The four key technologies for the A-4 were large liquid-fuel rocket engines, supersonic aerodynamics, gyroscopic guidance and rudders in jet control. :40īy late 1941, the Army Research Center at Peenemünde possessed the technologies essential to the success of the A-4. ĭuring 28–30 September 1939, Der Tag der Weisheit (English: the day of wisdom) conference met at Peenemünde to initiate the funding of university research to solve rocket problems. Von Braun specified the A-4 performance in 1937, and A-4 design and construction was ordered c1938/1939. Wind tunnel model of an A4 in the German Museum of Technology in BerlinĪfter the A-4 project was postponed due to unfavourable aerodynamic stability testing of the A-3 in July 1936, ![]() įollowing successes at Kummersdorf with the first two Aggregate series rockets, Wernher von Braun and Walter Riedel began thinking of a much larger rocket in the summer of 1936, based on a projected 25-metric-ton-thrust engine. Von Braun used Goddard's plans from various journals and incorporated them into the building of the Aggregat (A) series of rockets. Before 1939, German scientists occasionally contacted Goddard directly with technical questions. Īt the time, Germany was highly interested in American physicist Robert H. By the end of 1934, his group had successfully launched two rockets that reached heights of 2.2 and 3.5 km (1.4 and 2.2 mi). Von Braun's thesis, Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket (dated 16 April 1934), was kept classified by the German army and was not published until 1960. An artillery captain, Walter Dornberger, arranged an Ordnance Department research grant for von Braun, who from then on worked next to Dornberger's existing solid-fuel rocket test site at Kummersdorf. Von Braun was working on his creative doctorate when the Nazi Party gained power in Germany. Starting in 1930, he attended the Technical University of Berlin, where he assisted Oberth in liquid-fueled rocket motor tests. In the late 1920s, a young Wernher von Braun acquired a copy of Hermann Oberth's book, Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen ( The Rocket into Interplanetary Spaces). ![]() 11 Surviving V-2 examples and components.According to a BBC documentary in 2011, the attacks resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel, while 12,000 forced labourers and concentration camp prisoners were killed producing the weapons. īeginning in September 1944, over 3,000 V-2s were launched as military rockets by the German Wehrmacht against Allied targets during the war, mostly London and later Antwerp and Liège. The weapon was presented by Nazi propaganda as a retaliation for the bombers that attacked ever more German cities from 1942 until Germany surrendered. During the aftermath of World War II the American, Soviet and British governments all gained access to the V-2's technical designs as well as the actual German scientists responsible for creating the rockets, via Operation Paperclip, Operation Osoaviakhim and Operation Backfire respectively. It was the progenitor of all modern rockets, including those used by the United States and Soviet Union's space programs. The V-2 (German language: Vergeltungswaffe 2, "Vengeance Weapon 2"), technical name Aggregat-4 (A4), was a short-range ballistic missile that was developed during the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp.Ĭommonly referred to as the V-2 rocket, the liquid-propellant rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known human artifact to enter outer space.
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