Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Sunday, January 9, 2022

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

A run of a V-1 pulsejet engine:



You can compare that to a recording of a V-1 warshot:

11 comments:

dan gerene said...

My understanding of the launching of the V1 was that it had to be launched from a catapult with a rocket assist since it needed around 200 MPH air pushed through the motor to self sustain enough power to fly. That's probably why they got away with running it on a stand even though I wouldn't want to be anywhere near it when it was running.

seafury said...

Wow I wasn't aware of that. That explains the long launching rail.

Borepatch said...

That's cool

rdale said...

Years ago I worked on a historical study of the Utah Test and Training Range, the bombing range that takes up most of NW Utah. We toured all over the range with the range boss, one day in an Army helicopter and one day on a driving tour. During the helicopter tour, we flew over the northern part of the range, where many big explosive tests were conducted, and then passed over I-80 going south to Dugway Proving Ground to refuel. Just south of I-80, not 1/2 mile from the freeway, there was a complete V-1 lying in the mud, rusting away. We circled over it. Then on the driving tour, there were launch rails and pieces of V-1s lying all over the place. The US got a bunch of them after the way and shot them off at the Utah bombing range.

Old NFO said...

And any Brit that is old enough to remember will have nightmares after watching that video. That sound struck fear in many people in London in WWII, according to folks that lived through that. The one thing all of them mentioned was when the noise stopped, they ran for cover, never knowing where the V-1s would land.

Eck! said...

It was a terror weapon as it was never precise enough to actual
tactical use.

It takes very little to start one as a static demonstration. In the
video its barely tied down as the static thrust is low. However with
100kt ram air the thrust is much greater and enough for what can be
called an aerodynamically slick airframe to accelerate to the
300+ kt range.

Interesting engines but terribly inefficient and not very controllable
as it was not throttleable.

It was however for what it was, the opening salvo for the jet age
and the cruse missile.


Eck!

Ombibulous said...

I am surprised, and disappointed, that you didn't include the film of the Spitfire shooting one down from dead ahead.

Iron City said...

There were some real captured V-1s shot at Dugway but about 1400 reverse engineered copies were built called the JB-2 (Army air force ) or Loon (Navy). Ford built a copy of the Argus pulse jet engine 600 or 700 pounds thrust. They weren't really in time for Europe but there were plans to use a boat load against Japan for the expected invasion. Launching of the Loons was from the ramps described but also from aircraft and surface ships and submarines. Like the V-2s used for the first American tries at space research the V-1 copies were used for development of guidance and control systems for the later generations of U.S. surface to surface missiles like the Regulus and Matador.

Tod Germanica said...

Useful only as a precursor of more useful missiles, it was an expensive terror weapon that was too inaccurate to consistently hit even giant London. Even the small payload B-17 could drop five times the explosives and return again to drop more. Absent area WMD weapons the V missiles were costly expensive flops. We were lucky the Nazis wasted so much effort and money on them, shortened the war.

Iron City said...

How about a V-1 with a guidance system that could, you know, guide it to a desired target? The Wright Field folks tested those at Hurlburt Field and at Dugway and the Navy at Pt. Mugu. Lucky the Germans didn't get that developed in time to use in anger. To get range and accuracy you can air launch them from He-111s, B-17s B-24/PB4Y2s, B-36s (!) and have your controllers airborne too to go in with the missiles and guide them like Bullpup and all the other guided by people missiles out there. Kind of like a TOW with a 2000 # warhead.

Republic cranked out like 1,500 on the side just to test them. If we wanted to really go into production we could have had thousands and thousands. Kind of a Dresden or Hamburg every day any day regardless of weather. And no losses of crews that take years to train. Problem is if you do that it looks too much like long range artillery so the Army ground pounders get it, not the Air Corps. And even worse, the Navy was also working on using them. Must not loose sight of the real goal.

jadair04 said...

Thank you.