Great Leap Forward: the V-2 rocket

This science forum gets used for cutting-edge topics, but I'll go against the grain this time by putting up as a topic something that is 70 years old.

Last year Paul Allen did the kind of thing I would do if I had a billion dollars lying around collecting dust. He purchased a WW II German V-2 rocket. They ain't making any more of 'em!

The 1940s-era V-2 was a big leap past the German's 1930's A3, which itself was a step up from what Robert Goddard had been doing in the USA.

Here is a broad, shallow documentary look at the V-2--

YouTube


Here are a pair of narrower, deeper looks. The first is on the burner cups at the head of the combustion chamber, and the other is on the guidance gyros--

YouTube
YouTube

Wernher Von Braun and his team of engineers were some really clever people. Even during the war WVB was looking ahead to civilian uses of multi-stage rockets to get people above Earth's atmosphere. (As Mort Sahl used to say in a WVB accent, "I aim for the stars, but sometimes I hit London." )

Originally posted by Paul Dirac II
This science forum gets used for cutting-edge topics, but I'll go against the grain this time by putting up as a topic something that is 70 years old.

Last year Paul Allen did the kind of thing I would do if I had a billion dollars lying around collecting dust. He purchased a WW II German V-2 rocket. They ain't making any more of 'em!

The 1940s-e ...[text shortened]... (As Mort Sahl used to say in a WVB accent, "I aim for the stars, but sometimes I hit London." )

Do you think he will be aiming at Bill Gates?

Originally posted by sonhouse
Do you think he will be aiming at Bill Gates?

If I were Bill G, I'd be a bit concerned about that purchase.

😕

The post that was quoted here has been removed

I've heard it estimated that VE day came six months sooner due to the V-2 program draining resources.

Certainly it was not cost-effective as a weapon, but it sure greased the skids for the USA and USSR to ramp up toward space exploration in the years immediately following the Second World War.

"Technically sweet" is the phrase one of my college professors liked to use, and he could have applied it to the V-2 if he had ever gotten onto the topic of rockets.

As an aside, a liquid propellant rocket has been described as "a turbopump along with some other parts." The V-2's turbopump was powered by catalysis of an "egg" full of concentrated aqueous hydrogen peroxide.

Correction: V-2 rockets are still being built. We call them "drones" now. Same thing with 'improved' guidance.

Originally posted by moonbus
Correction: V-2 rockets are still being built. We call them "drones" now. Same thing with 'improved' guidance.

Not exactly. Drones are flying machines with jet propulsion and stay relatively low in altitude, guided by remote or programs guided by GPS technology.

V2's reached up way above the atmosphere and re-entered in a ballistic path, powered by a rocket engine with a powered phase of just a few minutes burning fuel at incredible rates.

Drones can fly for hours because the fuel is burned at a much lower rate.

It's an airplane, not a rocket.

Wernher von Braun flunked physics and maths! 😲

The post that was quoted here has been removed

And it was not an effective fighting machine, it could only stay up for a few minutes.

In more modern space news, closest approach to Pluto is one year away.

http://www.npr.org/2014/07/13/330983584/mark-your-calendars-in-a-year-well-arrive-at-pluto

Originally posted by Paul Dirac II
In more modern space news, closest approach to Pluto is one year away.

http://www.npr.org/2014/07/13/330983584/mark-your-calendars-in-a-year-well-arrive-at-pluto

I thought it was closer than that.