V-2 missile
NAME: V-2 missile
OTHER-NAME: ‘Vengeance weapon 2’ (Vergeltungswaffe 2
DATE INVENTED/BEGAN: 1942
PLACE INVENTED/BEGAN: Germany
DATE ENDED: 1945
PLACE ENDED: Germany
CATEGORY: Military
DISCIPLINE: Weaponry
ASSESSMENT: A costly and ineffective last-minute military weapon developed by Germany towards the end of World War II
LANGUAGE: German
DETAILS: The V2 missile was developed for Germany during World War II by Wernher <developed by> von Braun*. It was first tested in 1942 and was known as ‘Vengeance weapon 2’ (Vergeltungswaffe 2). It first flew in 1943 from the German rocket range at Peenemunde on the Baltic coast.
The V2 was unmanned and inertially-guided by gyroscopic control of rudders mounted on the outside of the rocket and near the rocket exhaust. The missile carried a 2,200lb warhead, had a range of 200 miles and was accurate to within 11 miles. The missile was propelled by an ethanol alcohol (a fuel derived from potatoes)-and-water mix, oxidized (burnt) in the combustion chamber by oxygen, carried in liquid form.
Over 6,000 V2s were built and more than 3,500 launched against Allied targets (over 1,400 were launched against London). The weapon was not effective and was enormously costly: one missile cost the same as four tanks and the ethanol fuel it needed used 30 tons of potatoes.
It was Von Braun’s experience with the V2 that eventually led to the <led to> NASA (Apollo)* missions in the 1960’s and 70’s.
ONELINER: V-2 German rocket
EXTRA-CONNECTIONS: The missile developed from the work of <followed work of> Goddard* and <followed work of> Tsiolkovsky*
The first photo of Earth from space was taken from V-2 No. 13 launched by US scientists on 24 October 1946.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Encyclopedia Britannica
www.v2rocket.com/