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How aerial photographs tracked down flying bombsCrossbow was the code name of the World War II campaign of Allied operations against all phases of the German long-range weapons programme. Operations against research and development of the weapons, their manufacture, transportation and their launching sites, and against missiles in flight.To mark 50 years since the first batches of WWII aerial photos were declassified, Allan Williams - from the National Collection of Aerial Photography in Edinburgh - has written a book about Operation Crossbow and the role photographic intelligence played to stop the V1 doodlebugs and V2 rockets. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23270332
That's kind of interesting to know. I'm curious as to how they directed the V1 and V2 exactly to their targets.
A short and clear information about those guidance systems and other wonder weapons here: http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/WW2/terror_intro.htm
That's kind of interesting to know. I'm curious as to how they directed the V1 and V2 exactly to their targets.
They pointed them in the general direction and let fly. The accuracy of the V1 and V2 was atrocius and they did pretty good to hit London. Both weapons had a crude gyroscope guidance system that could generaly keep them flying straight but that was about it.
They pointed them in the general direction and let fly. The accuracy of the V1 and V2 was atrocius and they did pretty good to hit London. Both wepoans hd a crude gyroscope guidance system that could generaly keep them flying straight but that was about it.
That's correct for the V1 but it was a little more sophisticated for the ballistic missile: two free gyroscopes (a horizontal and a vertical) for lateral stabilization, and a PIGA accelerometer to control engine cutoff at a specified velocity (source: Mike Konshak - mechanical engineer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph-npS29n9Q ) *Otherwise, Scout is quite correct: it was not so high tech about range or guidance but the concept itself
Iremember reading somewhere during the Frist Gulf War that the V2 had a smaller Circular Error of Probability than the Scud missiles Saddam was shooting a Kuwait and Israel.Incidentally, if you ever go to White Sands Missile Range they have one of the original V2s we confiscated at the end of the war in the rocket park at the installation museum.
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