Rocketman & Rocketkid

V1, MY OWN DESIGN
SCALE MODEL
by Ed Cass




















I began the endeaver of building a flying V1 rocket June 2001 and finially got to fly it at KRAMO 22, June 2002. I wanted a unique rocket, and one that had a history behind it. My wife got on the internet and tried to locate all the specs on the V1 she could find, at first it was slow going, there just wasn't that much information out there. Then we discovered some recently released government documents on the V1 and the American verson that was never used. And I was on a roll.
I read where the RAF pilots would fly up next to the buz bombs, use their wing tips to turn the Buzz Bomb over. It would then fail to get to its destination and do harm.

Diagram of the workings of a V1, non-pilot aircraft.
Known alternatively as the FZG 76 (Flakzielgerat: anti-aircraft aiming device 76) or Vergeltungswaffe Eins (Reprisal Weapon 1), or more simply as the VI, the Fi 103 flying bomb had an airframe designed by Dipl-Ing Robert Liisser of Fieseler, and a Siemens guidance system. It could be launched from a 50m (152ft) inclined ramp by a Walter steamdriven catapult, or air-dropped from a carrier aircraft (usually an He Ill). The weapons were launched against Britain (from l3 June 1944) and targets in continental Europe. More than 30,000 were manufactured by Henschel, Mittelwerke and Volkswagen factories. An Askania gyroscope fed signals to the elevators and rudder to control attitude and direction, and the terminal dive was initiated when a pre-set distance had been flown.
"Hey! They got one! They got one!" At BBC Broadcasting House in London's West End, an American Army officer suddenly began shouting and pointing out the window. Sergeant Dudley arrived at the window just in time to see an aircraft rushing by, its tail brightly aflame. It looked as though the local antiaircraft gunners had hit a German bomber and set it on fire. But it was not a bomber. It was a new German weapon, quite literally a "flying bomb."
From the Recently released Government Documents.


Mission ControlMission Control
American Proud

Created by Wanda's INK ... September 25, 2002, Ask what we can do for you!