V-1 & V-2 Rocket
Hitler's second Vergeltungswaffe, or Vengeance Weapon, may have killed over
2,500 people (and 20,000 more died in the process of making it) but it was a key
step forward in putting a flag on the moon, as well as developing GPS, Google
Earth and satellite communications.
While the V-1 was a relatively crude guided missile, the V-2 was an
astonishingly advanced weapon. The world's first intercontinental ballistic
missile had a range of 200-225 miles, reached an altitude of up to 60 miles and
could strike London just three minutes after its launch in Holland.
The V-2 is the ancestor of all modern rockets, and is related to the
vehicles that launched Sputnik and put the first American in space - the Soviet
R-7 and US Mercury-Redstone. This was no accident; after the war both the US and
Russia appropriated V-2 missiles and related equipment, and both powers hired
former V-2 engineers to help with their missile programs. Although rockets had
been used in warfare for hundreds of years, traditional solid fuel didn't have
the energy density needed to propel a vehicle for hundreds of miles, and made it
impossible to throttle the thrust. Rockets were also far too inaccurate to hit a
target on another landmass. The V2 counteracted this with two major innovations:
liquid propellant and inertial navigation.
FUELLING THE ROCKET
Even before war broke out there was keen interest in using liquid fuels to
launch rockets in both Europe and the United States. An American, Robert H.
Goddard, launched the first liquid-fuelled rocket in March 1926, and in Germany
in 1929 Austro-Hungarian scientist Hermann Oberth successfully fired a
liquid-fuelled rocket engine.
Oberth's assistant at the test firing was Walther von Braun, who went on to
head up the German army's rocket research. By December 1934, at the Kummersdorf
proving grounds near Berlin, von Braun had his first successful test firing - a
small, 1.6-metre long 'A-2' rocket, which burnt a mixture of alcohol and liquid
oxygen to reach a height of 2.2 miles. Two years later the research centre was
moved to the island of Peenemünde, on Germany's coast to the south of Sweden,
where testing began on A-3 and A-5 rockets - test beds for components to be used
on the proposed A-4 model, which would become the V-2 ballistic missile.
One of the main problems faced by the scientists was generating enough thrust
to lift a rocket as large and heavy as the V-2 into space. The A-2 rocket
generated 300 kilograms of thrust, but the V-2 needed 25,000. To get the
required thrust a way was needed to a sufficient flow of fuel to the combustion
chamber to maintain the speed of the reaction and so generate enough power. The
V-2's final engine used twin gas turbine-powered pumps to push vast amounts of
an ethanol/water solution plus liquid oxygen into a combustion chamber, where
they mixed and ignited to produce a huge amount of thrust. This alcohol/oxygen
mix continued to be used well after the war - the US Army's PGM-11 Redstone
rocket used the same fuel configuration and stayed in use until 1964, while a
retired Redstone rocket launched Australia's first satellite - WRESAT - in 1967.
Even though von Braun's military backers ensured liquid-engined rockets were
developed far faster and to a more advanced degree than Robert Goddard managed
in the States, von Braun was in no doubt as to the debt he owed the American.
While at NASA in the 60s he stated that Goddard's early rockets "blazed the
trail and incorporated many features used in our most modern rockets and space
vehicles".
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTINUE AT: http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/general/1286401/top-10-technical-innovations-of-world-war-2/7
2,500 people (and 20,000 more died in the process of making it) but it was a key
step forward in putting a flag on the moon, as well as developing GPS, Google
Earth and satellite communications.
While the V-1 was a relatively crude guided missile, the V-2 was an
astonishingly advanced weapon. The world's first intercontinental ballistic
missile had a range of 200-225 miles, reached an altitude of up to 60 miles and
could strike London just three minutes after its launch in Holland.
The V-2 is the ancestor of all modern rockets, and is related to the
vehicles that launched Sputnik and put the first American in space - the Soviet
R-7 and US Mercury-Redstone. This was no accident; after the war both the US and
Russia appropriated V-2 missiles and related equipment, and both powers hired
former V-2 engineers to help with their missile programs. Although rockets had
been used in warfare for hundreds of years, traditional solid fuel didn't have
the energy density needed to propel a vehicle for hundreds of miles, and made it
impossible to throttle the thrust. Rockets were also far too inaccurate to hit a
target on another landmass. The V2 counteracted this with two major innovations:
liquid propellant and inertial navigation.
FUELLING THE ROCKET
Even before war broke out there was keen interest in using liquid fuels to
launch rockets in both Europe and the United States. An American, Robert H.
Goddard, launched the first liquid-fuelled rocket in March 1926, and in Germany
in 1929 Austro-Hungarian scientist Hermann Oberth successfully fired a
liquid-fuelled rocket engine.
Oberth's assistant at the test firing was Walther von Braun, who went on to
head up the German army's rocket research. By December 1934, at the Kummersdorf
proving grounds near Berlin, von Braun had his first successful test firing - a
small, 1.6-metre long 'A-2' rocket, which burnt a mixture of alcohol and liquid
oxygen to reach a height of 2.2 miles. Two years later the research centre was
moved to the island of Peenemünde, on Germany's coast to the south of Sweden,
where testing began on A-3 and A-5 rockets - test beds for components to be used
on the proposed A-4 model, which would become the V-2 ballistic missile.
One of the main problems faced by the scientists was generating enough thrust
to lift a rocket as large and heavy as the V-2 into space. The A-2 rocket
generated 300 kilograms of thrust, but the V-2 needed 25,000. To get the
required thrust a way was needed to a sufficient flow of fuel to the combustion
chamber to maintain the speed of the reaction and so generate enough power. The
V-2's final engine used twin gas turbine-powered pumps to push vast amounts of
an ethanol/water solution plus liquid oxygen into a combustion chamber, where
they mixed and ignited to produce a huge amount of thrust. This alcohol/oxygen
mix continued to be used well after the war - the US Army's PGM-11 Redstone
rocket used the same fuel configuration and stayed in use until 1964, while a
retired Redstone rocket launched Australia's first satellite - WRESAT - in 1967.
Even though von Braun's military backers ensured liquid-engined rockets were
developed far faster and to a more advanced degree than Robert Goddard managed
in the States, von Braun was in no doubt as to the debt he owed the American.
While at NASA in the 60s he stated that Goddard's early rockets "blazed the
trail and incorporated many features used in our most modern rockets and space
vehicles".
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTINUE AT: http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/general/1286401/top-10-technical-innovations-of-world-war-2/7