powered flying saucer (the Avro Avrocar) demonstrated several significant problems which any similar project would encounter; these issues are unlikely to be able to be resolved in the environment late-war Germany was - strapped for resources and with jet tech much less mature than it was in 1959. Some work were done on more conventional circular-wing aircraft (aircraft of Arthur Sack), but again, compared with a more mature design by Vought, it is unlikely that issues encountered in Sack AS-6 would be resolved before the end of the war. Thus, it is extremey unlikely any craft that would be remotely similar to the description of “Die Glocke” could make it off the ground in Nazi Germany.
