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Not possible at all at that time. The V-1 (aka Fi-103, FZG-76) took years to develop. Rheinbote was started in 1943. One is a short range artillery rocket, the other a long range flying bomb meant to hit Sweden. There's no comparison between the two other than you thinking it is a derivative of the Rheinbote due to (I assume) general appearance without the ramjet. BTW, an engineer cannot simply strap on an experimental ramjet onto a Rheinbote-like missile, add wings, and hope it makes it to Sweden. No, but they could strap on a ram jet and wings to see how much range they could get, and develop from there. Considering how much impulse they got out of the first stage of the Rheinbote, I'm suprised there wasn't more R&D done with the system. Using a ramjet instead of another stage or two(or three) would seem to be a logical growth direction. And the arti guys were no entirely unaware of ramjets, with the R&D done with ramjet shells and such. But to have this "V-4" spring up out of nowhere, without any R&D trail or name attached to its manufacture seems a bit iffy. If it was purpose designed, then why not a better configuration? A better length/diameter ratio or tapered rear fuselage would have been obvious. Now, a lack of taper could be to accommodate a tail mounted rocket motor to supplement the catapult and rato strap ons. But unless the was based on something else, the length/diameter ratio seems off. On Misdroy they had catapults aimed towards Sweden, not the West. The ramps were for the V-4. Misdroy was also the testing ground for the long-range V-3 weapon which fired shells at Luxembourg. The Rheinbote, OTOH, was made by Rheinmetall-Borsig and used to shell Antwerp in Nov '44- 220 being fired. Its maximum range was 135 miles. No Rheinbote was on Misdroy. Misdroy was the testing ground for long-range missiles and shells. Where was "Misdroy"? My refs mention it too, but can't find it on a map. For that matter, the "V-4" was likely little more than a vaporware threat rather than a credible piece of hardware. It wouldn't make any sense to threaten a neutral nation like Sweden with a non-existant weapon in 1945 with the Allies closing in on Germany. If you remember postwar it was Sweden that complained about the "Ghost Rockets" coming from the same region. Most "Ghost Rockets" were described as long cigar-shaped burning objects. These were suspected of being Russian modified extended-body V-1s but looking at the V-4... it looks like a strong possibility, especially if a Swede saw it from below, the ramjet unseen burning above the body. I don't know about "ghost rockets" but at least one A-4 ended up in that direction. But in general, the whole threaten Sweden things soulds more than a bit iffy, and given the nature of the time, Germany did have all kinds of scary things so even a bluff would have had weight, on the one hand, and on the other, the Swedes would have known that the German's days were numbered and even a wonder weapon threat would have seemed a bit toothless. Even if some kind of launch rig was built, that doesn't mean there as anything to launch, other than, perhaps, more V-1s. |
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