Rockets, spaceplanes, orbiters, Von Braun and other topics

[Dave (imported)]

If war is not fought as a blitzkrieg, the war turns out to be economy war. Basically what is the capacity of a country to produce various weapons and how much these weapons can cause destruction. If you put 1 dollar into war machine, then how many enemy dollars you could destroy. Thats it. In that sense V1, V2, V3 could not have reached any reasonable economic ratio. To destroy 10 000 dollars Nazi Germany should have put 100 000 dollars into their V-weapons. That kind of ratio would have had no effect on GB except some chaos and more motivated enemy. Unless they carried nuclear devices.

The buzzbombs and the V1 (which was the only version of Von Braun's rocket to be used in war) were not offensive weapons but rather "Terror Weapons." The purpose of a Terror Weapon is to cause an over-size or out-of-proportion response in the receiving country. Britain had to fly plane missions to defend against these low-flying weapons and only try to shoot them down. That kept the British air force off the European mainland and away from the Luftwaffe/

In that way, the Buzzbomb and the V1 were successes for Hitler.

[moi621 (imported)]

Uh, Dave -

Remember, one did not hear the V-1 coming. If you did not see it you just heard a big bomb, or died.

Terror? I think so. Even today.

Moi

[Dave (imported)]

Uh, Dave -

Remember, one did not hear the V-1 coming. If you did not see it you just heard a big bomb, or died.

Terror? I think so. Even today.

Moi

First, go get this book out of the library:

THE ROCKET TEAM

Frederick Ordway III & Mitchell Sharpe

Crowell Publishing 1979

Second, The Buzzbomb could be heard well in advance of its approach. The Buzzbomb was the precursor to the V1. It was a giant ramjet and those things are noisy. The Brits couldn't see them coming because they flew at tree top level. Like 50 to at most 100 feet above the ground. Even the propeller planes of that era did not want to fly that low. Too many objects stick out of the ground to fly that low.

Third, The Brits had spotters watching from both air and land. The damn A1 and A4's and V1's had to be launched from Belgium and not Germany. At night, since there were no street lights, the V1 light up the sky and could be seen from ships, from across the channel and from the air above Britain. We don't think of that today because we have so many lights on the ground. Hell, I'll bet you can't even figure out a place to WALK TO (not drive) and see the Milky Way. They could during WW2. So the Brits knew that a missile was launched.

BTW - how do you think we know about missile launches today? A fricken satellite sees the blast of the engines from 300 miles out.

Hitler had a great terror weapon and the Wehrmacht (War Machine) was working on worse things to throw into the sky. Even their initial tactic of Blitzkrieg was designed as a terror weapon.

[Riverwind (imported)]

The buzzbombs and the V1 (which was the only version of Von Braun's rocket to be used in war) were not offensive weapons but rather "Terror Weapons." The purpose of a Terror Weapon is to cause an over-size or out-of-proportion response in the receiving country. Britain had to fly plane missions to defend against these low-flying weapons and only try to shoot them down. That kept the British air force off the European mainland and away from the Luftwaffe/

In that way, the Buzzbomb and the V1 were successes for Hitler.

So let me get this straight, the V2 and V3 even V4 rockets Von Braun had nothing to do with. It was somebody else launching them to England?

River

[fhunter]

Buzzbomb, and later a V1 used pulse jet, not ramjet. It was pulsed combustion, that gave the engine it's characteristic sound. (Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCsKs2NhdWg )

[moi621 (imported)]

So let me get this straight, the V2 and V3 even V4 rockets Von Braun had nothing to do with. It was somebody else launching them to England?

River

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro

[Riverwind (imported)]

Tom Learer one great math teacher, and piano bar singer. Brings back memories of his song of the mushroom cloud.

But pidgins in the park and the Vatican rock I think were his best oh and don't forget be prepared.

River

[Dave (imported)]

So let me get this straight, the V2 and V3 even V4 rockets Von Braun had nothing to do with. It was somebody else launching them to England?

River

I don't understand why you say that. Maybe I'm misreading it... It's late and I've been editing my short story today.

.

Von Braun's team designed and built all of the "A" and "V" rockets at Peenemunde. The actual fueling and launch was left up to German soldiers trained for the rather dangerous task. First, the solid fuels engines were not stable. Second, the liquid fuel engines required fuels so volatile that sparks would ignite the fumes and third, after the Luftwaffe was beaten, the trucks hauling the missiles had to be camouflaged so they weren't bombed. The Allies were real good at that bombing thing. They used trucks after the Allies destroyed the railroads.

I"m not near that book I mentioned in the previous post and I can't quite remember the reason for "A" and "V" designations. Sorry

The Buzzbomb and the "A" or "V" series of rockets were fired not from Berlin or Peenemunde. They had to be fired from near the coast. One of the advantages to the Nazis was the shorter time in the air. With the actual rockets, they were all ballistic and obeyed the laws of physics - what goes up must come down and the path is a calculation. So catching the launch and angle was tantamount to knowing the target. That part was high school physics. Even today, a warhead on an ICBM will be a high school physics problem or trajectory and thrust. (Except when they MIRV, that's a real pain in the ass).

One last thing, as I recall, Von Braun's team had a materials problem in that the rocket nozzles burnt out or melted. A rocket is a barely controlled explosion called a single stage turbine... the nozzle bears the brunt of that explosion.

That's what the USA supplied to Von Braun -- exotic metals and the methods to machine them into precision parts -- and why the USA was able to create heavy lift rockets a decade later. That's another story.

[Dave (imported)]

Buzzbomb, and later a V1 used pulse jet, not ramjet. It was pulsed combustion, that gave the engine it's characteristic sound. (Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCsKs2NhdWg )

OK, my misstatement

[gunnutz (imported)]

http://www.popsci.com/technology/articl ... lies-space

John Hunter wants to shoot stuff into space with a 3,600-foot gun. And he’s dead serious—he’s done the math. Making deliveries to an orbital outpost on a rocket costs $5,000 per pound, but using a space gun would cost just $250 per pound.

That is the materials

http://www.virgingalactic.com/

And that's the people.