This man deserves an award for being able to describe the V-1 in surch detail that's actually both informative and entertaining. I feel like I could actually build one based on such detail. Its sad that so many lives had to be lost over these killing machines.
I'm 20 years Air Force as was my dad. I have a military history minor and even taught military history to ROTC cadets at the University of Missouri. I found this information and presentation outstanding. I learned so much. About 80% of this video was new to me. Excellent job!
This man is an excellent instructor. I’ve lived with ADHD my entire life. And he’s got my attention from start to finish. If. I had more teachers like him in school I might have learned something 👍🏾
I have ADHD and I was bothered by the waffle ie not getting to his point succinctly. Why a wooden sphere? Was the missile body made from steel or Al alloy? I frequently lecture ADHDers - I make sure that I get on with the information without leaving people stuck on missing information.
A fascinating description of a complicated device that I thought (as you mentioned) was simply pointed in the desired direction, launched, and ran until it ran out of fuel. It's amazing what was done back then mechanically that today is all electronic. Everything from mechanical fire control "computers" for naval guns and artillery to the Norden bomb sights.
I still believe irrespective of what this character says that the early one's were this way,It's no one is interested in perfection,Those exceedingly annoying British putting up a FIGHT,When the rest of Europe was a walk over,We will SORT them out, yes it evolved to the standard portrayed in this video,They were relatively easy to shoot down with Hurricanes and everyones hero the Spitfire,But the ramps were bombed by the US and the UK.The V2 was far more deadly,These thing were a nuisance,My mum said she use to run towards them if the were overhead because they blow up where you were standing or better still behind you,I know your impressed with computers but not all used for the benefit of the ordinary person,Now you have to pay someone to fix something where 20 years ago you could have done it yourself
@@Johnketes54 I thought that too. However it wouldnt even start flying horizontally without some gyro and the mechanics turning the controls. Russians style dumb rocket launchers are following a ballistic path like artillery shells - this was not the case with V1
@@Johnketes54 The Hurri couldn't catch them except in a dive, the V1 flew at 400 mph. The P51 could do 460 mph, so could catch them easily. So could the Tempest, Mosquito and Spitfire.
The V1 did not fly to it ran out of fuel. There was a 25:1 ratio gearbox that drove a threaded rod. To set the range a switch was moved so that when a nut was driven along the threaded rod it would activate the switch and dive the rocket down. The negative g caused the fuel starvation and wasn't supposed to happen. Latter V1 had a second switch so they could change course and fly a dog leg so they couldn't be tracked.
We were all taught that they were dumb bombs that ran out of fuel. Ww2 was a high tech war; the British had a vacuum tube driven proximity sensor on bombs used over open water that no one knew existed until after the war.
As all the comments below say, excellent. I read that the Germans realised the sudden cut of the engine gave people a few seconds to take cover. They modified the system so the engine ran until impact. German spies who had been captured and turned were used to misreport the V1s landing in the west of London. The Germans altered the counter so many bombs fell short of the populated areas. The new proximity fuse saved countless lives. “On the last day of large-scale attacks only 4 Of 104 bombs succeeded in reaching their target. Some of the 100 destroyed are credited to the Royal Air Force and to the barrage balloons, but the majority of the V-1’s were victims of proximity-fuzed projectiles.”
@@mikesmith-wk7vy Indeed. A lesser-known but crucial story is “Doc” Draper’s gyro sight. “The importance of Draper’s sight cannot be overemphasized, as it played an essential part in providing the shipboard air-defense system needed to defend the Fleet. This was especially true in the later months of the war when the kamikaze threat was at its greatest. The added effectiveness of Draper’s lead-computing sight is difficult to assess. Nevertheless, it should be noted that during the period of the campaign in the Philippines when the dreaded kamikaze first appeared, 20-mm and 40-mm guns under the control of Draper’s sight accounted for 78.6 percent of all suicide planes brought down by shipboard antiaircraft fire.” The Mk 14 and prox fuse together also saved countless lives especially given the staggeringly low hit rate of normal AA.
London newspapers reported false data to trick the nazi spies living among them. It may, or may not have been effective. The doppler-radar shells were cutting edge and very effective.
@@Triple_J.1 Interesting. Probably not very effective since I believe every German spy in the UK was caught and either executed or turned. German military intelligence was generally ineffective- Canaris himself was even actively working against Hitler.
at 5:30, I’m pretty sure the wooden sphere does NOT “dampen” magnetic interference at all. Rather, it’s made of wood so as to not CREATE interference with the compass. Any nonferrous material would have sufficed, but wood was probably more available than other strategic materials.
I agree. I used to be an aircraft instrument dude in another life, and if you messed with the magnetic field of the fuselage, it would also mess with the earth's magnetic field and the compass won't work. More than likely the unit was calibrated in situ to compensate for all influences, including electric circuits, and then was declared accurate enough.
@@dougerrohmer Correct. The V1 compass would have to be ‘swung’ with all electrical systems on, in situ with all ferrous metal in the aircraft for the navigation system to be accurate.
Wood was used around the compass to dampen vibrations. It has indeed nothing to do with magnetic interference. The nosecone was made out of aluminium for that purpose.
They are explaining it in more detail here from minute 9 onward. Also it’s the video that contains the animated parts they also used here. ua-cam.com/video/5EEZuXQyA-E/v-deo.html
Put a compass on a table. Bring a piece of metal towards it. What happens. Now place a piece of thin wood between the compass and the metal. End result?
I am old enough to remember those things. We lived in a western suburb of London The newspapers reported on them and printed three views, So when I saw one I recognised what it was. I would guess it was at about 1500 feet and I was about a half mile from its course. After that, I might have seen about a half dozen. They just kept on to out of sight over the north horizon. They would keep on until the motor quit and then a few seconds after would hit the ground and explode. But there was one that came down maybe a half mile from me. I was taking a crap at the moment and this one was different. I heard it coming The engine did not quit.But suddenly the noise of the motor went up in pitch and volume. All I could do was, well just to tense and wait. About a half mile away was Duke somebodies mansion in the middle of his biggish park, The Bomb impacted just inside the wall of the park. This was a good place, far enough from the dukes place and inside his high brick wall. There was a public road on the outside of that and outside of that the West Middlesex hospital, so it did not hurt anybody or do any damage. To this day I sometimes hear a diesel bus that remindes me of the Buzz bombs noise.
The Germans certainly loved to use new methods to attack an enemy. Simple machine yet some very clever mechanisms built in. Very good video of this revolutionary and effective weapon.
@E Van "The mass-murders of WWII were all committed by the allies." Stupid rewriting of history. You need to read more. I suggest "The Bomber War" by Robin Neillands. . Let's put aside the fact that The Axis governments STARTED the war which didn't have to happen and all deaths thereafter were due to them. Bombing of cities was established by the Axis - not the Allies. What about unprovoked bombing of London, Coventry and Pearl Harbor? What about the endless war crimes committed by the Japanese during their age of imperialism leading into and including WWII ? Ever hear of China, Burma, the Philippines or Korea ? What do you think a world war is ? . I really dislike armchair historians that have no understanding of what real war is. The Germans immediately took the war into the rest of Europe. While they were destroying other innocent countries and peoples their own country was relatively untouched. They sat back and manufactured vast war supplies within their own country unfettered by the death they were dealing elsewhere. The Nazis controlled the media and the German people were willfully ignorant of the part they were playing. Don't forget, the German and Japanese people were fueling these atrocities with their own labor as well as slave labor. Don't pretend they didn't see what was happening to the Jews, political opposition and prisoners. To end the war the Allies had to break the German's manufacturing base and bring the war to the German people. Then maybe the German people might find war a bit more distasteful and end the war from within. . So you think "The Blitz" was nothing ? Really ? How damn callous can a person be ? I guess the Jews got what they deserved too eh ? You'd think differently if it was your town that was destroyed and your family wiped out. The idea that a retaliatory strike's size should be based on the initiating attack's size is a totally bogus concept. That is how wars are stretched out to last longer and kill more people. How about this reasoning ? An attack that never happens will result in a retaliatory attack of the same size - zero ! I little poke at a hornet's nest can result in a huge response right ? Are the hornets at fault ? . Educate yourself before you spew hate !
The world’s first cruise missile I should think? Edit: Thanks to the gentleman who provided the clearest explanation of how this device functioned that I have ever heard!
I was taught in more than 1 class that it was set to run until it ran out of fuel and they just filled it to different amounts to get close to where they wanted it to land. Glad I saw this video and finally learned the truth.
@@robertcook2572 I think it was just to insult the Nazis actually, the same teachers had said many pro Soviet statements about them being so superior, etc and everything German was inferior.
I don't think you LEARNED THE TRUTH who says he RIGHT except him? I wouldn't take his word for it,Perhaps the the one in the video a LATER ONE worked on that principle,This is UA-cam he gets paid either way,I get so sick and tire of people not doing their research properly and taking the Role of the ORACLE
Many people think that it just runs out of fuel and then just falls. The veeder counter was used to trigger the intentional dive. It must be admitted that the accuracy, despite attempts to get it on target, was poor. Especially the farther it flew.
During 1950s, Walter Kaaden, one of the engineers who harnessed harmonic shock waves within the pulse jet tube, went on to invent the expansion chamber exhaust which effectively super charges two stroke engines. He also used reed valves within the inlet port.
Those "expansions" were a waste of money or the fools that fitted them did it wrong,I was told you had to change the jetting on the carbs free up the airflow on the air intake and fit the expansions,To get the "added" performance nobody did it was cosmetic or a different noise,I had many races with my "standard" Suzuki GT550 and won,One could argue i was racing posers with more money than sense,And weren't interested in power but looking "cool"
@@Johnketes54 every 2 stroke bike from the 60s onwards has an expansion pipe, 2 strokes are tuned for a very narrow resonance or power band and share more in common with a pulse jet than a 4 stroke
@@turkeyboyjh1 They also provide a large boost in efficiency within a narrow rpm-range, so unless you specifically need a super compact engine package, or the engine needs to run well in a very wide rpm-range, it would be pretty silly not to include at least a basic expansion pipe. The whole point is that the exhaust pressure wave is reflected back up the exhaust towards the engine, and shoves unburnt charge back into the cylinder just before the exhaust port closes. It's a pretty clever acoustic hack that doesn't add much to the production cost. It's just a bit bulky.
@@Johnketes54 to take full advantage of expansion chambers, the exhaust port height also needed to be raised (i.e. grind the exhaust port hole in the cylinder wall with rotary grinder). With appropriate porting and carburetor jetting changes, very significant power increases were possible. However without these internal engine changes, you are correct, putting expansion chambers on an otherwise stock (street legal) motorcycle was largely a waste of money.
Amazing, I remember the Japanese stole the technology with help from inside the German company/motorcycle rider 😮 very much the usual industrial espionage that goes on with technology, always somebody trying to steal it.
Wonderful, clear, concise, and objective explanation of a very impressive piece of kit. Super impressive set of pneumatic, electrical, and mechanical systems on the V-1. Particularly because of the era in which they were designed and produced. I'll wager a lot of that technology found its way into many of the Allies weapon systems as well. Thanks so much for sharing Kevin.
The so called 'start cart' pictured at 18:28 is in fact the steam generator cart for the catapult, which generated large volumes of hot steam by the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. The starting functions for the pulse jet were provided by other pieces of equipment.
This is an extremely interesting and informative video! It's incredible they were able to make about 30,000 of these in the last year of the war. About 8,000 landed on England and Belgium.
This was an outstanding presentation. Well thought out and well executed. I didn't know the weapon was as complicated as it is, but it apparently worked very well, unfortunately for many people. I've read about some of our allied fighters being able to either shoot them down, or fly alongside and then tip the wing over. Pretty dangerous stuff in both cases.
The combustion design of the V-1 was adopted and used in the Lennox Pulse furnace to heat residential homes. It was one of the first high efficiency furnaces and is still used in some homes. These furnaces had a noisy "buzz" sound from the exhaust pipe. Lennox had to design mufflers for the furnace exhaust.
96 yr; old WWII vet, some memory loss: I think I also remember a V bomb that sputtered, rather than pulsed. I also remember watching a V-2 (the straight up and straight down rocket) rising in the dark as we stealthily approached the Rhine. I thought "Poor Londoners, there goes one (completely unstoppable) of those blockbusters at them." I later read they were aiming at the Ludendorff bridge to hinder our Rhine crossing. I was pitying the Londoners while the damn thing was aimed at me! (practically)
@@wolf310ii That was another reason I supposed they were on the way to England. I read (later) they had tried to destroy the Ludendorff bridge by throwing everything - including V-2's at it. We were approaching the Rhine, so we must not have been too far from the launch site. At the time, it didn't occur to me that they could be aiming at something so close.
@@edgarvalderrama1143 The V2 aiming at the Ludendorff bridge where started in Netherland by the SS Werfer Batterie 500, around 200km away from Remagen. What you saw was probaly a V2 from the schwere Artillerie Abteilung 836 in Gehlert (3. Batterie) or Kirburg (2. Batterie) 40-50km away from Remagen, but this Unit fired at Antwerpen and London, Remagen was too close.
@@wolf310ii As I said, I later (fairly recently) read they tried to hit the bridge with V-2's, which is why I said they were (practically) aimed at me. They were supposedly diverted from their original target and aimed unsuccessfully at the bridge.
This is the most comprehensive and informative video on the German pulse jets that I have ever Seen and heard . Your masterful knowledge and excellent presentation was a pleasure to watch. What an incredible, revolutionary device. You are right, all other accounts of the pulse jet i hear are like, "they just run out of gas and fall." Lol Thank you, sir.
Amazing description of how the doodlebug operated……my mum was five when this menace started and still recalls the sound of the pulse jet…..This before being evacuated with her brother from the East End of London to Wales……where she first tasted strawberries and cream. Uncle Billy was crying for his mum….. while mum found a love of sweet things….. that never left !
I find it oddly amusing how we called these menacing devices by such a silly name. From what I can tell, the name Doodlebug comes from colloquial names for the Woodlouse or the Cockchafer beetle, perhaps because the bomb looked like one of them, or the buzz sounded like that of a beetle in flight. However the silly name came about, it's kind of a nice feeling that people could still laugh at life even under such dire circumstances.
@Air Zoo thanks for the video. In English "Vergeltung" is "Retribution". for everyone who wants to know what stands behind the name "V1". Means first weapon of retaliation. It was conceived as an act of revenge for the many bombs that the English bombers dropped on mainly civilian residential areas in Westphalia. V1 = Vergeltungswaffe 1. V = Retribution. That is the name and meaning of the weapon.
Excellent video - My mum was at school on the South coast of England and was renowned for her excellent hearing - her hand used to go up in class - "Yes Norma?" - "Doodlebug Miss!" - and off they went to the air raid shelters and were always the first class there!
Well done sir. My family were on the receiving end of these during WW2. It is wonderful to hear how they worked in detail and just image the challenges that the designers faced to get the new technologies involved with what is clearly one of the first cruise missiles to work. My uncle (father's brother) was a pilot who was part of the defence against these things by tipping them over. He was lost in the latter stages of the war RIP. Thank you.
Awesome description! I thought I'd read and viewed everything available about the V1, but you taught me lots of new stuff. Pity you couldn't pop those covers off and show us the inside workings! I really liked the superimposed graphics for the fuel lines, tanks etc - helped to visualize the system. Nice work!
Thanks for your kind words. I have to make sure all credit goes to Euan for the graphics and overall assembly of the video. He adds all the extra content and frankly, makes what I do much better.
I am retired from teaching high school physics. I always told my students if you understand the simple ideas like the air pressure regulator for the fuel at the end of the video you can apply them to solve complex problems. I also told them that Germany was very hard to defeat in two world wars because they had invested in letting smart people work doing basic research. I cringe when I hear uneducated people complain about government money being wasted on basic research. As I watched the video the basic underlying physics ideas were clearly explained. Great Job.
correct but they benefited from the German "genius' ( latterly a U S Citizen) who developed them Our friend Herr Werner Von Braun.( who of course denied all knowledge of what Hitler et al were up to - He being too busy developing the V-2 jm
@@christopherwebber3804 Rex Cinema was hit by a V-2. Same concept as far as being a remotely fired missle, but quite different animal technology-wise. (V-2 was an actual rocket)
Old school electro/mechanical systems are AMAZING. Today it would be basic PLC or other basic digital systems but back then it was almost an art the way they used basic physics to make stuff work
You can do it today but electronic controls are more precise, cheaper than mechanical ones, easier to mass-produce, way lighter and smaller in size and easier to maintain. Yes I appreciate the beauty of fully mechanical systems but won't use it today as a main ones whenever it's possible.
The pulse jets were acoustically tuned and that technology was developed for two cycle engines by MZ in E. Germany after the war. They did the first resonance tuned exhaust which vastly increased two stroke power. Toured the Air Zoo several years ago with a friend who lived in KZoo. Really well done place. If you're in the neighborhood there's also a great car museum nearby, the Gilmore.
The doodlebugs were slow enough for RAF fighter aircraft to fly along side, and flip them by wingtip contact before reaching London, thereby upsetting the gyroscopes and making the bombs crash in open country. Also another part of their wickedness was that enforced slave labour was largely used in the doodlebugs' construction. Typical Nazi evil!
Excellent video! Post-war analysis by the allies revealed that the V1 was more cost effective than bomber raids or V2 strikes. V1 usage was limited due to extensive launch site construction required which was quickly discovered and then attacked by allied air power. It turns out that Germany had an incredible capability, yet a missed opportunity, before they even built the first launch rail test facility: the first V1 glide test on 28 Oct 1942 was from altitude, dropped from a FW200. The first powered flight was air dropped on 10 Dec 1942 from an He111. The construction of launch facilities by the Army meant the first operational launches would not occur until Nov 1943. 10,000 V1s were fired at England. 2448 V1s were fired at Belgium. It was not until July 1944 that the German military began operational night launches from nine (eventually 25) He111 H-22 aircraft, firing 1,176 V1s. The final air launches continued until January 1945 at which point the Luftwaffe had lost its capabilities. The air launches had a 40% failure rate, as one may expect: over ocean night missile launch operations were challenging. Had the German military employed air operations from the start, one may conservatively estimate over 3000 launches and a resolution of the early launch problems. This would have greatly complicated the allied efforts against the V1 capability while affording a larger target set for V1 engagements, perhaps even avoiding the exorbitant cost in manpower and resources necessary for constructing ground launch sites.
It's accuracy must have been so low that it would have been ineffective against particular targets. Terrorism would have been the limit of its capabilities. However I did read that it caused a significant drop in productivity because air raid sirens would fire and workers would retreat to air raid shelters. The v2 did not have this feature as they did not provide any warning.
@@petergarrone8242 V1 attacks against area targets demonstrated a mean point of impact within 3.5 km of the area centroid, based on post war analysis. The system met the damage objectives set by operational users, surpassing the capability of Luftwaffe attacks vs equivalent area targets. One example of such an effect was destruction of worker housing around a given industrial setting, motivating further elaboration of the Shadow Plan for geographic dispersion of some industrial production. Germany targeted London as the area of interest, delivering an average impact density of 1.3 per Sq km. The area immediately surrounding the target centroid suffered 3.2 per Sq km while the core received 6.6 per sq km. On average, each impact destroyed 400 housing units. The area received a total of 2420 impacts.
Wow! I really liked this one! As an engineer I had vague understanding of what was needed to fly and guide a V1, but this thing is at one hand more sophisticated as I thought and at the other hand simpler than I thought. Thank you for this excellent class. I didn’t checked out the rest of your channel yet but it seems very promising.!
This is truly a master class on knowing what you are talking about, and conveying it to everyone else excellently! Outside of that.. Anyone who has actually heard / felt a pulse jet.. You will never forget it!
Wow. The V1 was much more sophisticated that what I thought. Like others, I thought it was just a bomb on a flight platform powered by a pulse jet and when it ran out of fuel it crashed and exploded. Regardless of ideology, the German engineers were quite advanced.
I‘m a German engineer in autonomous driving. It‘s so amazing to see how they developed an autonomous device without ANY microcontrollers / software 😲😲😆
Yes, I am an engineer too, and I am impressed about the design of V1. It was so simple and effective! Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. What is not there does not cost, does not break, and requires no maintenance. Only those who master their craft can reach extreme simplicity in their designs. Launch an autonomous drone from Europe, escape fighter interception (the V1 could be reached by a fighter only in a deep dive), and let it land in London was not a simple task. I bet than even today with all the electronic gadgets, without the aid of a GPS it would not be easy.
@@shanelodge391 I'm not so sure He was around even then .His father may still have been "at home" . No I mean little Austrian bloke witha Charlie Chaplin Bristles under His nose who misled a gullible nation who obviously had not seen the light at the end of WW1
Thank you for this explanation of the resonant tube. Your illustration made clear to me why this MUST be resonant or it won't have an ignition source for the second power cycle. NICE!
I don't need to imagine the experience. I lived in central London during the war and my closest experience with a V1 was when I was hanging out washing on the roof of Portman Buildings in Lisson Grove with my grandmother and mother when one of these bloody things cut out. We just about got to the street when it went off. I still remember the vegetables in the street in Broadley Terrace from the green grocer's and all the windows broken. And I'm expected to condem the bombing of Dresden.
Tony. I played on the bomb sites. I remember the gaps it the three floor Victorian terraced houses which were totally destroyed by bombing, You could still see bits of wallpaper on the walls and the outline of the fireplace. There were large baulks of wood to buttress and support the surviving adjoining houses. Prefabs in the local park to house those who had been bombed out of their homes. To be honest after the war people were so much happier then. Perhaps happy that it was over, and they had survived?
You guys from UK and US have mass murdered more german civilians than germany could have ever done to you! Your goal was never to stop the war, you guys literally wanted germany/europe a farmers area and western colony or another war to finally erase germany from the planet! Sry but there is nothing good in any war, especially considering western imperialists and capitalists are the reason for the wars (literally ALL wars since 1850 are a western fault!), death, pain, suffering and poor people ;)
No, you are not expected to condemn the Dresden bombing, as this was not a very particularly gruesome raid in the history of bombings of German cities, regardless what some may claim. You might though condemn the strategic bombing of wartime Germany in general. This was the British military command that did all this, supported by the Americans, who joined in later and first tried to remain more "civilized" by conducting daytime bombings, so as to be able to target military objects and refrain from civilian ones, or, at least, that was the initial intention. Bombings of cities started early in WWII by the British when they flew over Western Germany, albeit not all too successfully yet in those early days. When Hitler could no longer postpone German responses to the continued attacks, he strictly ordered not to hit any civilian British targets, as he knew that it would all lead to an uncontrollable spiral of increasing intensity. During the first German raid on the London docks, some stray bombs also hit civilian houses, which was due to the lack of control in the beginning of the air raids, when experience was not yet established. This was all that Churchill needed to call for a counter strike on Berlin, which was already prepared anyway. When the Germans in the last year of the war resorted to extraordinary weapons like the V1 and V2, they did this out of the realisation that they had no other means left to hit the enemy on its own soil. Germany never built anything like the Allied strategic bomber fleets. That was never the intention. You may call it an act of terror, but that is what you get when you declare war and reject any peace offer ever since. The Casablanca Declaration of 24 January 1943 demanded unconditional surrender from the Germans. So, there was nothing left to do than to fight until the end. Churchill was quite relieved to learn that the 20 July 1944 plot against Hitler had failed. Now, he did not have to pretend to come to peace with a different German command, as the ongoing claim was that war was waged against "Hitlerism". A false pretense, as this was a war against Germany, not against some regime.
@@Guido_XL "A false pretense, as this was a war against Germany, not against some regime." And so it is with russia now... russia didnt wanted the war and its NOT "PuTiNs war"...
Thank you for the technical breakdown! Much more information than I gathered by visiting V rockets at museums. One thing I think I can add: there were many types of V missiles. Early, late, changes in design and engines, bigger ones, smaller ones....
Beautifully presented and very a informative video. I also believe that the spinning propeller at the front of the V1 had a connection to the Fuel Supply. So just before it started it’s Terminal Dive to its target, a signal was sent to cut the fuel off to the engine! Film of the V1’s attacking London, always showed the engine cutting off just before it commenced its dive. Greetings from England ❤️🏴🇬🇧🇺🇸🇬🇧❤️
Actually the engine wasn’t shut of by a timing device but by the negative gˋs when the timer flipped the elevator down and it nosed hard over. That stopped the fuel supply.
@@theonlymadmac4771 For sure, but It wasn’t a timer device, it was based on the number of revolutions the propeller made. This was carefully calculated taking in to account the acceleration on launch, it’s average flying speed and distance to target. Once a certain number of revolutions had been achieved, a signal was sent to a servo which shut off the fuel, as well as the negative g component. If there was fuel in the tank, yes it would starve the engine of fuel, but I’m sure they wouldn’t have relied on this factor alone to cut the fuel. Supposing the elevator bolts failed, the bomb would overfly its target wouldn’t it, but If the fuel was cut off with the use of a servo valve, the bomb would fall nose down and would still explode upon impact!
@@theonlymadmac4771 It wasn't supposed to do that, the Germans intended it's dive to be under full power, when they found out that the engine's were cutting off they figured out what was causing it and fixed the problem, after that the engine's ran all the way up to impact as they'd originally intended. After that the British who'd gotten used to the way they originally worked and knew that as long as you could hear the engine running it was just passing overhead learned that wasn't the case anymore.
Was amazed when I recently read that if you added all of the V2 & V2 'S that landed in England and one other nearby country that it was less tons of explosives that the Army bombers dropped in a single week on Germany. Sure they scared the crap out of all the civilians when one of these quiet rockets hit nearby. Always heard they fly until fuel ran out but the nose spinner & counter were indeed genius invention.
Army bombers? RAF mate,I would like to such a link to what you are inferring,I've seen what one V2 did to a four story block of flats,They were gone a a 40 foot crater the size of a soccer pitch,By the time i was born it had been filled in with two "prefabs" sitting on it,Even at the age of 4,It didn't make sense all these houses squashed together and a big green with two buildings and tiny little gardens each,What a waste of space,Until my father told me about the 4 storey block of flats and a V2
@@Johnketes54 One can carry only few hundreds pounds of explosives. One bomber can carry more. Much more... and there is thousands of them. Each night. Each day.
Most don't know that the Germans developed a television guided bomb, wire guided missiles, the Vulcan 20 & 30mm gatling gun electrically driven cannons. Then there was the Schriever flying disc program .. That's where the term; "Foo-fighters" came from. Allied aircraft sighted them being flight tested. Source: 'German Jet Genesis ' a Jane's Book.
EXCELLENT presentation. I learned a lot, and I consider myself pretty versed on the V1. Where is this place? Suggestion: if you have the parts, or can simulate the parts, show the insides of the V1 as an exploded diagram.
You may wish to change your terminology rearding an exploded diagram of the internals, the diagram would probably be covering a rather large area, and take ages to read🤣
Great video presentation. A lot of questions about this machine were answered. My remaining question is how did they manage to keep the wings level? The dihedral was fairly flat and there were no alerions to maintain wings level. Rudder control works with a high dihedral wing, but a flat wing usually needs control surfaces.
Interesting. The device shown at 18:27 and 18:30 are not part of the engine start system. That is the steam generator for the catapult, Hydrogen Peroxide powered, I believe. Also, no one has explained how the V1 maintained roll control using no Ailerons and relying on Rudder only, which is a very dodgy method with a wing having zero dihedral.
The rudder is located very low, between the top of the fuselage tail and the underside of the engine, so the rudder will have a lot of torque for yawing the bomb's nose left and right, but not a lot of torque to induce roll. During a yawing movement, the vertical aft surfaces (including both the engine mount and tailfin and the engine itself) will act as a vertical tail, causing the bomb to roll towards the direction of the yaw, thus producing a somewhat coordinated turn. Or at least that's how the forces balance out in my head.
Only the aileron on the side of the plane that needs to go down moves at any one time up to cause a yaw and bank on some of these minimalist control systems . The other aileron stays straight . I don't know about all the v1 versions but i would try that first .
@@lomasck No, they didn't have ailerons (yes, the piloted version did, but that's a different topic). Pure delta wings don't have ailerons either; they have elevons.
@@lomasck The bachem natter or viper used seperate elevator flaps to roll and together the elevator flaps could pitch up or down the plane . A deltawing can useelevons that work like aileron elevator combined because the airfoil top surface curves up starting at the leading edge and then folliws a regular curve shape until ⅔ of the way to the trailing edge it straightens out by the airfoil curving up so that air flowing over the wing leaves the trailing edge parallel to the flight path . No downward flow at the trailing edge to cause forward pitch of the wing to counter with a seperate tail surface .
My grandfather used to tell me about the V1's during the war, he seen them with his own eyes. he always told me they took shelter when the motor cuts out. Very nice to see how exactly these things work and technically far ahaid of its time.
Interesting talk, I had no idea they were so complicated! I'm actually writing this post from a house that was destroyed by a V1 when it landed in the woods opposite! We had 41 of them land in our neighbourhood and a great book was written called "Streatham's 41 flying bombs". They hit our area so much because the Government kept reporting (falsely) that these bombs were falling on central London which made the Germans continue to aim at us. Did the fuse in the bomb detonate immediately or was there a delay to allow it to penetrate buildings? Did they store fuel in the wings when trying to extend range? Why did they use jets when a single propeller engine would presumably offer more range (I guess they could launch them at night to make them hard to hit)?
They used pulse jets for their simplicity and ease of manufacture they were only one time use so a piston engine was aluminum and an iron castings and precision machining wasn’t affordable
@@Coltnz1 Croydon is 10 times larger than Streatham which means we got 14 of these things per square mile while you guys got 4. Nice try though. Plus, we've repaired a lot of the damage ;)
Pilot and engineer here. The pulse jet engine was used neither for 'speed' nor for 'simplicity' of the V1. The Germans had (at the time of WW2) NO EFFIN IDEA how to control an aircraft with a propeller propulsion. Why? Propellers generate hefty yaw AND roll when, uhm, propelling. There were no FBW systems then to offset this. A trained pilot (me) could, then and there. But there were only automata onboard a V1 (so, no pilot). What did the Germans do? - Change the engine! Take one with no roll and no yaw, and no gyroscopic effects from the big propeller. Therefore, and only therefore: They chose this pulse jet engine (scram jet) because it generates exactly zero yaw, and zero roll. No matter the actual propulsion force delivered, it is directed only forward. This made the control math easy. The construction of autopilot measures suddenly was solvable, if not downright trivial (for a seasoned control theory specialist at least). Tl'dr? The V1 was primitive in the utmost. If it were any more advanced it could not fly even for 15 seconds - considered the tech and math the Germans were capable of. Fun fact. How bad in math Germams were shows the fact that they didn't know that their Enigma was encrypting... nothing at all. The Polish mathematicians, who developed combinatorics (google it) proved in the 1920's that Enigma is not working. Then they happily read what Enigma supposedly "encrypted" without the Germans even knowing that. This left the poor German gunts with the permanent hassle of rotors, steckers and tables, which did nothing at all to encrypt classified communications. Read about it. The stupidity of the Germans was abysmal - for a nation which thew itself into war with all their neighbours all at once you do not need to prove the statement further. So no despect to anyone, just a 'fun fact'.
Mean while in Viet Nam Charlie often just used two crossed pieces of tree limbs to ruffly aim one of their powerfully 122 millimeters rockets at a base camp. Was a great harassment tool. Often miss the camp but while in Phi Loi in 1971 for in country training class Charlie only fired one 122 mm rocket that morning killing the guy in the Mars station couple hundred feet from us. Asked one of my sergeants why they don't send a helicopter out looking for the rocket shooter. Told me he ran a few hundred feet then hid in a hole where he would never be found.
This video provides information at a level the masses could follow. The presentation and explanation is remarkable. Keep up your video channel. Now for the V2 and geeman jets as well, very informative.
Very well done, I've learned a lot about the Fieseler Fi 103 (V1). Setting aside that it was a terror weapon and that thousands (!) of people were forced to produce it and died, it's an amazing device. Incredible how complex processes were handled by mechanical and electromechanical components. The sleek device looks beautiful I have to admit.
The Fi-103(R) was the piloted version of the V-1. A woman test pilot was the first to survive, or at least walk away from a test flight. Source: The Fantastic Flights of Hannah Reitch She also flew the Me 163B Komet. In Aug '44 Heini Ditmar flew the B model to 702mph in level flight at 13k feet. When Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier at well over 30k feet, he wasn't the fastest man alive. Ditmar's speed record still wasn't broken.
I am from Folkestone,Kent,UK...22 miles /35 KM across the English Channe.l from the V-1 launch sites located between Boulogne ~ Calais ~ Oostende. The first V-i's landed between Folkesone-Dover-Ashford-Maidstone then gradully extended their range to London.As children we watched them (a) land in Folkesone (b) later ..fly over head on thri way to London We were 'evacuated" to London in May 1944 jm
The Germans also invented the guided bomb which contained a computerised control operated by the bomber. This was put later into the V1 if I'm correct, so early version of the Cruise missile. Clever people, formidable enemy.
Just pure evil,Killing your own population because they didn't meet a certain criteria or they were good with money and all the banks were controlled by them
Brilliant description,Kevin! One remark: you mention the speeds labelled in miles per hour. Which one do you mean: statute or nautical mile? Thank you. BTW, my father had to stop attending school for several weeks after the building was destroyed by a V1. That was in 1944 in Brussels.
Thanks. I'm 61. My father served in WWII and told me about the V1 ("runs out of fuel" etc) and there is an empty hulk of one in the Halifax Nova Scotia Citadel War Museum (not sure if that's a proper name for it). Since I was about 8 I've been wondering how this thing worked. What I was sure of is that it wasn't just flown off a ramp like a dart thrown at a board but how it was made to work and have enough accuracy to hit a city has been a life-long mystery until today. So thanks for that. I watched this video only once and I'm pretty sure I could give the talk (word for word) because every part of the system makes perfect sense. Now... how to get my wife and daughter to let me take the grandchildren to Kalamazoo (1100 miles 'as the crow flies').
It didn't really run out of fuel, a switch activated when a nut from a threated rod made contact and pitched the missile down. It was the negative G that starved the fuel.
@@williamzk9083 Exactly. That's why I put "runs out of fuel " in quotation marks to indicate that was the version handed down by my father who didn't have the benefit of this youtube video to update him. See, when "something is in quotes" it always means something a bit different than the words and structure would otherwise indicate, that's why "things are sometimes put in quotes".
Don't know if I'd call it a cruise missile, on account of it featuring inertial guidance only. It's more of a... high speed version of the Kettering Bug. An aerial torpedo that actually looks the part. Then again, maybe inertial guidance and a bit over half an hour of powered flight at 650km/h is enough to call it a cruise missile. Subjectivity and all that.
Outstanding dissertation on the V-1. So much more to it than meets the eye. History has always taught us that it was basically a gyro stabilized glide bomb that was launched in the general direction of England, a vengeful 'stab in the dark' with no specific target in mind.
This man deserves an award for being able to describe the V-1 in surch detail that's actually both informative and entertaining. I feel like I could actually build one based on such detail.
Its sad that so many lives had to be lost over these killing machines.
Thank you for you kind comments. Indeed you are so right regarding lives lost to these, both in building them and in their use.
'only' about 2500 people expired because of this device, so it wasn't all that effective. The psychological aspect was terrifyingly effective, though.
Especially for us here in the UK 😢🫤🇬🇧
And if you really could bild onewhere would you send it?😉
@@Eliah153
I'd tell you where I'd send it but I don't want the secret service knocking on my door.
Oops!
I'm 20 years Air Force as was my dad. I have a military history minor and even taught military history to ROTC cadets at the University of Missouri. I found this information and presentation outstanding. I learned so much. About 80% of this video was new to me. Excellent job!
Yeah, I had only the rudimentary facts: the thing ran out of gas and hit the ground. But even that 'fact' was wrong.
This man is an excellent instructor. I’ve lived with ADHD my entire life. And he’s got my attention from start to finish. If. I had more teachers like him in school I might have learned something 👍🏾
I hear ya. And yes he's cool
I have ADHD and I was bothered by the waffle ie not getting to his point succinctly.
Why a wooden sphere? Was the missile body made from steel or Al alloy?
I frequently lecture ADHDers - I make sure that I get on with the information without leaving people stuck on missing information.
He explained the wooden sphere. Watch the video again.
@@pd4165 wood so metal wouldn't interfere with the magnetic compass inside.
@@pd4165 And missile body was made out of steel, he mentioned that too.
Thank you, That is the most in depth technical description of the V-1 operation I have heard in my 60+ years.
You are welcome. I appreciate hearing this from you. Hope one day you can visit the Air Zoo!
A fascinating description of a complicated device that I thought (as you mentioned) was simply pointed in the desired direction, launched, and ran until it ran out of fuel. It's amazing what was done back then mechanically that today is all electronic. Everything from mechanical fire control "computers" for naval guns and artillery to the Norden bomb sights.
I still believe irrespective of what this character says that the early one's were this way,It's no one is interested in perfection,Those exceedingly annoying British putting up a FIGHT,When the rest of Europe was a walk over,We will SORT them out, yes it evolved to the standard portrayed in this video,They were relatively easy to shoot down with Hurricanes and everyones hero the Spitfire,But the ramps were bombed by the US and the UK.The V2 was far more deadly,These thing were a nuisance,My mum said she use to run towards them if the were overhead because they blow up where you were standing or better still behind you,I know your impressed with computers but not all used for the benefit of the ordinary person,Now you have to pay someone to fix something where 20 years ago you could have done it yourself
@@Johnketes54 I thought that too. However it wouldnt even start flying horizontally without some gyro and the mechanics turning the controls. Russians style dumb rocket launchers are following a ballistic path like artillery shells - this was not the case with V1
@@Johnketes54 The Hurri couldn't catch them except in a dive, the V1 flew at 400 mph. The P51 could do 460 mph, so could catch them easily. So could the Tempest, Mosquito and Spitfire.
The V1 did not fly to it ran out of fuel. There was a 25:1 ratio gearbox that drove a threaded rod. To set the range a switch was moved so that when a nut was driven along the threaded rod it would activate the switch and dive the rocket down. The negative g caused the fuel starvation and wasn't supposed to happen. Latter V1 had a second switch so they could change course and fly a dog leg so they couldn't be tracked.
We were all taught that they were dumb bombs that ran out of fuel.
Ww2 was a high tech war; the British had a vacuum tube driven proximity sensor on bombs used over open water that no one knew existed until after the war.
Excellent presentation. Best technical discussion of the technical aspects I've ever seen. Well done.
As all the comments below say, excellent. I read that the Germans realised the sudden cut of the engine gave people a few seconds to take cover. They modified the system so the engine ran until impact. German spies who had been captured and turned were used to misreport the V1s landing in the west of London. The Germans altered the counter so many bombs fell short of the populated areas. The new proximity fuse saved countless lives. “On the last day of large-scale attacks only 4 Of 104 bombs succeeded in reaching their target. Some of the 100 destroyed are credited to the Royal Air Force and to the barrage balloons, but the majority of the V-1’s were victims of proximity-fuzed projectiles.”
yes the V-fuse proximity fuse was a huge help especially for the Kamikaze attacks in the pacific theater
@@mikesmith-wk7vy Indeed. A lesser-known but crucial story is “Doc” Draper’s gyro sight. “The importance of Draper’s sight cannot be overemphasized, as it played an essential part in providing the shipboard air-defense system needed to defend the Fleet. This was especially true in the later months of the war when the kamikaze threat was at its greatest.
The added effectiveness of Draper’s lead-computing sight is difficult to assess. Nevertheless, it should be noted that during the period of the campaign in the Philippines when the dreaded kamikaze first appeared, 20-mm and 40-mm guns under the control of Draper’s sight accounted for 78.6 percent of all suicide planes brought down by shipboard antiaircraft fire.” The Mk 14 and prox fuse together also saved countless lives especially given the staggeringly low hit rate of normal AA.
Realized.
London newspapers reported false data to trick the nazi spies living among them. It may, or may not have been effective. The doppler-radar shells were cutting edge and very effective.
@@Triple_J.1 Interesting. Probably not very effective since I believe every German spy in the UK was caught and either executed or turned. German military intelligence was generally ineffective- Canaris himself was even actively working against Hitler.
at 5:30, I’m pretty sure the wooden sphere does NOT “dampen” magnetic interference at all. Rather, it’s made of wood so as to not CREATE interference with the compass. Any nonferrous material would have sufficed, but wood was probably more available than other strategic materials.
I agree. I used to be an aircraft instrument dude in another life, and if you messed with the magnetic field of the fuselage, it would also mess with the earth's magnetic field and the compass won't work. More than likely the unit was calibrated in situ to compensate for all influences, including electric circuits, and then was declared accurate enough.
@@dougerrohmer
Correct. The V1 compass would have to be ‘swung’ with all electrical systems on, in situ with all ferrous metal in the aircraft for the navigation system to be accurate.
Wood was used around the compass to dampen vibrations. It has indeed nothing to do with magnetic interference. The nosecone was made out of aluminium for that purpose.
They are explaining it in more detail here from minute 9 onward. Also it’s the video that contains the animated parts they also used here.
ua-cam.com/video/5EEZuXQyA-E/v-deo.html
Put a compass on a table. Bring a piece of metal towards it. What happens. Now place a piece of thin wood between the compass and the metal. End result?
I am old enough to remember those things. We lived in a western suburb of London The newspapers reported on them and printed three views, So when I saw one I recognised what it was. I would guess it was at about 1500 feet and I was about a half mile from its course. After that, I might have seen about a half dozen. They just kept on to out of sight over the north horizon. They would keep on until the motor quit and then a few seconds after would hit the ground and explode. But there was one that came down maybe a half mile from me. I was taking a crap at the moment and this one was different. I heard it coming The engine did not quit.But suddenly the noise of the motor went up in pitch and volume. All I could do was, well just to tense and wait.
About a half mile away was Duke somebodies mansion in the middle of his biggish park, The Bomb impacted just inside the wall of the park. This was a good place, far enough from the dukes place and inside his high brick wall. There was a public road on the outside of that and outside of that the West Middlesex hospital, so it did not hurt anybody or do any damage. To this day I sometimes hear a diesel bus that remindes me of the Buzz bombs noise.
amazed 👏 thank you for sharing that sir 🙏🏽
You'd have to be at least in your 90's to remember the doodlebugs. You must have some good life stories. With respect, I drink to your health 🍻
Wow, thanks for sharing your experiences with us. What people endured back then…
Not my experience in industrial North London through the war . They came ,We watched ,they killed .Not worth writing a video about !
Hi Bob 🇬🇧🙏👍
An excellent presentation of a device far more sophisticated than I thought! Thankyou.
The Germans certainly loved to use new methods to attack an enemy. Simple machine yet some very clever mechanisms built in. Very good video of this revolutionary and effective weapon.
@E Van "The mass-murders of WWII were all committed by the allies." Stupid rewriting of history. You need to read more. I suggest "The Bomber War" by Robin Neillands.
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Let's put aside the fact that The Axis governments STARTED the war which didn't have to happen and all deaths thereafter were due to them. Bombing of cities was established by the Axis - not the Allies. What about unprovoked bombing of London, Coventry and Pearl Harbor? What about the endless war crimes committed by the Japanese during their age of imperialism leading into and including WWII ? Ever hear of China, Burma, the Philippines or Korea ? What do you think a world war is ?
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I really dislike armchair historians that have no understanding of what real war is. The Germans immediately took the war into the rest of Europe. While they were destroying other innocent countries and peoples their own country was relatively untouched. They sat back and manufactured vast war supplies within their own country unfettered by the death they were dealing elsewhere. The Nazis controlled the media and the German people were willfully ignorant of the part they were playing. Don't forget, the German and Japanese people were fueling these atrocities with their own labor as well as slave labor. Don't pretend they didn't see what was happening to the Jews, political opposition and prisoners. To end the war the Allies had to break the German's manufacturing base and bring the war to the German people. Then maybe the German people might find war a bit more distasteful and end the war from within.
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So you think "The Blitz" was nothing ? Really ? How damn callous can a person be ? I guess the Jews got what they deserved too eh ? You'd think differently if it was your town that was destroyed and your family wiped out. The idea that a retaliatory strike's size should be based on the initiating attack's size is a totally bogus concept. That is how wars are stretched out to last longer and kill more people. How about this reasoning ? An attack that never happens will result in a retaliatory attack of the same size - zero ! I little poke at a hornet's nest can result in a huge response right ? Are the hornets at fault ?
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Educate yourself before you spew hate !
@@flyboy3633 don't feed the trolls bro
@E Van You gotta be a troll with that logic man
@@flyboy3633 simple advice, don't ever feed a troll on UA-cam
@@flyboy3633 rewriting history? Leave that to israelis
The world’s first cruise missile I should think?
Edit: Thanks to the gentleman who provided the clearest explanation of how this device functioned that I have ever heard!
There were some piston engine ones in WW I, US Navy Curtiss flying bomb.
The difference is that it was totally Analog, it could only fly in one direction and for a predetermined distance
@@stevenclarke5606
Just like modern day Tomahawk cruise missiles.
@@mtkoslowski Exactly, but Tomahawk cruise missiles now have the advantage of onboard digital computers, to guide them to their targets
@@stevenclarke5606
Since I have a computer science education I can tell you that analog computers too have their place vis-a-vis V1 ‘buzz bombs.’
Fascinating weapon. There's more to it than I expected. 👍
I was taught in more than 1 class that it was set to run until it ran out of fuel and they just filled it to different amounts to get close to where they wanted it to land. Glad I saw this video and finally learned the truth.
I can't understand why anyone would say that.
@@robertcook2572 I think it was just to insult the Nazis actually, the same teachers had said many pro Soviet statements about them being so superior, etc and everything German was inferior.
I don't think you LEARNED THE TRUTH who says he RIGHT except him? I wouldn't take his word for it,Perhaps the the one in the video a LATER ONE worked on that principle,This is UA-cam he gets paid either way,I get so sick and tire of people not doing their research properly and taking the Role of the ORACLE
No, that’s not what happened.
Many people think that it just runs out of fuel and then just falls. The veeder counter was used to trigger the intentional dive. It must be admitted that the accuracy, despite attempts to get it on target, was poor. Especially the farther it flew.
During 1950s, Walter Kaaden, one of the engineers who harnessed harmonic shock waves within the pulse jet tube, went on to invent the expansion chamber exhaust which effectively super charges two stroke engines. He also used reed valves within the inlet port.
Those "expansions" were a waste of money or the fools that fitted them did it wrong,I was told you had to change the jetting on the carbs free up the airflow on the air intake and fit the expansions,To get the "added" performance nobody did it was cosmetic or a different noise,I had many races with my "standard" Suzuki GT550 and won,One could argue i was racing posers with more money than sense,And weren't interested in power but looking "cool"
@@Johnketes54 every 2 stroke bike from the 60s onwards has an expansion pipe, 2 strokes are tuned for a very narrow resonance or power band and share more in common with a pulse jet than a 4 stroke
@@turkeyboyjh1 They also provide a large boost in efficiency within a narrow rpm-range, so unless you specifically need a super compact engine package, or the engine needs to run well in a very wide rpm-range, it would be pretty silly not to include at least a basic expansion pipe. The whole point is that the exhaust pressure wave is reflected back up the exhaust towards the engine, and shoves unburnt charge back into the cylinder just before the exhaust port closes. It's a pretty clever acoustic hack that doesn't add much to the production cost. It's just a bit bulky.
@@Johnketes54 to take full advantage of expansion chambers, the exhaust port height also needed to be raised (i.e. grind the exhaust port hole in the cylinder wall with rotary grinder). With appropriate porting and carburetor jetting changes, very significant power increases were possible. However without these internal engine changes, you are correct, putting expansion chambers on an otherwise stock (street legal) motorcycle was largely a waste of money.
Amazing, I remember the Japanese stole the technology with help from inside the German company/motorcycle rider 😮 very much the usual industrial espionage that goes on with technology, always somebody trying to steal it.
Excellent talk demystifying a historically important subject.
This is an excellent presentation about the V-1, the very first cruise missile.
Amazing engineering from 80 years ago !
Where could humanity be presently if this talent had been used for constructive purposes ?
all of the largest technological gains come from warfare
Wonderful, clear, concise, and objective explanation of a very impressive piece of kit. Super impressive set of pneumatic, electrical, and mechanical systems on the V-1. Particularly because of the era in which they were designed and produced. I'll wager a lot of that technology found its way into many of the Allies weapon systems as well. Thanks so much for sharing Kevin.
As a Brit with an intense interest this is the best lecture I've ever heard on the subject. Thank you.
The so called 'start cart' pictured at 18:28 is in fact the steam generator cart for the catapult, which generated large volumes of hot steam by the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. The starting functions for the pulse jet were provided by other pieces of equipment.
This is still used in Russian space rockets
@@leopold3146 Steam generator cart for the catapult? No. Space rockets take off by itself.
@@ВасилийКоровин-г9э steam generators to start turbo pumps are not uncommon on rocket engines.
@@heikoscheuermannturbopumps don't need/use EXTERNAL steam generators to operate they use their own built-in.
I didn't say a single word about effin EXTERNAL...
Excellent!!! I have never thought that V1 was so complicated!!!
Pulse jet
This is an extremely interesting and informative video!
It's incredible they were able to make about 30,000 of these in the last year of the war.
About 8,000 landed on England and Belgium.
Just incredible! These things fell on my grandparents in London...... I'm sure they didn't realise the impeccable engineering that went into this! 😮
Fascinating, simple in concept but complex in detail. The Docent does a very good job of describing the V1.
This was an outstanding presentation. Well thought out and well executed. I didn't know the weapon was as complicated as it is, but it apparently worked very well, unfortunately for many people. I've read about some of our allied fighters being able to either shoot them down, or fly alongside and then tip the wing over. Pretty dangerous stuff in both cases.
Thank you! the V1 is far more complex than I had thought.
The combustion design of the V-1 was adopted and used in the Lennox Pulse furnace to heat residential homes. It was one of the first high efficiency furnaces and is still used in some homes. These furnaces had a noisy "buzz" sound from the exhaust pipe. Lennox had to design mufflers for the furnace exhaust.
96 yr; old WWII vet, some memory loss:
I think I also remember a V bomb that sputtered, rather than pulsed.
I also remember watching a V-2 (the straight up and straight down rocket) rising in the dark as we stealthily approached the Rhine. I thought "Poor Londoners, there goes one (completely unstoppable) of those blockbusters at them." I later read they were aiming at the Ludendorff bridge to hinder our Rhine crossing. I was pitying the Londoners while the damn thing was aimed at me! (practically)
If you could see the V2 going up, you were probaly too close to be the target.
@@wolf310ii That was another reason I supposed they were on the way to England.
I read (later) they had tried to destroy the Ludendorff bridge by throwing everything - including V-2's at it. We were approaching the Rhine, so we must not have been too far from the launch site.
At the time, it didn't occur to me that they could be aiming at something so close.
@@edgarvalderrama1143 The V2 aiming at the Ludendorff bridge where started in Netherland by the SS Werfer Batterie 500, around 200km away from Remagen.
What you saw was probaly a V2 from the schwere Artillerie Abteilung 836 in Gehlert (3. Batterie) or Kirburg (2. Batterie) 40-50km away from Remagen, but this Unit fired at Antwerpen and London, Remagen was too close.
@@wolf310ii As I said, I later (fairly recently) read they tried to hit the bridge with V-2's, which is why I said they were (practically) aimed at me. They were supposedly diverted from their original target and aimed unsuccessfully at the bridge.
Thank you for your service.
This is the most comprehensive and informative video on the German pulse jets that I have ever Seen and heard .
Your masterful knowledge and excellent presentation was a pleasure to watch.
What an incredible, revolutionary device.
You are right, all other accounts of the pulse jet i hear are like, "they just run out of gas and fall." Lol
Thank you, sir.
Amazing description of how the doodlebug operated……my mum was five when this menace started and still recalls the sound of the pulse jet…..This before being evacuated with her brother from the East End of London to Wales……where she first tasted strawberries and cream. Uncle Billy was crying for his mum….. while mum found a love of sweet things….. that never left !
I find it oddly amusing how we called these menacing devices by such a silly name. From what I can tell, the name Doodlebug comes from colloquial names for the Woodlouse or the Cockchafer beetle, perhaps because the bomb looked like one of them, or the buzz sounded like that of a beetle in flight. However the silly name came about, it's kind of a nice feeling that people could still laugh at life even under such dire circumstances.
@Air Zoo thanks for the video.
In English "Vergeltung" is "Retribution".
for everyone who wants to know what stands behind the name "V1".
Means first weapon of retaliation. It was conceived as an act of revenge for the many bombs that the English bombers dropped on mainly civilian residential areas in Westphalia. V1 = Vergeltungswaffe 1. V = Retribution. That is the name and meaning of the weapon.
Thought I knew quite a bit about the V1 but you covered way more. Great work, thanks.
This guy is fantastic. He makes things understandable and interesting. Thank you!
Very interesting presentation on the first operational cruise missile, a far more sophisticated machine than I had believed.
What's the "fist" operational cruise missile? How can it be a fist?
@@buckhorncortez When Spell Check thinks it should.
Excellent video - My mum was at school on the South coast of England and was renowned for her excellent hearing - her hand used to go up in class - "Yes Norma?" - "Doodlebug Miss!" - and off they went to the air raid shelters and were always the first class there!
Great video! I previously thought the V-1 initiated its dive to target _only_ by shutting off the fuel to the engine. Now I know otherwise...👍
Well done sir. My family were on the receiving end of these during WW2. It is wonderful to hear how they worked in detail and just image the challenges that the designers faced to get the new technologies involved with what is clearly one of the first cruise missiles to work. My uncle (father's brother) was a pilot who was part of the defence against these things by tipping them over. He was lost in the latter stages of the war RIP. Thank you.
The V1 is wayy more sophisticated than i thought.
Sophisticatdd in its simplicity.
Brilliant explanation of a weapon actually more complex than at first imagined. Bravo!
Awesome description! I thought I'd read and viewed everything available about the V1, but you taught me lots of new stuff. Pity you couldn't pop those covers off and show us the inside workings! I really liked the superimposed graphics for the fuel lines, tanks etc - helped to visualize the system. Nice work!
Thanks for your kind words. I have to make sure all credit goes to Euan for the graphics and overall assembly of the video. He adds all the extra content and frankly, makes what I do much better.
I am retired from teaching high school physics. I always told my students if you understand the simple ideas like the air pressure regulator for the fuel at the end of the video you can apply them to solve complex problems. I also told them that Germany was very hard to defeat in two world wars because they had invested in letting smart people work doing basic research. I cringe when I hear uneducated people complain about government money being wasted on basic research. As I watched the video the basic underlying physics ideas were clearly explained. Great Job.
The yanks never suffered the impact of these.
They werent called buzz bombs here,we called them doodlebugs.
"But?" this yank just watched a "scram or ram" jet with perfect doughnuts
There were used against Antwerp and nearby locations, killing a lot of people (famously in a cinema) , a few of whom might have been American
correct but they benefited from the German "genius' ( latterly a U S Citizen) who developed them
Our friend Herr Werner Von Braun.( who of course denied all knowledge of what Hitler et al were
up to - He being too busy developing the V-2
jm
@@christopherwebber3804 Rex Cinema was hit by a V-2. Same concept as far as being a remotely fired missle, but quite different animal technology-wise. (V-2 was an actual rocket)
Best technical review of the V1 I ever saw. Thank you 👍
(What amazing 80 year old German technology)
Old school electro/mechanical systems are AMAZING. Today it would be basic PLC or other basic digital systems but back then it was almost an art the way they used basic physics to make stuff work
You can do it today but electronic controls are more precise, cheaper than mechanical ones, easier to mass-produce, way lighter and smaller in size and easier to maintain. Yes I appreciate the beauty of fully mechanical systems but won't use it today as a main ones whenever it's possible.
Remember that these deadly devices were aimed at our allies homes...
The pulse jets were acoustically tuned and that technology was developed for two cycle engines by MZ in E. Germany after the war. They did the first resonance tuned exhaust which vastly increased two stroke power. Toured the Air Zoo several years ago with a friend who lived in KZoo. Really well done place. If you're in the neighborhood there's also a great car museum nearby, the Gilmore.
It's funny that this machinery was used for killing as many people as possible, but it still has safety features.
The doodlebugs were slow enough for RAF fighter aircraft to fly along side, and flip them by wingtip contact before reaching London, thereby upsetting the gyroscopes and making the bombs crash in open country. Also another part of their wickedness was that enforced slave labour was largely used in the doodlebugs' construction. Typical Nazi evil!
Yeah, so it doesn't kill the operators or miss or mistime it's dive or detonation. The safety features were not for the victims.
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Excellent video!
Post-war analysis by the allies revealed that the V1 was more cost effective than bomber raids or V2 strikes. V1 usage was limited due to extensive launch site construction required which was quickly discovered and then attacked by allied air power.
It turns out that Germany had an incredible capability, yet a missed opportunity, before they even built the first launch rail test facility: the first V1 glide test on 28 Oct 1942 was from altitude, dropped from a FW200. The first powered flight was air dropped on 10 Dec 1942 from an He111. The construction of launch facilities by the Army meant the first operational launches would not occur until Nov 1943. 10,000 V1s were fired at England. 2448 V1s were fired at Belgium. It was not until July 1944 that the German military began operational night launches from nine (eventually 25) He111 H-22 aircraft, firing 1,176 V1s. The final air launches continued until January 1945 at which point the Luftwaffe had lost its capabilities. The air launches had a 40% failure rate, as one may expect: over ocean night missile launch operations were challenging. Had the German military employed air operations from the start, one may conservatively estimate over 3000 launches and a resolution of the early launch problems. This would have greatly complicated the allied efforts against the V1 capability while affording a larger target set for V1 engagements, perhaps even avoiding the exorbitant cost in manpower and resources necessary for constructing ground launch sites.
It's accuracy must have been so low that it would have been ineffective against particular targets. Terrorism would have been the limit of its capabilities. However I did read that it caused a significant drop in productivity because air raid sirens would fire and workers would retreat to air raid shelters. The v2 did not have this feature as they did not provide any warning.
@@petergarrone8242 V1 attacks against area targets demonstrated a mean point of impact within 3.5 km of the area centroid, based on post war analysis. The system met the damage objectives set by operational users, surpassing the capability of Luftwaffe attacks vs equivalent area targets. One example of such an effect was destruction of worker housing around a given industrial setting, motivating further elaboration of the Shadow Plan for geographic dispersion of some industrial production. Germany targeted London as the area of interest, delivering an average impact density of 1.3 per Sq km. The area immediately surrounding the target centroid suffered 3.2 per Sq km while the core received 6.6 per sq km. On average, each impact destroyed 400 housing units. The area received a total of 2420 impacts.
Thanks for this in-depth explanation. Also, congrats on your nicely restored V-1!
Wow! I really liked this one!
As an engineer I had vague understanding of what was needed to fly and guide a V1, but this thing is at one hand more sophisticated as I thought and at the other hand simpler than I thought.
Thank you for this excellent class. I didn’t checked out the rest of your channel yet but it seems very promising.!
This is truly a master class on knowing what you are talking about, and conveying it to everyone else excellently! Outside of that.. Anyone who has actually heard / felt a pulse jet.. You will never forget it!
Wow. The V1 was much more sophisticated that what I thought. Like others, I thought it was just a bomb on a flight platform powered by a pulse jet and when it ran out of fuel it crashed and exploded. Regardless of ideology, the German engineers were quite advanced.
Excellent narrative. I have always puzzled over the V1 control system, which is before I was born!! Amazing!
I‘m a German engineer in autonomous driving. It‘s so amazing to see how they developed an autonomous device without ANY microcontrollers / software 😲😲😆
Yes, I am an engineer too, and I am impressed about the design of V1. It was so simple and effective! Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. What is not there does not cost, does not break, and requires no maintenance. Only those who master their craft can reach extreme simplicity in their designs.
Launch an autonomous drone from Europe, escape fighter interception (the V1 could be reached by a fighter only in a deep dive), and let it land in London was not a simple task. I bet than even today with all the electronic gadgets, without the aid of a GPS it would not be easy.
But look how easily they were deceived by a single maniac though.
Many things can be made without computers. However, the end result would be big and expensive. Microprocessors are cheap and small.
@@mauricelevy9027You mean Trump? Yes, truly astounding how gullible people can be in this day and age of information.
@@shanelodge391 I'm not so sure He was around even then .His father may still have been "at home" . No I mean little Austrian bloke witha Charlie Chaplin Bristles under His nose who misled a gullible nation who obviously had not seen the light at the end of WW1
Excellent presentation, captivating explanation.
Thank you for this explanation of the resonant tube. Your illustration made clear to me why this MUST be resonant or it won't have an ignition source for the second power cycle. NICE!
Just like a two stroke up on the pipe.
Great video, thank you, very clear, informative and captivating! Well done!
Such a phenomenal feat of engineering created during that time, I just love history
Thank you. Very well explained! Erich from New Zealand
I don't need to imagine the experience. I lived in central London during the war and my closest experience with a V1 was when I was hanging out washing on the roof of Portman Buildings in Lisson Grove with my grandmother and mother when one of these bloody things cut out. We just about got to the street when it went off. I still remember the vegetables in the street in Broadley Terrace from the green grocer's and all the windows broken. And I'm expected to condem the bombing of Dresden.
Tony. I played on the bomb sites. I remember the gaps it the three floor Victorian terraced houses which were totally destroyed by bombing, You could still see bits of wallpaper on the walls and the outline of the fireplace. There were large baulks of wood to buttress and support the surviving adjoining houses. Prefabs in the local park to house those who had been bombed out of their homes. To be honest after the war people were so much happier then. Perhaps happy that it was over, and they had survived?
You guys from UK and US have mass murdered more german civilians than germany could have ever done to you! Your goal was never to stop the war, you guys literally wanted germany/europe a farmers area and western colony or another war to finally erase germany from the planet!
Sry but there is nothing good in any war, especially considering western imperialists and capitalists are the reason for the wars (literally ALL wars since 1850 are a western fault!), death, pain, suffering and poor people ;)
No, you are not expected to condemn the Dresden bombing, as this was not a very particularly gruesome raid in the history of bombings of German cities, regardless what some may claim. You might though condemn the strategic bombing of wartime Germany in general. This was the British military command that did all this, supported by the Americans, who joined in later and first tried to remain more "civilized" by conducting daytime bombings, so as to be able to target military objects and refrain from civilian ones, or, at least, that was the initial intention.
Bombings of cities started early in WWII by the British when they flew over Western Germany, albeit not all too successfully yet in those early days. When Hitler could no longer postpone German responses to the continued attacks, he strictly ordered not to hit any civilian British targets, as he knew that it would all lead to an uncontrollable spiral of increasing intensity. During the first German raid on the London docks, some stray bombs also hit civilian houses, which was due to the lack of control in the beginning of the air raids, when experience was not yet established. This was all that Churchill needed to call for a counter strike on Berlin, which was already prepared anyway.
When the Germans in the last year of the war resorted to extraordinary weapons like the V1 and V2, they did this out of the realisation that they had no other means left to hit the enemy on its own soil. Germany never built anything like the Allied strategic bomber fleets. That was never the intention. You may call it an act of terror, but that is what you get when you declare war and reject any peace offer ever since. The Casablanca Declaration of 24 January 1943 demanded unconditional surrender from the Germans. So, there was nothing left to do than to fight until the end. Churchill was quite relieved to learn that the 20 July 1944 plot against Hitler had failed. Now, he did not have to pretend to come to peace with a different German command, as the ongoing claim was that war was waged against "Hitlerism". A false pretense, as this was a war against Germany, not against some regime.
@@Guido_XL "A false pretense, as this was a war against Germany, not against some regime."
And so it is with russia now... russia didnt wanted the war and its NOT "PuTiNs war"...
@@Guido_XL Really? So Germany didn’t bomb Warsaw and other Polish cities and towns in 1939? Yeah, right.
Thank you for the technical breakdown! Much more information than I gathered by visiting V rockets at museums.
One thing I think I can add: there were many types of V missiles. Early, late, changes in design and engines, bigger ones, smaller ones....
Very well explained! Thank you
Great video! Very comprehensive and understandable!-John in Texas
Beautifully presented and very a informative video. I also believe that the spinning propeller at the front of the V1 had a connection to the Fuel Supply. So just before it started it’s Terminal Dive to its target, a signal was sent to cut the fuel off to the engine! Film of the V1’s attacking London, always showed the engine cutting off just before it commenced its dive. Greetings from England ❤️🏴🇬🇧🇺🇸🇬🇧❤️
Actually the engine wasn’t shut of by a timing device but by the negative gˋs when the timer flipped the elevator down and it nosed hard over. That stopped the fuel supply.
@@theonlymadmac4771 For sure, but It wasn’t a timer device, it was based on the number of revolutions the propeller made. This was carefully calculated taking in to account the acceleration on launch, it’s average flying speed and distance to target. Once a certain number of revolutions had been achieved, a signal was sent to a servo which shut off the fuel, as well as the negative g component. If there was fuel in the tank, yes it would starve the engine of fuel, but I’m sure they wouldn’t have relied on this factor alone to cut the fuel. Supposing the elevator bolts failed, the bomb would overfly its target wouldn’t it, but If the fuel was cut off with the use of a servo valve, the bomb would fall nose down and would still explode upon impact!
@@theonlymadmac4771
It wasn't supposed to do that, the Germans intended it's dive to be under full power, when they found out that the engine's were cutting off they figured out what was causing it and fixed the problem, after that the engine's ran all the way up to impact as they'd originally intended.
After that the British who'd gotten used to the way they originally worked and knew that as long as you could hear the engine running it was just passing overhead learned that wasn't the case anymore.
@@dukecraig2402 Can you provide a source for that? What would be the advantages of a powered dive?
Thank-You. Great presentation. A very comprehensive and relatively simple way of explaining how this thing works.
Was amazed when I recently read that if you added all of the V2 & V2 'S that landed in England and one other nearby country that it was less tons of explosives that the Army bombers dropped in a single week on Germany. Sure they scared the crap out of all the civilians when one of these quiet rockets hit nearby. Always heard they fly until fuel ran out but the nose spinner & counter were indeed genius invention.
Army bombers? RAF mate,I would like to such a link to what you are inferring,I've seen what one V2 did to a four story block of flats,They were gone a a 40 foot crater the size of a soccer pitch,By the time i was born it had been filled in with two "prefabs" sitting on it,Even at the age of 4,It didn't make sense all these houses squashed together and a big green with two buildings and tiny little gardens each,What a waste of space,Until my father told me about the 4 storey block of flats and a V2
@@Johnketes54 One can carry only few hundreds pounds of explosives. One bomber can carry more. Much more... and there is thousands of them. Each night. Each day.
Great talk. I appreciate the deep dive into the engineering details of the German V-1.
Nice review, germans sure had impressive technology for the time period.
Most don't know that the Germans developed a television guided bomb, wire guided missiles, the Vulcan 20 & 30mm gatling gun electrically driven cannons. Then there was the Schriever flying disc program ..
That's where the term; "Foo-fighters" came from. Allied aircraft sighted them being flight tested.
Source: 'German Jet Genesis ' a Jane's Book.
read about the Horton 262... years ahead of its time jet powered flying wing with RADAR absorbing/deflection tech
@@philiprice7875 i think that was Ho229 (?)
Plus it did like 620 mph in flight tests
Impressive military technology, with other tech designed to kill people en masse in gas chambers. Nasty folk . . .
Those things were way more complicated than I realized. Excellent video,sir
EXCELLENT presentation. I learned a lot, and I consider myself pretty versed on the V1. Where is this place? Suggestion: if you have the parts, or can simulate the parts, show the insides of the V1 as an exploded diagram.
The 3D printing files on line too?
You may wish to change your terminology rearding an exploded diagram of the internals, the diagram would probably be covering a rather large area, and take ages to read🤣
@@mickymondo7463 just a suggestion, may not be practical
Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Great video presentation. A lot of questions about this machine were answered. My remaining question is how did they manage to keep the wings level? The dihedral was fairly flat and there were no alerions to maintain wings level. Rudder control works with a high dihedral wing, but a flat wing usually needs control surfaces.
Interesting. The device shown at 18:27 and 18:30 are not part of the engine start system. That is the steam generator for the catapult, Hydrogen Peroxide powered, I believe. Also, no one has explained how the V1 maintained roll control using no Ailerons and relying on Rudder only, which is a very dodgy method with a wing having zero dihedral.
The rudder is located very low, between the top of the fuselage tail and the underside of the engine, so the rudder will have a lot of torque for yawing the bomb's nose left and right, but not a lot of torque to induce roll.
During a yawing movement, the vertical aft surfaces (including both the engine mount and tailfin and the engine itself) will act as a vertical tail, causing the bomb to roll towards the direction of the yaw, thus producing a somewhat coordinated turn.
Or at least that's how the forces balance out in my head.
Only the aileron on the side of the plane that needs to go down moves at any one time up to cause a yaw and bank on some of these minimalist control systems . The other aileron stays straight . I don't know about all the v1 versions but i would try that first .
@@gregorydahl
It doesn't have ailerons.
@@lomasck
No, they didn't have ailerons (yes, the piloted version did, but that's a different topic).
Pure delta wings don't have ailerons either; they have elevons.
@@lomasck
The bachem natter or viper used seperate elevator flaps to roll and together the elevator flaps could pitch up or down the plane .
A deltawing can useelevons that work like aileron elevator combined because the airfoil top surface curves up starting at the leading edge and then folliws a regular curve shape until ⅔ of the way to the trailing edge it straightens out by the airfoil curving up so that air flowing over the wing leaves the trailing edge parallel to the flight path . No downward flow at the trailing edge to cause forward pitch of the wing to counter with a seperate tail surface .
My grandfather used to tell me about the V1's during the war, he seen them with his own eyes. he always told me they took shelter when the motor cuts out. Very nice to see how exactly these things work and technically far ahaid of its time.
Interesting talk, I had no idea they were so complicated! I'm actually writing this post from a house that was destroyed by a V1 when it landed in the woods opposite! We had 41 of them land in our neighbourhood and a great book was written called "Streatham's 41 flying bombs". They hit our area so much because the Government kept reporting (falsely) that these bombs were falling on central London which made the Germans continue to aim at us. Did the fuse in the bomb detonate immediately or was there a delay to allow it to penetrate buildings? Did they store fuel in the wings when trying to extend range? Why did they use jets when a single propeller engine would presumably offer more range (I guess they could launch them at night to make them hard to hit)?
They used pulse jets for their simplicity and ease of manufacture they were only one time use so a piston engine was aluminum and an iron castings and precision machining wasn’t affordable
Only 41? I’m from Croydon - we had 141.
@@Coltnz1 Croydon is 10 times larger than Streatham which means we got 14 of these things per square mile while you guys got 4. Nice try though. Plus, we've repaired a lot of the damage ;)
Complicated ? But it’s so simple !! And they had to be fast so fighters with propellers wouldn’t catch it
Pilot and engineer here. The pulse jet engine was used neither for 'speed' nor for 'simplicity' of the V1. The Germans had (at the time of WW2) NO EFFIN IDEA how to control an aircraft with a propeller propulsion.
Why?
Propellers generate hefty yaw AND roll when, uhm, propelling. There were no FBW systems then to offset this. A trained pilot (me) could, then and there. But there were only automata onboard a V1 (so, no pilot).
What did the Germans do?
- Change the engine! Take one with no roll and no yaw, and no gyroscopic effects from the big propeller.
Therefore, and only therefore:
They chose this pulse jet engine (scram jet) because it generates exactly zero yaw, and zero roll. No matter the actual propulsion force delivered, it is directed only forward. This made the control math easy. The construction of autopilot measures suddenly was solvable, if not downright trivial (for a seasoned control theory specialist at least).
Tl'dr?
The V1 was primitive in the utmost. If it were any more advanced it could not fly even for 15 seconds - considered the tech and math the Germans were capable of.
Fun fact.
How bad in math Germams were shows the fact that they didn't know that their Enigma was encrypting... nothing at all. The Polish mathematicians, who developed combinatorics (google it) proved in the 1920's that Enigma is not working. Then they happily read what Enigma supposedly "encrypted" without the Germans even knowing that. This left the poor German gunts with the permanent hassle of rotors, steckers and tables, which did nothing at all to encrypt classified communications.
Read about it. The stupidity of the Germans was abysmal - for a nation which thew itself into war with all their neighbours all at once you do not need to prove the statement further. So no despect to anyone, just a 'fun fact'.
Superb presentation and video ! Now I know.
Mean while in Viet Nam Charlie often just used two crossed pieces of tree limbs to ruffly aim one of their powerfully 122 millimeters rockets at a base camp. Was a great harassment tool. Often miss the camp but while in Phi Loi in 1971 for in country training class Charlie only fired one 122 mm rocket that morning killing the guy in the Mars station couple hundred feet from us. Asked one of my sergeants why they don't send a helicopter out looking for the rocket shooter. Told me he ran a few hundred feet then hid in a hole where he would never be found.
thanx for sharing that sir 🙏🏽
This video provides information at a level the masses could follow.
The presentation and explanation is remarkable.
Keep up your video channel.
Now for the V2 and geeman jets as well, very informative.
Very well done, I've learned a lot about the Fieseler Fi 103 (V1). Setting aside that it was a terror weapon and that thousands (!) of people were forced to produce it and died, it's an amazing device. Incredible how complex processes were handled by mechanical and electromechanical components. The sleek device looks beautiful I have to admit.
The Fi-103(R) was the piloted version of the V-1.
A woman test pilot was the first to survive, or at least walk away from a test flight.
Source: The Fantastic Flights of Hannah Reitch
She also flew the Me 163B Komet.
In Aug '44 Heini Ditmar flew the B model to 702mph in level flight at 13k feet. When Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier at well over 30k feet, he wasn't the fastest man alive. Ditmar's speed record still wasn't broken.
No more a terror weapon than the A-bomb dropped twice on civilians, correction, it was a weapon of mass destruction and just my opinion sir.
No.
First class presentation.
The first cruise missile to cross the Channel was the German V-1.😄
I am from Folkestone,Kent,UK...22 miles /35 KM across the English Channe.l from the V-1
launch sites located between Boulogne ~ Calais ~ Oostende.
The first V-i's landed between Folkesone-Dover-Ashford-Maidstone then gradully extended their range to London.As children we watched them (a) land in Folkesone (b) later ..fly over head on thri way to London
We were 'evacuated" to London in May 1944
jm
Great presentation!
The Germans also invented the guided bomb which contained a computerised control operated by the bomber. This was put later into the V1 if I'm correct, so early version of the Cruise missile. Clever people, formidable enemy.
It wasnt computerised, it was just radio controlled
Just pure evil,Killing your own population because they didn't meet a certain criteria or they were good with money and all the banks were controlled by them
Impressive. 👍👍👍
Brilliant description,Kevin! One remark: you mention the speeds labelled in miles per hour. Which one do you mean: statute or nautical mile? Thank you. BTW, my father had to stop attending school for several weeks after the building was destroyed by a V1. That was in 1944 in Brussels.
The “mile” in miles per hour is the standard 1760 yards.
Thanks. I'm 61. My father served in WWII and told me about the V1 ("runs out of fuel" etc) and there is an empty hulk of one in the Halifax Nova Scotia Citadel War Museum (not sure if that's a proper name for it). Since I was about 8 I've been wondering how this thing worked. What I was sure of is that it wasn't just flown off a ramp like a dart thrown at a board but how it was made to work and have enough accuracy to hit a city has been a life-long mystery until today. So thanks for that. I watched this video only once and I'm pretty sure I could give the talk (word for word) because every part of the system makes perfect sense. Now... how to get my wife and daughter to let me take the grandchildren to Kalamazoo (1100 miles 'as the crow flies').
It didn't really run out of fuel, a switch activated when a nut from a threated rod made contact and pitched the missile down. It was the negative G that starved the fuel.
@@williamzk9083 Exactly. That's why I put "runs out of fuel " in quotation marks to indicate that was the version handed down by my father who didn't have the benefit of this youtube video to update him. See, when "something is in quotes" it always means something a bit different than the words and structure would otherwise indicate, that's why "things are sometimes put in quotes".
There's also one in Greencastle, Indiana. Dad would drive past it on the way to visit my great uncle
I learned 18 new things and unlearned 2 errors.
this channel is gold. you deserve millions of subs, and they will come
It's a WWII cruise missile with a crude computer guidance system.
It's the first cruise missile German was ahead for the time
Don't know if I'd call it a cruise missile, on account of it featuring inertial guidance only.
It's more of a... high speed version of the Kettering Bug.
An aerial torpedo that actually looks the part.
Then again, maybe inertial guidance and a bit over half an hour of powered flight at 650km/h is enough to call it a cruise missile. Subjectivity and all that.
Brilliant review of the mix of cheap parts and complexity
Today, these weapons are primitive and crude. In the 1940's it was nothing short of witchcraft.
Brilliant presentation, very impressive 👏
Really great description in layman's term about how this machine worked, Thank you, Great job!
The not so friendly DoodleBug. All the V weapons were a waste of resources. Thank you for an excellent technical explanation of how it worked.
NASA learned a lot though,so not exactly a waste of technology.
Excellent presentation.
Outstanding dissertation on the V-1. So much more to it than meets the eye. History has always taught us that it was basically a gyro stabilized glide bomb that was launched in the general direction of
England, a vengeful 'stab in the dark' with no specific target in mind.
Simply very complex . . . sophisticated. German engineering! 👍👍 Well done . . . now explain the “ramjet”. 😁
Great explanation, thanks for taking the time to explain at length the mechanisms.
This was so well done, great series.
Excellent presentation,