Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb (German: Vergeltungswaffe 1, lit. 'Vengeance Weapon 1') was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) name was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was Höllenhund (hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and Maikäfer (maybug).
The V-1 was the first of the Vergeltungswaffen (V-weapons) deployed for the terror bombing of London. It was developed at Peenemünde Army Research Center in 1942 by the Luftwaffe, and during initial development was known by the codename "Cherry Stone". Due to its limited range, the thousands of V-1 missiles launched into England were fired from launch sites along the French (Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch coasts or by modified Heinkel He 111 aircraft.
The Wehrmacht first launched the V-1s against London on 13 June 1944, one week after (and prompted by) Operation Overlord, the Allied landings in France. At times more than one hundred V-1s a day were fired at south-east England, 9,521 in total, decreasing in number as sites were overrun until October 1944, when the last V-1 site in range of Britain was overrun by Allied forces. After this, the Germans directed V-1s at the port of Antwerp and at other targets in Belgium, launching another 2,448 V-1s. The attacks stopped only a month before the war in Europe ended, when the last launch site in the Low Countries was overrun on 29 March 1945.
As part of Operation Crossbow, operations against the V-1, the British air defences consisted of anti-aircraft guns, barrage balloons and fighter aircraft, to intercept the bombs before they reached their targets, while the launch sites and underground storage depots became targets for Allied attacks including strategic bombing.
In 1944 a number of tests of this weapon were apparently conducted in Tornio, Finland. On one occasion, several Finnish soldiers saw a German plane launch what they described as a bomb shaped like a small, winged aircraft. The flight and impact of another prototype was seen by Finnish frontline soldiers; they noted that its engine stopped suddenly, causing the V-1 to descend sharply, and explode on impact, leaving a crater 20–30 metres (66–98 ft) wide. These V-1s became known to Finnish soldiers as "flying torpedoes".
In 1935 Paul Schmidt and Professor Georg Hans Madelung submitted a design to the Luftwaffe for a flying bomb. It was an innovative design that used a pulse-jet engine, while previous work dating back to 1915 by Sperry Gyroscope relied on propellers. While employed by the Argus Motoren company, Fritz Gosslau developed a remote-controlled target drone, the FZG 43 (Flakzielgerät-43). In October 1939 Argus proposed Fernfeuer, a remote-controlled aircraft carrying a payload of one ton, that could return to base after releasing its bomb. Argus worked in co-operation with C. Lorenz AG and Arado Flugzeugwerke to develop the project. However, the Luftwaffe declined to award them a development contract. In 1940, Schmidt and Argus began cooperating, integrating Schmidt's shutter system with Argus' atomized fuel injection. Tests began in January 1941, and the first flight made on 30 April 1941 with a Gotha Go 145. On 27 February 1942 Gosslau and Robert Lusser sketched out the design of an aircraft with the pulse-jet above the tail, the basis for the future V-1.
Lusser produced a preliminary design in April 1942, P35 Erfurt, which used gyroscopes. When submitted to the Luftwaffe on 5 June 1942, the specifications included a range of 300 km (186 miles), a speed of 700 km/h (435 mph), and capable of delivering a 500-kilogram (1⁄2-long-ton) warhead. Project Fieseler Fi 103 was approved on 19 June, and assigned code name Kirschkern and cover name Flakzielgerät 76 (FZG-76). Flight tests were conducted at the Luftwaffe's Erprobungsstelle coastal test centre at Karlshagen, Peenemünde-West.
Erhard Milch, State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Aviation and Inspector General of the Air force, awarded Argus the contract for the engine, Fieseler the airframe, and Askania the guidance system. By 30 August Fieseler had completed the first fuselage, and the first flight of the Fi 103 V7 took place on 10 December 1942, when it was airdropped by a Fw 200. Then on Christmas Eve, the V-1 flew 900 m (1,000 yd), for about a minute, after a ground launch. On 26 May 1943 Germany decided to put both the V-1 and the V-2 into production. In July 1943 the V-1 flew 245 kilometres (152 mi) and impacted within a kilometre (1,100 yards) of its target.
Hub AI
V-1 flying bomb AI simulator
(@V-1 flying bomb_simulator)
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb (German: Vergeltungswaffe 1, lit. 'Vengeance Weapon 1') was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) name was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was Höllenhund (hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and Maikäfer (maybug).
The V-1 was the first of the Vergeltungswaffen (V-weapons) deployed for the terror bombing of London. It was developed at Peenemünde Army Research Center in 1942 by the Luftwaffe, and during initial development was known by the codename "Cherry Stone". Due to its limited range, the thousands of V-1 missiles launched into England were fired from launch sites along the French (Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch coasts or by modified Heinkel He 111 aircraft.
The Wehrmacht first launched the V-1s against London on 13 June 1944, one week after (and prompted by) Operation Overlord, the Allied landings in France. At times more than one hundred V-1s a day were fired at south-east England, 9,521 in total, decreasing in number as sites were overrun until October 1944, when the last V-1 site in range of Britain was overrun by Allied forces. After this, the Germans directed V-1s at the port of Antwerp and at other targets in Belgium, launching another 2,448 V-1s. The attacks stopped only a month before the war in Europe ended, when the last launch site in the Low Countries was overrun on 29 March 1945.
As part of Operation Crossbow, operations against the V-1, the British air defences consisted of anti-aircraft guns, barrage balloons and fighter aircraft, to intercept the bombs before they reached their targets, while the launch sites and underground storage depots became targets for Allied attacks including strategic bombing.
In 1944 a number of tests of this weapon were apparently conducted in Tornio, Finland. On one occasion, several Finnish soldiers saw a German plane launch what they described as a bomb shaped like a small, winged aircraft. The flight and impact of another prototype was seen by Finnish frontline soldiers; they noted that its engine stopped suddenly, causing the V-1 to descend sharply, and explode on impact, leaving a crater 20–30 metres (66–98 ft) wide. These V-1s became known to Finnish soldiers as "flying torpedoes".
In 1935 Paul Schmidt and Professor Georg Hans Madelung submitted a design to the Luftwaffe for a flying bomb. It was an innovative design that used a pulse-jet engine, while previous work dating back to 1915 by Sperry Gyroscope relied on propellers. While employed by the Argus Motoren company, Fritz Gosslau developed a remote-controlled target drone, the FZG 43 (Flakzielgerät-43). In October 1939 Argus proposed Fernfeuer, a remote-controlled aircraft carrying a payload of one ton, that could return to base after releasing its bomb. Argus worked in co-operation with C. Lorenz AG and Arado Flugzeugwerke to develop the project. However, the Luftwaffe declined to award them a development contract. In 1940, Schmidt and Argus began cooperating, integrating Schmidt's shutter system with Argus' atomized fuel injection. Tests began in January 1941, and the first flight made on 30 April 1941 with a Gotha Go 145. On 27 February 1942 Gosslau and Robert Lusser sketched out the design of an aircraft with the pulse-jet above the tail, the basis for the future V-1.
Lusser produced a preliminary design in April 1942, P35 Erfurt, which used gyroscopes. When submitted to the Luftwaffe on 5 June 1942, the specifications included a range of 300 km (186 miles), a speed of 700 km/h (435 mph), and capable of delivering a 500-kilogram (1⁄2-long-ton) warhead. Project Fieseler Fi 103 was approved on 19 June, and assigned code name Kirschkern and cover name Flakzielgerät 76 (FZG-76). Flight tests were conducted at the Luftwaffe's Erprobungsstelle coastal test centre at Karlshagen, Peenemünde-West.
Erhard Milch, State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Aviation and Inspector General of the Air force, awarded Argus the contract for the engine, Fieseler the airframe, and Askania the guidance system. By 30 August Fieseler had completed the first fuselage, and the first flight of the Fi 103 V7 took place on 10 December 1942, when it was airdropped by a Fw 200. Then on Christmas Eve, the V-1 flew 900 m (1,000 yd), for about a minute, after a ground launch. On 26 May 1943 Germany decided to put both the V-1 and the V-2 into production. In July 1943 the V-1 flew 245 kilometres (152 mi) and impacted within a kilometre (1,100 yards) of its target.