Not the mathematics and whatnot behind it, though—I mean how would you physically adjust the missile’s guidance system to set azimuth and distance? Was there a control panel, or just an access panel on the missile where you could get in with tools to set the target before launch? Or was the whole guidance system set up and then loaded onto the V-2?
And how long would it take to aim at a new target, and then launch? Minutes? Hours?
Although they don’t address all your questions in detail, the following relevant points are made:
Guidance was effected through a three-gyro inertial system, with two gyros used to control azimuth (direction) and one to time engine cutoff, which controlled distance. Radio control of engine cutoff was also successfully tested and used in some of the later operational firings. This was considered more accurate, but the gyro system was used initially due to concerns that the Allies could jam the radio signals.
The guidance system compartment was located in the nose, behind the warhead. Nothing seems to be mentioned at either site regarding an ability to carry out remote setup of the guidance system. If it involved direct access to the gyros, then, presumably it would have to be done prior to erecting the rocket.
The V2rocket web site has a lengthy description of the firing process at a mobile site and states that from arrival on site to firing usually took about 90 minutes. Most of the time required apparently involved fueling and erecting the rocket; guidance setup was done by a specialized team of personnel and so was probably done concurrently with the other operations.
One bit of trivia I found fascinating was that a B-24 apparently was able to down a V2 by fire from its defensive machine guns when it by chance overflew a launch site just as the rocket lifted off. That’s got to go down as one of the lucky shots of all time.
OK, on further review, I’ll need to correct a few things in the above post:
There apparently was no particular ‘setup’ of the navigation system except to set the engine cutoff point and power up the gyros. The gyros tilted the rocket at a pre-determined angle in a single direction during flight, so aiming actually involved rotating the entire rocket on a turntable so that the in-flight tilt would occur in the correct direction.
Power for the gyros during the pre-flight phase was supplied by line electrical power through cables attached to the rocket. At launch, the cables disconnected electromagnetically and internal batteries took over.
All pre-flight and fueling was done with the rocket standing up on the launch platform, as the fuselage was not stressed to support the weight of fuel and oxidizer when the rocket was laying down.
During WW2, MI5 was able to fool the Germans into adjusting their aim point for the V2 rockets further and further to the east, by providing false intelligence reports via their network of turned agents. This resulted in more of the V2s falling short of London.
OK, we could make a foray into literature as well as music:
There once was a thing called a V2
Which to pilot you did not need to
You just pushed a button
And it would leave nuttin’
But stiffs and big holes and debris too
Reminds me of someone ELSE who settled their grievances with their neighbors by mass extermination. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about the Goodbergers across the street from me who poisoned my dogs.
IIRC, von Braun initially used small steering vanes in the rocket exhaust itself. Needless to say, there were a lot of problems with immersing small precision parts in the exhaust of a huge rocket. Maybe they abandoned the attempt and adopted the gyroscopes later?
Military historian John Keegan has written that the transporter-erector trucks (Meillerwagens) used to launch the V-2 were almost as revolutionary an idea as the rocket itself. Not only did their use ensure the rocket would be seen by German authorities as part of the artillery arm and not a Luftwaffe project (internal power politics was always a key element affecting German research), but they rendered the rocket almost impossible to defend against. Allied air leaders immediately realized the need to patrol with aircraft and try to catch and attack the Meillerwagens after they emerged into the open and before they could launch, but it was never accomplished, as the setup and firing time was simply too fast. Fifty years later the same thing proved true during the Gulf War – the Scud mobile launchers were all but impossible to find and stop despite total air supremacy and far more sophisticated search tools.
Medium-range nuclear missiles based in Europe, using similar transporter-launcher systems, were banned by the superpowers for similar reasons – in the event of a ground war, they’d be impossible to eradicate reliably, but were too far forward to evacuate reliably before being overrun by a rapid armored advance – thus the pressure to “use them before we lose them” would immediately become unbearably high, making them just plain too dangerous to both sides.
Bwahahahaha…heheheh…hahaha…(can’t stop laughing, call a medic)…
Some of these posts are absolutely priceless, round of applause everyone!
Guidance missile systems are basically like GPS, instead of you driving to your destination, the computer drives itself using satellites. Before satellites the millitary would put in coordinance for the target and launch crude, poorly aimed ballistics at the enemy, and hope they hit (kinda’ like a deadly game of battleship :eek:). In fact, mortars are still being used today, however, when US soldiers launch them they’re a lot more accurate than when a bunch of untrained Arabs fire away (of course those guys don’t care what they hit though :().
GPS came along for commercial use because (a) the price of the technology was reasonable and (b) it was no longer necessary to keep the technology behind MGS a secret. If two super powers went to war today, the outcome would be decided in minutes, but a super power verse Afghani millitia is a different story. The only way to hide is in urban areas and underground…Lasers from Space…well, maybe not space lasers, but we can see you alright, especially if there’s obvious munitions laying around. I even heard about heat sensing technology being placed on sats. (don’t know if that’s true, but I doubt the Millitary Industrial Complex hasn’t looked into that sort of thing, and much more).
Er, not exactly. The gyros were used in part to set the steering vanes; specifically the rocket would launch vertically until a predetermined altitude, at which point the steering vanes or rudders would begin to tilt the rocket to set up the ballistic arc to target. The gyros facilitated this, although I admit I’m hazy on how exactly this was done.
Here’s a wiki on the V-2. As I said before, basically point and shoot (battleship). The V-2 was a precourser to what’s being used today (the USA actually got a lot of technology from the Germans), but it’s still just a freefall ballistic hunk of metal, premitive in comparison to later advancements. Hitler was dancing around like a giddy schoolgirl over this thing, too bad one didn’t come crashing back down on him. (Okay, now I have a funny image of him as a cartoon launching one and it levels his house moments after…damn you South Park.)
Nazi science sneers at the [del]boundary between life and death[/del] time paradoxes engendered by using constellations that haven’t been launched yet!
Bah—when violence doesn’t solve your problems, it’s only because you’re not using enough violence!
And thanks for the information, all…which actually leads me to a curious couple of notes.
The “turntable” of the V-2 actually resembles a similar component on a Scud Transporter Erector-Launcher vehicle—I can’t help but wonder if they function the same, or used to.
It’s heavy on the technical terminology, which might not be so bad except for:
It’s translated from the original German manual.
2b. Poorly.
The only online english versions/previews are incomplete.
So, even if I could figure out which part actually talks about how the gyros and engine cutoff were set, it doesn’t actually seem to be present. I think.
But it’s still farther than I was before. I love this board.
Always good to be reminded of Tom Lehrer!