10.02.2009, 07:08
Hello,
According to Hanna Reitsch biography ( "From Nazi test pilot to Hitler's bunker", by Dennis Piszkirwicz, Praeger Publishers), the V1 was modified to be piloted by a human as a weapon of last resort: a suicide bomb, similar to the japanese Baka (rocket-propelled kamikaze).
The modified V1 were code-named "Reichenberg", and several versions were built:
-R1: no engine, single-seat, training glider, flaps and landing skids
-RII: two-seat, no engine, glider with instructor and student
-RIII: RI with the pulse-jet engine
-RIV: the real thing, single seat, pulse-jet engine, 1.874 pounds of high explosive in the nose, and no landing skid: once airborne, it would never come back.
Technical considerations aside, is a suicide weapon a fit candidate for a mod?
According to Hanna Reitsch biography ( "From Nazi test pilot to Hitler's bunker", by Dennis Piszkirwicz, Praeger Publishers), the V1 was modified to be piloted by a human as a weapon of last resort: a suicide bomb, similar to the japanese Baka (rocket-propelled kamikaze).
The modified V1 were code-named "Reichenberg", and several versions were built:
-R1: no engine, single-seat, training glider, flaps and landing skids
-RII: two-seat, no engine, glider with instructor and student
-RIII: RI with the pulse-jet engine
-RIV: the real thing, single seat, pulse-jet engine, 1.874 pounds of high explosive in the nose, and no landing skid: once airborne, it would never come back.
Technical considerations aside, is a suicide weapon a fit candidate for a mod?