Did the Germans ever put a passenger, pilot, or victim in the V2.
It would seem such an obvious thing to do and would have got them in the record books for many records that were later claimed by other nations. I know they got Hanna to pilot the V1 and it would seem that with their disrespect for human life they would have tried this with a human or animal this must have happened only to be later covered up for propoganda reasons.
Does anyone know the truth, before any facts get lost for ever.
Sorry I don't know the answer to your question, but here are some PDF format reports that are available online for free about the V-2.
Technical data on the development of the A4 V-2 - NASA 1965 report
Here are some V-2 atmospheric research flight reports from the late
1940's in PDF format. They are from the Defense Technical Information Center.Here is a website with a lot of data about the V-2
-Rusty
No. There was never a reason to. Piloted V-2s were discussed and studied somewhat -- mostly in the context of winged recoverable designs, if I recall correctly -- but never done.
There was a war on. Setting records was not the priority. (Note, for example, that XCOR Aerospace was recently able to claim a world record for a rocket-aircraft distance flight that an Me.163 could easily have made, had anyone thought it worth doing at the time.) Getting the V-2's reliability up and adapting design details to various materials/parts shortages had a prior claim on the hardware and engineering manpower.
I forget the details of that, but I believe it was done in an attempt (possibly a bit half-baked) to resolve some specific problems, not just so they could say they'd done it.
Why must it have happened? Yes, they were often ruthless about such things, but they didn't do them for no reason. Had they been pursuing space travel, starting with animal tests would have made sense... but Wernher von Braun got in trouble with the Gestapo over a mere *allegation* that he was more interested in space travel than in building weapons.
The truth is that it never happened.
In sci.space.policy, on 23 Oct 2006 19:24:19 -0700, steve sez:
` Did the Germans ever put a passenger, pilot, or victim in the V2.
` It would seem such an obvious thing to do and would have got them in ` the record books for many records that were later claimed by other ` nations. ` I know they got Hanna to pilot the V1 and it would seem that with their ` disrespect for human life they would have tried this with a human or ` animal this must have happened only to be later covered up for ` propoganda reasons.
` Does anyone know the truth, before any facts get lost for ever.
See "Gravity's Rainbow" for a fictional take (if you don't mind filling your brain with a mountain of random junk, much of which is seriously unpleasant in various ways...)
The Germans did have manned rocket planes.
I have a vague recollection of reading that the British Interplanetary Society proposed this to HM Government after the war but was turned down. Provisions would have of course been included for the passenger's safe recovery, though I do not recall that any launch escape system was included.
A-9 for a single-stage winged rocket A-10 for a multi-stage rocket using A-9 as the top stage.
A9 The A9 was a further development of the A4 rocket. No prototype was ever developed due to the ending of the war, although a variant, the A4b, was produced before the end of the war. The A9 would have been used as the upper stage for an intercontinental missile or a manned craft. The A10 was to have been used for the lower stage.
Parameters of the planned manned A9-rocket
Length: 14.18 m Maximum diameter: 1.65 m Takeoff weight: 16,259 kg Payload: 1,000 kg A10 The A10, which was never actually constructed, was intended serve as first stage for the A9, to help it to reach an intercontinental range. New York City and other targets in the northeastern U.S. were its intended targets. Test Stand VII was built at Peenem=FCnde for use in the A10's development.
The A10 designed to have a diameter of 4.12 meters and to exceed the A4 in its size. It was to be fueled with alcohol and liquid oxygen. The thrust of the engines would have been 235,000 kgf (2300 kN) with a 55 second burn time
"In the early days in Peenemuende, Von Braun's team considered using the A4 (V-2) rocket then under development as the basis for multi-stage rockets. Design of the two stage A9/A10 began in 1940 and first flight would have been in 1946. Work on the A9/A10 was prohibited after 1943 when all efforts were to be spent on perfection and production of the A4 as a weapon-in-being. Von Braun managed to continue some development and flight tests of the A9 under the cover name of A4b (i.e. a modification of the A4, and therefore a production-related project). In late 1944 work on the A9/A10 resumed under the code name Projekt Amerika, but no significant hardware development was possible after the last test of the A4b in January 1945.
During the course of development, the vehicle evolved. The first stage, the A10, was first to have used a multi-chamber design: a cluster of 6 A4 combustion chambers feeding into a single expansion nozzle. Later a massive single chamber/single nozzle engine was planned. Test stands were built at Peenemuende for firings of the 200 tonne thrust engine.
The next stage would be the A9/A10/A11. A drawing made for the Army in Texas in 1946 illustrates the design. The A11 stage appears to use six of the A-10 engines. The A10 is nested within the A11 propellant tank, as was the A9 in the A10. The A9 was winged, indicating a gliding recovery or bombing mission. To achieve orbit, either a small kick stage would be needed, or the A9 would have to be significantly lightened compared to the standard version. In any case a payload of only a few 100 kg could be orbited.
The full orbital vehicle would use the A12 stage, concerning which virtually no details have emerged. Assuming it would have followed the sizing of the other stages, it would have used 50 of the 200 tonne engines, and have been capable of boosting over 10 tonnes of payload into orbit.
Although the early drawings of the A10 engine seem to indicate it used the same benign liquid oxygen/alcohol propellants as the V-2, post-war research by Peenemuende team members in France seem to indicate that there was an intention to move to nitric acid/hydrazine propellants. These were corrosive and toxic, but self-igniting and could be stored and loaded at ambient temperatures -- no handling of cryogenics was required. "
The only manned rocket flights other than the ME 163 Komet was in the Bachem Natter rocket plane. There was only one manned attempt to fly it. It was developed as a small straight wing and fuselage wooden rocket plane to be launched vertically from a launching tower and powered by (if I remember correctly) solid rocket motors.
The one and only manned test flight ended in disaster when the pilot ejected the canopy or the canopy accidently seperated on ascent and the pilot was killed. The pilot was a German Luftwaffe flier condemned to death for (desertion I think) on the Eastern Front. He was given the opportunity to pilot the Natter instead.
Just turned out to be as dangerous as the firing squad...
I read the details in my "Jet Aircraft of the Luftwaffe: the Secret Projects" a month or two ago. I could get the full details if you'd like.
take it easy! OL JR :)
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