Important Early Rockets and Missiles
Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences,
Early Prototypes
 | Goddard's prototype rocket was pulled rather than pushed. Pressure from the oxygen tank was used to push fuel to the combustion chamber. A small alcohol heater was used to speed up vaporization of the oxygen, and an umbilical oxygen line was used to begin the combustion process. The rocket was first flown on March 16, 1926 at Auburn, Massachusetts. |
Rockets and Missiles of World War II
The German Missile Program
 | The V-1 was 8 meters long with a range of 240 km. It was powered by a pulse-jet engine, the source of its distinctive buzzing sound, hence the nickname "buzz bomb". It flew at an altitude of about 900 meters and the first of over 8500 was launched against England on June 13, 1944, a week after D-Day. An American copy of the V-1, called the JB-2 or Loon, actually went into production during World War II, intended for use against Japan. About 300 were built. The principal effect was to give American manufacturers their first experience in missile production. |
The V-2 was about 15 meters long. Between September 6, 1944and March 27, 1945, over 4000 were launched. It had a range of300 kilometers, reached an altitude of 100 kilometers and a speedof over 5000 km per hour. From launch to impact was about fiveminutes.
Missiles of Other World War II Powers
Many varieties of small artillery rocket were used by allpowers. The emphasis here is on missiles that foreshadowed modernballistic missiles and spacecraft. One small rocket is ofinterest because it was the first practical retrorocket. It wasused to slow down anti-submarine bombs dropped from aircraft andwas credited with numerous submarine kills, including the lastGerman submarine sunk in the war just a week before Germanysurrendered.
 | Japan had by far the least sophisticated rocket program of any major power in World War II. The Okha manned rocket plane was a kamikaze aircraft, built for a one-way trip. Its intended American recipients called it the "Baka", the Japanese word for "fool." It was dropped from a bomber, glided most of the way to its target, then ignited its rocket engines to accelerate to about 600 miles per hour for the final attack. |
 | The U.S. Navy designed the Lark to intercept kamikaze attackers, but it was not fully operational by the end of the war. |
 | The British response to the kamikaze threat was the Stooge, which was not operational when the war ended. |
 | The 4-meter long Bat was launched from a bomber. It had a range of 30 km and sank a Japanese destroyer at that range in April, 1945. |
It seems clear that, had World War II lasted a few yearslonger, it would have evolved into a very modern war indeed,fought with jet aircraft, ballistic and cruise missiles, andquite possibly many more nuclear weapons.
V-2 Spinoffs
Pioneering Cruise Missiles
To the casual observer, "cruise missile" carriesconnotations of the Persian Gulf War. In fact, much of the earlyU.S. effort on military missiles was directed toward cruisemissiles, some of which were as elegant in design as any wingedcraft ever flown. If you think about it, the first cruise missilewas actually the German V-1.
 | Bomarc was a surface to air missile 14 meters long with a range of up to 400 km. Its origins date to 1946. It first flew in 1952 and became operational in 1957. |
 | Hound Dog was an air to surface missile 12 meters long with a range of 800 km. First launched in 1959, it was designed to be launched from a B-52 and carry a nuclear warhead. |
 | Matador was a surface to surface missile 12 meters long with a range of 1,000 km. |
 | Mace was a surface to surface missile 14 meters long with a range of 1,100 km. It was the successor to the Matador. |
 | Regulus was a naval ship to surface missile. Regulus 1 was 10 meters long with a range of 800 km. Regulus 2 was 17 meters long with a range of 1,900 km. |
 | The Snark, 20 meters long, was envisioned as an intercontinental nuclear cruise missile. It had a range up to 10,000 kilometers and, being unmannned, cost only a fifth as much as an equivalent manned bomber. It first flew in 1951. |
 | The Navaho was an odd-looking hybrid of a rocket booster and a winged cruis missile. |
Early U.S. Military Missiles
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Sputniks
 | The core of the Soviet space program was an early ICBM, the SS-6 or Sapwood (left). It was modified by removing the warhead and adding an upper oxygen tank (center). Four more SS-6 engines were added around the base and covered with an aerodynamic shielding. This design proved so successful it remained the basic Soviet booster design for two decades. |
A note on names. To the former Soviet Union, even theexistence of certain weapons systems was often regarded as asecret. When the Russian name of a system was known it was used (asin Akula "shark" class submarines.) When, as wasusually the case, the Russian name was not known, NATO plannersassigned code names. Strategic missiles had code names beginningwith S, like Sapwood. Bombers began with B: Bear, Badger,Backfire, etc.
 | Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. It was about 60 cm in diameter and weighed about 80 kg. It is shown here against the former Soviet flag to dramatize its psychological impact. |
Sputnik 2 carried the first living creature into orbit, asmall female dog named Laika. There was no provision for recoveryand Laika died in space when her air ran out. In the figure,Laika's capsule and spherical air tank are outlined in red.
The First U.S. Satellites
References
Frederick Ordway, Wernher von Braun and Dave Dooling, 1985;Space Travel: A History, New York, Harper and Row, 308 p.
Illustrations of Important Rockets and Spacecraft
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Created 23 February 1998, Last Update 23 March 1998