Memorial Day USA

At 01:36 01 June 2006, Jack wrote:
Say, Derek, is it true that those V1's were actually
self-launching gliders?

What do you suppose their true L/D was?

I had a look at one in an air museum a few weeks ago.
They had very short stubby wings, so probably not that
good - 10:1 maybe. I believe that one was fitted with
a cockpit and test flown by the famous (and very small)
lady glider pilot Hanna Reisch when they were having
control problems during its development.

Most modern weapons were first developed by the Germans,
and the V1 was the forerunner of the cruise missile,
albeit with a much cruder guidance system. Fortunately
for us in the UK GPS hadn't been invented then. They
depended on gyro compasses to keep them running straight
and a little propellor on the front to measure the
range. When they reached their estimated target distance
the motor was cut and the elevators set to full down
so they turned into bombs. I am told that if you heard
one coming, you didn't worry unless the engine stopped.

I believe that British Intelligence put a lot of effort
into persuading the Germans that the V1s were overshooting
their intended targets, using captured German agents
to send back false reports of where they landed. Thus
they reduced the range setting so they fell short.
Some towns just south of London took a bit of a battering
as a result.

German agents weren't that difficult to spot - anyone
who couldn't pronounce 'th' and 'w' properly was immediately
suspect!

Derek Copeland

Actually the V1 distance actuator just gave down elevator. It was
supposed to go into a power dive, but most often the engine stalled
because of fuel starvation from the sudden manouever. There's a V1 in
the Smithsonian Air and Space museaum and there also used to be one in
the Science Museum in London. The control schematics are available on
the web.

V1s were also launched from aircraft over the North Sea at targets in
northern England, a procedure that proved less than satisfactory.
Separation from the host aircraft was not always clean, resulting in
the loss of quite a few aircraft. Even those successfully launched
went far astray of their targets or fell into the sea. Not bad for
such an early innovation, though. My father was an air-raid warden in
northern Derbyshire and saw one of the errant V1s going by.

Mike


Derek Copeland wrote:
At 01:36 01 June 2006, Jack wrote:
Say, Derek, is it true that those V1's were actually
self-launching gliders?

What do you suppose their true L/D was?

I had a look at one in an air museum a few weeks ago.
They had very short stubby wings, so probably not that
good - 10:1 maybe. I believe that one was fitted with
a cockpit and test flown by the famous (and very small)
lady glider pilot Hanna Reisch when they were having
control problems during its development.

Most modern weapons were first developed by the Germans,
and the V1 was the forerunner of the cruise missile,
albeit with a much cruder guidance system. Fortunately
for us in the UK GPS hadn't been invented then. They
depended on gyro compasses to keep them running straight
and a little propellor on the front to measure the
range. When they reached their estimated target distance
the motor was cut and the elevators set to full down
so they turned into bombs. I am told that if you heard
one coming, you didn't worry unless the engine stopped.

I believe that British Intelligence put a lot of effort
into persuading the Germans that the V1s were overshooting
their intended targets, using captured German agents
to send back false reports of where they landed. Thus
they reduced the range setting so they fell short.
Some towns just south of London took a bit of a battering
as a result.

German agents weren't that difficult to spot - anyone
who couldn't pronounce 'th' and 'w' properly was immediately
suspect!

Derek Copeland

Funny you should mention the V1, my father(19 yrs old at the time) who
was in German University in their Aeronatical Program was pulled from
school and sent to a factory to
assemble the V1 missles.

They were built rather hastily he says and it no doubt resulted in less
than predicatable performance when trying to set them out to a target.

I think the best they could hope for was that they would indeed explode
somewhere in England when sent off in that direction.

It was more for the demoralization of the enemy, not knowing when or
where these things would go, than specific targets and quite frequently
they simple exploded in empty fields.

Terrors of war are not limited by the imagination, and these are things
people would rather forget.

Ray Buhr

Actually, the ground launched V1s were surprisingly accurate for the
technology used. The biggest problem was variability of the thrust
produced by the pulse jet motor, hence the use of a simple distance run
control rather than a timer. Some V1 s were so fast they were
impossible to catch with existing aircraft, but some were slower and
could be caught and shot down or tipped up to upset the control system.
The most interesting story is the one already mentioned. The area
where they were falling was measured by radar, but more reliance was
given to reports from German spies (who were captured and feeding false
information). The range of V1s was later adjusted based on the false
information, steering more of them into empty countryside.

Despite the higher damage and death rate of the more sophisticated V2,
the V1 caused
a lot more distress because of its sound, visability and apparent
unstoppability.

Mike

jb92563 wrote:
Funny you should mention the V1, my father(19 yrs old at the time) who
was in German University in their Aeronatical Program was pulled from
school and sent to a factory to
assemble the V1 missles.

They were built rather hastily he says and it no doubt resulted in less
than predicatable performance when trying to set them out to a target.

I think the best they could hope for was that they would indeed explode
somewhere in England when sent off in that direction.

It was more for the demoralization of the enemy, not knowing when or
where these things would go, than specific targets and quite frequently
they simple exploded in empty fields.

Terrors of war are not limited by the imagination, and these are things
people would rather forget.

Ray Buhr

Thrice blessed is he
Who has his quarrel just
But nine times he
Who gets his punch in first

not Jim Culp