The V-1 Flying Bomb

The German-developed V-1 flying bomb would be known today, though it was much less accurate, as a cruise missile. The bomb was the brainchild of two German engineers who sought to create a very simple flying instrument that would injure upon impact by detonating an explosive hidden within the shell. The first V-1 was constructed from sheet metal and wood, making it relatively cost effective. The basic principle to the V-1 was built upon the simple idea of a mini-airplane wrapped around a bomb, only much more aerodynamic. Nazi troops used the French and Dutch coasts to launch the bombs from an elevated level, which allowed the plane-like missile to rocket into the air at a rapid pace. The V-1s could operate from zero ground speed with the rhythm of a simple pulse jet engine, which beat fifty times per second. A simple device within the missile forced the bomb to land at a certain distance causing large amounts of destruction. These earlier missiles were not precise in their targets often landing amidst civilians or varying entirely off course.

These “buzz bombs” (as they were commonly called) posed a large problem for allied forces, who had not yet conceived such a device. Reaching elevation heights of up to 3,000 feet, the V-1 was an unreachable target for any anti-aircraft gun. Desperate for a method to knock the missiles out of the sky, allies developed an airplane called the “Tempest.” The main purpose of the Tempest was to try, literally, to knock the flying bomb out of the sky. When Nazi Germany fell, so did the launch pads and hide-outs that the Germans used to store their bombs, but their legacy lived on and these pioneering missiles were finely tuned over time. Today, cruise missiles can be filled with any sort of bomb or gas and are extremely accurate.