Ballistic missile

                     Ballistic Missile (1938)

     Doreen initiates Nazi Germany’s rocket program.

     Inventor- Walter Dornbeger(1895-1980)

                     “The third day of October, 1942, is the first of a new era in transportation that of space travel”.

    Introduction                                                                                 The history of rocketry dates back to around 900 C.E, but the use of rockets as highly destructive missiles able to carry large payloads of explosives was not feasible until the late 1930s. War has been catalyst for many inventions, both benevolent and destructive. The ballistic missile is intriguing because it can be both of these things, it has made possible some of the greatest deeds mankind has ever achieved and also some of the worst.

 Information

  German Walter Dornbeger (1895-1980) and his team began developing rockets in 1938, but it was not until 1944 that the first ballistic missile, the Aggregat-4 or V-2 rocket, was ready for use. V-2 were used extensively by the Nazis at the end of World War ||, primarily as a terror weapon against civilian targets. They were powerful and   imposing 46 feet (14m) long, able to reach speed of around 3,500 miles per hour (5,600kph) and deliver a warhead of around 2,200 pounds (1000kg) at a range of 200 miles (320km).

       Ballistic missile follow a ballistic flight path determined by brief initial powered phase of the missile’s flight. This is unlike guided missiles, such as cruise missile, which are essentially unmanned airplanes packed with explosives. This meant that the early V-2s flew inaccurately, so that they were of most use in attacking large, city-sized targets such as London and Paris etc.

                                                              The Nazi ballistic missile program has both great and terrible legacy. Ballistic missiles such as the V-2 were scaled up to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles with a variety of warheads, but also the craft that have carried people in to space. Ballistic missiles may have led us to the point of self-destruction, but without them man would have never been able to venture beyond our atmosphere.

v A V-2 rocket engine on a test stand, the engine was fueled by ethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen.

First fired in 1942, the V-2 rocket was the world’s earliest successful large Liquid-propellant missile.