Originally posted by GScholz
What part of "inertial navigation system" did you not get? The V2 was not a dumbfire rocket aimed at launch. The trajectory was even corrected in flight by a radio navigation system.
The V2 was one of the most complicated machines built during the war.
Short of the Manhatten project, prabably was the most complicated.
Inertial guidance is well and good, but the critical part of a ballistic launch is the low velocity initial climb. If there's torque or anything else that overtaxes the gyroscopic system, that puppy is toast. Think of all the very expensive, very tall explosive candles created early in the satellite era -- and that relied on the same core of scientists, imported from Germany, with the advantage of US resources and another generation of technology.
The enormous, sustained thrust required to lift the V2 monster would have exerted greater displacing force on the lighter partly submerged "trailer", driving it deep in the ocean and requiring proportionately more thrust to lift the unstable rocket. Meanwhile, that exhaust would have to be vented from the core without creating vortices or blowback around the rocket and up the sides of the silo -- made doubly difficult because the underwater platform couldn;t rely on lateral venting without losing watertight integrity. If the silo "roof" was driven below sea level, inflowing ocean water would have entered the mix.
IF the V2 could have achieved flight, the inertial system could have helped -- but I'm not convinced that 1940's tech could have compensated for teh massive destabilization that launch would have created.
And, BTW, what's with the attitude, Schultz? We're just talking, man....
