>Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2005 00:25:15 +0000 >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: Grimer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: RE: Room-Temperature Superconductor Invented 25 Years Ago > >At 03:51 pm 07-02-05 -0800, you wrote: >> Mark Goldes wrote in part: >>> >>> >Incldently, he was a test pilot for Nazi V1 flying bombs. He would >>ride >>> them up and then jump off and parachute down. >>> >>I do not believe this. I take this mention to be done in jest. >>In my fascination with rocketry and WWII history, I have never run across >>this item for the V1 flying bomb being partially piloted. At least there >>were no 'saddles' being part of the assembly. >>The V1 carried a 1,000 pound bomb versus 2,000 pounds for the V2. Its >>propulsion was by a simple, noisy pulse-jet engine. The current >>re-incarnation of the engine is the Dyna-Jet model airplane engine still in >>production here (USA). >>There were no guidance units on the bomb as we know it today. >>Probably a web search should pop up an image of the missile and the simple >>manner of its being lauched against England from Penumunde (incorrect >>spelling) across the Channel. >> >>-ak- > > >As someone who as a child was in the firing line of "doodle bugs" I have >always taken an interest in their development. On British TV a film is >often shown of some intrepid woman test pilot who did in fact rid these >things, not side-saddle I hasn't to add, but in a primitive cockpit which >presumably took the place of the explosive charge. A lot of her predecessors >were killed but she managed to sort out the problem. I can't remember >whether she bailed out or not though. > >Oh, and they were launched up sloping ramps. > >Cheers > >Grimer
P.S. As you can see from below, the German test pilot was Hanna Reitsch. "The V-1 airframe endured more stress than it may have appeared to at first; the two primary sources were the catapult for takeoff and the pulsejet. The main forces dealt with bracing of the wings and connection with the engine. The wings received the greater part of their stress during the catapult liftoff, and some considerations for the forces imposed by the booster rocket used to push the flying bomb off the catapult ramp had been taken in the original design. The problem came when the V-1 left the ramp and started its own engine. At this point the frame would experience a sharp shock, which caused the mounting bolts in the wings. The source and solution only came after test pilot Hanna Reitsch, flew in a modified Fi-103[4] in early 1943, after her fourth flight arrived at the diagnosis previously mentioned. The remedy was to simply strengthen the mounting bots and the problem was solved."
