13. The Fliergerfaust was a prototype portable anti-aircraft rocket launcher designed by Nazi Germany
The Fliegerfaust (or “plane fist”, also known as the “Luftfaust” or “air fist”) was a prototype weapon designed as an unguided and portable ground-to-air rocket launcher capable of targeting and eliminating enemy attack planes. Designed by Hugo Schneider AG in 1944, two separate versions of the Fliegerfaust were created. The first, Fliegerfaust A, possessed four 20 mm caliber barrels, each firing 90g rocket-propelled projectiles containing 19g of explosives; the second, Fliegerfaust B, added an additional 5 barrels to the 6.5-kilogram weapon but ingeniously timed the firing sequence to avoid the projectiles colliding with a delay of 0.1s.
Despite its somewhat ineffective range, designed only to hit targets at up to 500 meters, orders were placed for 10,000 Fliegerfaust launchers in 1945 along with 4 million rockets for ammunition. It is unknown how many of these were completed prior to the conclusion of the war, with only 80 known to have been used in military trials. However, historical consensus that few were delivered has been questioned by the discovery of a photograph from 1945 of the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, opposite the Brandenburg Gate and a focal point during the last days of the Battle of Berlin, showing a Fliegerfaust B lying amidst the rubble; this picture suggests that at least some were operationally deployed, and were most probably used in the final days of the Third Reich as an anti-infantry cannon.