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Submitted: February 15, 2007
Image Size: 94.6 KB
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Screamin' Demonby *turbofanatic

Digital Art / Drawings & Paintings / Sci-Fi

Officially known as the Thunderbolt III, this missile was more commonly known as the Screamin' Demon.

Designed in the days preceding the collapse of the Soviet Union the Thunderbolt was designed to lay waste to the Russian countryside without the need for explosive or nuclear weapons. The lack of such weapons made it possible to build (and theoretically use) such a weapon without breaking any specific weapons treaty.

The Thunderbolt was essentially a massive airbreathing rocket with a sharp tipped nose. It used the air rammed into its intakes to feed a combustion chamber powered by liquid hydrogen. Smaller rockets were used to propel the thunderbolt up to speed, and stored liquid oxygen was used to power it when it did not have the speed to force enough air into the engine.

The Thunderbolt carried no usual weapons. It's only means of attack were it's sharp wedge shaped nose and blinding speed. At velocities approaching Mach 3.5 (3.5 times the speed of sound) and flying low enough above the ground, the Thunderbolt produced shock waves of immense power.

These waves shattered glass, tore apart wood framed houses, deafened people miles away, and animal tests suggested it could kill people standing under the flight path via internal hemorrhaging.

Thirteen Thunderbolt missiles were built, but the project was canceled in 1997 by Senator Perkins who called the missile "A despicable weapon that preys upon noncombatants and provides no real military asset other than terror."

The program was quietly scuttled until 2009 when the remaining 11 missiles were rebuilt with cameras, smoother noses, and improved stealthiness to serve as reconnaissance aircraft. Their speed proved to be essential to the information gathered during the wars in Columbia in the 2010's and were never even detected. Even their sonic booms were quieted by coke-bottle body shaping and smoother noses.

The picture below depicts one of the earlier Thunderbolts on a performance test above the Atlantic ocean.

You know what's funny? I just really wanted to draw clouds. Anyways, the above is made up, though it is very informed by science and history. I also really had a hankering for crazy realistic weaponry. Gotta put my supersonic flow classes to use!

Photoshop CS2, 6 hours

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~zaku1986 Feb 23, 2012 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

This is very interesting weapon concept. But yeah, it is more useful as a reconnaissance vehicle than a missile.

~MarcosBuLLiTT Aug 25, 2010

looks like the Black Bird(X-men plane)

~nikolay Aug 7, 2009

Sounds like it was rebuilt into something like the NASA/Boeing X-43 and X-51 scramjet

~lazarusmumble Jul 5, 2007

Ooh, tasty.

~atomicfiction Mar 22, 2007

Rockets and weapons and such are so evocative and terrifying on so many levels, and this image is no exception. Excellent work.~

*turbofanatic Mar 26, 2007 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Thank you very much, I enjoy reading about Cold War weaponry far too much

~atomicfiction Mar 26, 2007

I can tell- but honestly the cold war has a whole lot of interesting things to research so I certainly can't fault you!

~IndiozinhoAzul Mar 5, 2007 Hobbyist Photographer

your pictures are amazing

~nemo-ramjet Feb 16, 2007

This could still work as a reasonable hard target penetrator... or could it?

*turbofanatic Feb 19, 2007 Hobbyist Digital Artist

You mean like a bunker buster? Alas, it probably wouldn't do very well as at destroying specific targets, the engine type I used would be efficient but very delicate and it would probably blow itself up before it got deep enough to do enough damage.

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