posted 03-09-2015 01:07 PM               

This impressive-looking 1:1 scale replica of a V2 was created by the "rocket junkies" at the Rocketry Victoria club. The team has been building up to this launch, first flying a 1:10 scale V2, then a 1:4, each time experimenting with lightweight body construction and other innovations. For the 1:1 vehicle, they settled on a radical aluminum frame skinned in shaped foam panels. This is the first time this construction technique has been used on a large scale rocket and the group hopes the lightweight, but sturdy design will launch their baby into the record books. The rocket will be powered by a single Cesaroni O motor with 25,000 Newtons of thrust (similar to a Sidewinder missile).

posted 03-10-2015 05:13 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by datkatz:
Can it reach London?

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posted 03-11-2015 07:11 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by E2M Lem Man:
Don't forget the French bunkers for launches to England!

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Usually, they didn't hang around longer than an hour or two to set up the launcher, get the missile ready, launch, then break it down before the 'Amis' came a'calling from above...

posted 03-13-2015 05:13 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by AussiePete:
one of the most expensive wastes of money of the Third Reich. Of all that hit London, the average death toll was three people.

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But "terror weapons" aren't just about a body count - as can be seen clearly today.

posted 03-13-2015 01:03 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by onesmallstep:
Yes, very true, the cost to build it was a terror in its own right.

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posted 03-13-2015 05:33 PM               

Historians, however, disagree about the impact of German rocket scientists on the Soviet program. "In reality, the Germans did not build anything for the Russians, did not 'supervise' the firings, and did not introduce innovations," wrote German-born rocket historian (and von Braun colleague) Willy Ley in 1968. Nearly three decades later, Boris Chertok echoed the opinion in his memoirs. The R-7, the Soviets' first ICBM and the vehicle that launched Sputnik, bore no German "birth marks," he wrote.

However, Olaf Przybilski, an historian at the Technical University of Dresden, disagrees. His analysis, published in Germany in 1997, points out a striking resemblance between a cone-like aerodynamic shape the Gröttrup team had proposed for several rockets and the conical shape of Korolev's largest designs — the R-7 and the ill-fated N1 moon rocket.

The truth lies somewhere in between. Germans did not design the Sputnik or its rocket, but the ideas developed by Gröttrup's team on Gorodomlya did influence Soviet designers and accelerate their efforts. On her last day on Gorodomlya Island, Irmgard Gröttrup wrote in her diary: "Once more we had a meal with our friends, draining glass after glass and taking stock of the past years. We came to the conclusion that they had not been wasted, as we had so often believed. The men agreed that... the long-range rocket has made the conquest of space a definite possibility in the foreseeable future."

posted 03-13-2015 10:23 PM               

And, of course, the Nazi designs were heavily influenced by Goddard's designs.

To me, Robert, it's as simple as this: Whatever the Nazis contributed to our space program (and, by the way, for the life of me, I can't see what von Braun ever contributed), it wasn't worth the price we paid.

posted 03-13-2015 11:57 PM               

Neufeld argues that von Braun should be remembered for four major accomplishments:

1. Developing the world's first ballistic missile, the V-2, for Germany during World War II.
   
2. Popularizing space exploration in the U.S. in the 1950s through a succession of articles, speeches, public appearances, and television broadcasts. The most important of these were the famed "Collier's" series of articles and the three Disney TV programs.
   
3. Launching the first U.S. satellite to orbit the Earth, Explorer 1, in January 1958, a significant rejoinder to the Sputnik launches of the fall of 1957.
   
4. Leading the technical development of the largest successful rocket ever built, the Saturn V launcher that took the Apollo astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s.

posted 03-14-2015 12:07 AM               

What, if any, were his technical contributions to the V-2 project? What, if any, were his technical contributions to the Redstone project? Or to the solid-fuel upper stages of the Redstone/Juno? In what way was he "responsible for the launch of Explorer-I" — besides telling the government that the Redstone Arsenal could do it?

It seems that, at best, all he was was a top-level executive, who did nothing that any other competent engineering executive could not have done — he managed projects at the highest level, and, as we all know, management at the top-level is nothing but a sinecure. Sure is tough reading all those executive summaries.

posted 03-14-2015 12:25 AM               

We have lift off!!!
THE FLIGHT HAS BEEN A SUCCESS!

Video and pictures to come later! Time to celebrate!

posted 03-14-2015 08:09 AM               

You've been asking for it and here is a picture of what we did today! Better pictures to follow when we return to civilization!