MIflyer
Captain
In the movie "Operation Crossbow" there is a scene where German test pilot Hannah Reitsch (played by actress Lilli Palmer) helps troubleshoot a prototype V-1 missile by climbing in one fitted with a cockpit and and figuring out why the missiles were going off course and crashing.
I later read that scene was a complete fabrication, apparently inspired by the fact that Reitsch had test flown some Me-163 test models, including one flight where which she crashed and was severely injured. But recently I saw a video in which Eric "Winkle" Brown said that Hannah had indeed flown a V-1.
I just read an article in Flight Journal by Barrett Tillman in which he pointed out that Hannah did fly the manned version of the V-1, intended as a "Precision Guided Munition." She was a supporter of the manned Re4 version of the Fi-103 and flew test flights for it.
The unmanned standard version of the Fi-103 did not have ailerons but steered by rudder and elevator only, leading to a rather wobbly flight path. But the manned version did have ailerons, so, some amount of development work had to be done to figure out the new 3 axis control system. I never thought it made much sense to put a cockpit in the unmanned version to figure out why it was not working right. Depicting that flight just added drama to the movie.
Of course, Operation Crossbow mainly deals with British spies penetrating the German rocket program to prevent the development of the long range ICBM version of the V-2, the bombers hitting the launch site just before it was supposed to lift off and hit New York City. In reality, we know that never occurred. 633 Squadron had already destroyed the rocket fuel plant for the missile.
Funny thing happened at the office one day, about 20 years ago. I was walking to my car at the end of the day when they called me back inside. The president of the company was on the phone and wanted to know what propellants the V-2 used. My first thought was, "Okay how many years has it been since someone got called back into work to answer THAT question?" I told him the V-2 used alcohol and liquid oxygen. His response was, "What! No way! No one would use LOX in a tactical missile!" I reminded him that the Germans were the world leaders in cryogenics at the time and that LOX was nice because with suitable equipment and a source of electric power you could make it anywhere.
The concern was how to model a failure where the rocket blew up on the pad with a full load of propellants. That did occur with V-2 and we had plenty of video of it. But, come on, like THAT is ever going to happen at Cape Canaveral!
I later read that scene was a complete fabrication, apparently inspired by the fact that Reitsch had test flown some Me-163 test models, including one flight where which she crashed and was severely injured. But recently I saw a video in which Eric "Winkle" Brown said that Hannah had indeed flown a V-1.
I just read an article in Flight Journal by Barrett Tillman in which he pointed out that Hannah did fly the manned version of the V-1, intended as a "Precision Guided Munition." She was a supporter of the manned Re4 version of the Fi-103 and flew test flights for it.
The unmanned standard version of the Fi-103 did not have ailerons but steered by rudder and elevator only, leading to a rather wobbly flight path. But the manned version did have ailerons, so, some amount of development work had to be done to figure out the new 3 axis control system. I never thought it made much sense to put a cockpit in the unmanned version to figure out why it was not working right. Depicting that flight just added drama to the movie.
Of course, Operation Crossbow mainly deals with British spies penetrating the German rocket program to prevent the development of the long range ICBM version of the V-2, the bombers hitting the launch site just before it was supposed to lift off and hit New York City. In reality, we know that never occurred. 633 Squadron had already destroyed the rocket fuel plant for the missile.
Funny thing happened at the office one day, about 20 years ago. I was walking to my car at the end of the day when they called me back inside. The president of the company was on the phone and wanted to know what propellants the V-2 used. My first thought was, "Okay how many years has it been since someone got called back into work to answer THAT question?" I told him the V-2 used alcohol and liquid oxygen. His response was, "What! No way! No one would use LOX in a tactical missile!" I reminded him that the Germans were the world leaders in cryogenics at the time and that LOX was nice because with suitable equipment and a source of electric power you could make it anywhere.
The concern was how to model a failure where the rocket blew up on the pad with a full load of propellants. That did occur with V-2 and we had plenty of video of it. But, come on, like THAT is ever going to happen at Cape Canaveral!
