Fieseler Fi-103 “V-1.” Vergeltungswaffe (German for vengeance/retaliatory/reprisal weapon – a nickname assigned by Hitler – or “Kirschkern” (Cherrystone) or Maikäfer (Maybug). Developed at Peenemünde on the Baltic coast beginning in 1936 (a precursor to today’s cruise missiles) it was aimed primarily against England and Belgium. The first deployments of the weapon came on June 13, 1944 and landed on London’s East End. Of some 30,000 produced, about 22,000 were launched, largely from catapult ramps, although some were launched from Heinkel He-111’s. The fins at the opening of the air intake that open and close deliver air to the simple pulse jet engine and gave the V-1 a distinctive sound that could be heard from ten miles away, earning it the nickname of “buzz bomb” or “doodlebug.” Powered by an Argus AS 109-014 pulsejet (50 pulses per second) which was ignited by an automobile spark plug using a portable electrical power unit and (typically) acetylene gas. The engine was then powered by 75 octane gasoline. Once a minimal operational temperature was reached, no further spark was required as it was self-perpetuating. Guidance was by simple gyroscopic-based autopilot. An odometer was turned by a vane anemometer on the front of the nose, and once a prescribed number of rotations of the odometer were reached, the fuel supply was automatically cut, the warhead was armed, and detonating bolts in effect disabled the rudder, putting the weapon in a steep dive. Defense against the V-1 was anti-aircraft ground fire and British Commonwealth pilots, who either shot them down or came along side and tipped a wing sending it off course. The V-1’s main production facility was the notorious underground complex of Mittelwerk at Nordhausen in the Hartz Mountains, where slave-laborers assembled the missiles. The U.S. reverse-engineered it and produced the Republic-Ford JB-2 Loon (I have a separate Facebook album about one on display at Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon). My photos at Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum on Paine Field in Everett, Washington, as well as the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, U.K. (with the launch ramp), and the link to my walkaround is below.

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