Hi, my name is Kevin Kenz. I'm a docent here at the Air Zoo and today we're going to spend time going in depth on the Air Zoo's V1 flying bomb. This will be a video where we'll dive deeper into how it actually works, breaking it down into the different systems. So relax, grab your favorite beverage, get comfortable, and when you're ready we'll get started.
Now to get started, what we're going to do is break this down into two kind of large components and then from there divide it down a little bit more. The first section will go from the nose to the tail on the fuselage, describing different systems within it to get you a better understanding of how the V1 operates. And then we'll end up talking about the engine on top of it in the rear. So to begin with we start up here at the nose and you'll notice there's a little spinner here.
And then we'll go to the tail. That little spinner is actually an air log and what that will do is it will allow you to measure the distance that the V1 has flown. That air log or spinner is connected to a device in the back which is called a counter unit, sometimes referred to as a Veeder counter after the inventor, which has a series of small wheels.
The numbers are set before the V1 is launched, as the spinner spins, it will turn those little dials and numbers down to zeros and start to activate different things on the V1. Let's take just a quick closer look at that little counter unit in the rear. Okay, we've got a close-up picture of that counter unit, which is in the rear of the V1, and you can see there's these dials inside of a small box. There's five dials.
As the dials are set before the V1 takes off, they will be turning. as the spinner up front turns down to zeros and as they are turning they will begin to initiate different sequences to activate certain events within the V1 which we'll go into detail now. Now that we have a little understanding of how that counter unit looks let's go back to the spinner as it's spinning the wheels are turning down the first thing that will happen is when the air log measures a distance of about 35 to 40 miles from its launch site, so this is very early after it's been launched, it will trigger an electrical connection to come and to arm the two fuses on top of the bomb.
The V1 is not armed when it is launched for safety reasons obviously, so you do need at some point to get it to be armed. The air counter up front will actually trigger that sequence. So now we have a bomb that's armed. The second thing that will occur is as the V1 approaches its target area, it will eventually get counters to be zeros and at that moment and a series of events will happen in the rear of the V1 and it will kick the V1 into a terminal dive into the target area. So again remember it's measuring distance.
We set the distance before we take off, we've reached the target area because that's been keeping track of it with the counter unit in the back, and it's now put into a terminal dive. The third thing that the air spinner helps with is if the V1 is carrying a radio transmitter, about 30 to 40 miles before it goes into its terminal dive, it will turn on a radio transmitter in the very back of the V1. Now, not all V1s carried radio. transmitters but if they did you didn't need to have them on the whole flight.
You only need them on at the very end of the flight because what they were trying to do is get a radio signal to triangulate so that they knew where the V1 finally impacted the ground. That is what the spinner is doing. Three things.
Helping to arm the bomb, telling the V1 when it's ready to go into its terminal dive, and if it has a radio transmitter, to turn on the radio transmitter. Now, right behind the spinner is an impact switch. So when the V1 impacts the ground in its target area, the switch will activate the fuses to then detonate the warhead or the explosion. of materials and that is right in here.
Then behind that in this area is a wooden sphere or globe. It's hollow inside and inside of that wooden sphere is a magnetic compass. The magnetic compass is calibrated and set before the V1 takes off and it is going to work to keep the V1 on the desired direction or heading. If we want it to fly and we do want it to fly in a particular direction and stay on course, the magnetic compass will try to help do that. If the V1 starts to wander off course, the magnetic compass will detect that deviation from the course and electric through electricity or electrical wires send the signal back to the master gyro to create a course correction and the master gyro will then manipulate the rudder in the back to try to steer it back on course.
It's in a wooden sphere to help dampen some of the effects because everything around it is metal so we do want the compass to be as effective as possible so it's kept in this wooden sphere or bowl shape holding unit. That is all here in the nose. Then we're going to talk about the bomb in the back here.
Now the bomb is normally 1,800 pounds of amytol explosive. They did use other types of explosive material, sometimes because of shortages. and sometimes deliberately to lighten the physical bomb load because they were trying to carry more fuel.
But it is kept in here, and again, 1,800 pounds, sometimes a little bit lighter than that. There are two fuses here you can see on the top of the bomb. Now, I mentioned the impact switch in the nose.
If everything goes right, and it didn't always happen this way, the V1 will impact the ground. The impact switch will tell the front fuse to detonate the bomb. If for some reason, let's say the V1 just has a failure, a mechanical failure, it quits getting fuel to the engine, or it gets shot up a little bit and it won't fly properly anymore, and it lands on its belly instead of impacting the ground.
Underneath there is a little bit of a gap. is actually a belly switch and the belly switch accomplished the same thing. So as it came in on its belly, instead of hitting on the nose, the belly switch would also trigger an electrical circuit to tell the fuse it's now time to detonate the bomb. Now next on the V1 moving from front to back, this area here where the wings also connect into the fuselage is the fuel tank.
And you can even see the cap here, the fuel filler cap on the on top. Now the original V1s had a 160 gallon fuel tank. The fuel is just regular old fuel.
It doesn't have to be aviation grade or anything like that. This is a disposable weapon. It runs perfectly fine on any type of gas that you put in it. The tank that is in the original V1s wasn't enough for longer ranges that they needed in the V1.
As the Allies overran the launch sites that were along the coasts of the English Channel. The Germans had to move the launch sites further inland and therefore they needed to get the V-1 to have longer range and they would increase the tank storage or the fuel tank storage. They had a 214 gallon tank and a 225 gallon tank and actually they were working on a 260 gallon tank. But from my understanding that never went into production.
So that's where the fuel is housed on the V-1. Now behind that is another section. And that section in here houses two round metal spheres and those are air tanks and they are wound very tightly with a very good steel wire. The purpose is for the wire to help keep that.
tank from bursting because these two air tanks and they're about 22 inches in diameter hold very high pressure air and it's air that will operate a certain amount of the systems on the V1. the front tank here will actually pressurize the fuel tank. So that will then increase the pressure in the fuel tank, and it will force fuel down a fuel line that kind of runs underneath, and the fuel line actually then comes up here to feed the engine.
The other air tank in the rear will be used to operate the master gyro and the servos in the back, which we'll talk about later, that operate the rudder. and the elevators. So here are our air tanks to do that. Okay, now we've moved behind those air tanks we just mentioned into this area here, and you can see there's a cover here.
When you remove that cover, you will expose inside. a number of different things. First of all, there will be a battery in here, 30-volt battery, and that's powering a number of different things, including the electricity you need to do to arm the fuses, as well as the radio transmitter if you're carrying one.
Then right next to that will be the counter unit we mentioned. It had the little wheels in it. That's in the forward part of this section here.
And then behind that you have the whole gyro unit, the master gyro and two secondary gyros. Those are used to maneuver the control surfaces, which is the next portion that we're going to talk about. So there's quite a bit of equipment in here. There's also a device that has a dial on it. You turn the dial to the altitude that you want the V-1 to fly at before it is launched, and that will then allow that device to fly at a higher altitude.
to work with the master gyro to help the V1 climb to its desired altitude. That is also kept back in this compartment here. Now we're at the rear of the V1 flying bomb and there is a cover here that can be removed. It will expose two air-driven or pneumatic servos. Those two servos are activated or maneuvered by the master gyro in the compartment we talked about just before this.
One of the servos will operate the rudder. And in fact, you can see a rod come out from the back of the V1 that connects to the rudder. So as the servo for the rudder is maneuvered, the rod will go out.
It will push the rod out. rudder to enable the V1 to turn to the left. If the servo is activated to pull the rod inwards, it will then get the rudder to manipulate the V1 to turn right. There's the other servo here which operates the elevator and as a servo rod moves out it'll push the elevators down so when the elevators go down the tail of the V1 will be lifted up the nose will go down and vice versa when the rod is retracted inwards it pulls up on the elevators and gets the V1 to climb. Now back here certain events will occur if we go all the way back up to the nose remember the spinner spinning it's connected to the counter unit when those dials reach zero zero, it then sends a signal, it's time to go into a terminal dive into the target area.
And when that moment occurs, there are two explosive bolts in the rear that will detonate and push downwards, and they will push on a spoiler that will come out, and the spoiler will then get the tail to start to go up and the nose to point down. So now we have... ...deliberately and intentionally put the V1 into a dive, a terminal dive.
At that same time, the rear servo with the two airlines coming in it has a little guillotine, a little cutter around it. So when the bolts... explode the push the elevators down to get it into a dive, the guillotine will sever those two air lines to the rear servo. Now the rudder is inactive, it won't do anything.
And there's another device that would basically jam and disable the elevator so now the elevator won't work and the V1 is now in, as I say, a terminal and intentional dive. At this moment it's important to mention, oftentimes people say things about a V1 in terms of how it operates, that it flies along and it just runs out of gas and falls. Or it flies along and the engine quits and then it falls.
No, the reverse is true. It goes a preset distance and is kicked into a deliberate dive by the activities we just described back here. Once it's kicked into that dive, it's a very sudden event, and the remaining fuel in the fuel tank will fly up to the top of the fuel tank.
It will starve the engine just long enough that the engine will not restart, and therefore it goes down without any engine power. So it is true that when the engine quits on a V1, you know it's coming down. but it is a result of it being deliberately put into that terminal dive.
Now you're still with me right? Because we're done with the fuselage and all its components, now let's focus on the pulse jet engine. This engine is an Argus AS109- 014 pulse jet engine it produces about 660 pounds of thrust.
A pulse jet engine is a very very simple engine. It's basically a tube as you can see. It's hollow all the way through. And really one of the most important components is right up front. There is a shutter valve or air valve system up front with the fuel jets.
To get a little better idea what that looks like, let's pause for just a moment. and get a good shot of that air shutter or valve assembly up front. Okay, now we're looking at the very front of the pulse jet engine, and you can see what looks like a grill or a radiator device, and there's some... Spray jets. There's nine of them.
You can see two of them very clearly here. And the fuel lines, so fuel is being sprayed through those spray jets towards the rear. It goes through that grill-like structure into the rear of that, and that is spraying fuel in there.
Air then of course is going through this grid light structure through what is called either air shutters or air veins which we'll describe in some detail after we reset ourselves. But that is the front of the engine and it's probably the most important part of the engine because it's really the only part that has anything that's moving as well. Okay, now that we've seen the front of the pulsejet engine, let's get a little bit idea of what's going on behind it, which you can't really see.
There's a series of shutters. The shutters are spring-loaded, so when the shutters are open... open, they're like this and air will flow through. So the front air will come through and through the shutters into this area right here.
Fuel is being sprayed into this area as well, misted more like, and it's continuing to spread. The fuel is constantly being fed in here. When the shutters are open, air is allowed in. When that mixture of fuel and air is detonated, the force of the explosion will slam the shutters closed.
So now if the shutters are closed like this, there's nowhere for the force of the explosion, the expanding gases and heat to go except down the tube, out towards the back. The shutters have completely shut off the front of the engine now momentarily. When that explosion occurs, the shutters will slam.
The force of the explosion, again, the expanding heat and gases, goes down the tube. As that goes down the tube, you'll get a drop in pressure here. Basically, you're more or less creating a...
vacuum. At a certain point the pressure will drop far enough that the shutters will be allowed to come open again. Remember they're spring-loaded so now they've come open again.
Now we get more air into this area here again fueling fuel is constantly being sprayed in, the fuel is mixed with the air, and the tail end of the prior explosion will now detonate that mixture. And the process will repeat itself. It's detonated, the shutters close, the force of the explosion goes down the tube, a depression or a slight vacuum is created, the shutters come open, more air, fuel, detonated by the prior explosion, and that will happen upwards of 50 times. per second.
That's the pulse effect of the engine. Imagine 50 times per second an explosion is occurring. That explosion gives the V-1 its very distinctive noise as it fly, which some people describe as a buzz, a deep-throated harsh buzzing noise.
Hence one of its nicknames is the buzz bomb. It comes from how this pulse jet engine works. It is a process that as long as it gets air and long as it gets fuel will continually run without any other help needed.
It doesn't have a big ignition system there's nothing else except fuel and air being detonated by the prior explosion. A very simple engine. Now having said that A pulse jet engine on a V1 cannot start itself.
It needs help. So when the V1 is on a launch rail, there is a starting unit or a start card if we want to call it that. And it has several ways to start it. things.
It has an airline that's hooked up underneath on the other side. There's a coupling. The airline is hooked up to that and it brings air, pressurized air, up into the back side of that air vein system. there are three air jets at the very top of that that are now going to feed air into the tube. So now I have a source of air coming in, and there is an arm that will come out that has a spark plug wire on it that goes up and connects to the little spark plug on top here.
So now I have a source of ignition, and then the fuel is allowed to start to flow into the tube. So once fuel comes in, I've got an external air air source that's pushing air into the tube, the last thing to do is to get the spark plug to spark. And so on the starting unit they can do that, they get the spark plug to spark and when that happens it will detonate the mixture and the whole operation that I just previously described will start to take place.
So the spark plug is there only to get it started, it's basically a one time use. The pulse jet engine will operate on its own even while the V1 is sitting on the launch ramp. Once it gets started it takes less than 10 seconds to get up the power where it needs to be and it self-sustains its running.
I remove the start cart and then I will have The V-1 launched on a rail which is normally about 180 foot long. There was some variations to that. Think of a steam catapult that launches aircraft on an aircraft carrier.
It's very similar to that. The V1, while the engine is running, does not have enough power to launch itself. Remember, it is a flying bomb. It has wings.
It's got to be able to get the wings to provide lift to keep itself in the air. So stall speed on a V1 is about 150 miles an hour. So in order to get it up to over that speed, the launch system will catapult it into the air and when it leaves the rail it's going about 200 miles an hour so well over stall speed.
Now the V1 is able to keep itself airborne because it's getting lift off of the wings and of course as I've already mentioned the pulse jet engine is running all on its own now it will then start to increase in speed and altitude and there's a couple things to note first of all there's a little pitot tube here And of course if you know about aircraft, they use pitot tubes. Air will be rammed in there and will go up to an instrument in the cockpit of an airplane to activate your airspeed indicator. Well, on a V-1, the pitot tube is connected to a device internally. that is monitoring that speed and giving a signal to the fuel regulator to increase the fuel that's being sprayed into the tube. So as we try to go faster and want to go faster, the speed is monitored to increase the fuel flow, thereby increasing the speed.
of the V1. However, we have to account for one more thing and that is as we all know when you go up in the air the higher you go leaving the ground the air starts to thin out the density air changes and therefore as a V1 climbs to its desired altitude V1's had a altitude capability of about 10,000 feet but they very rarely had them fly at that height. Usually it was 2 to 4,000 feet.
thousand feet but as we're climbing up to those desired altitude levels the air is thinning out now actually we have another issue going on and that is the air is getting thinner but we're still spraying a lot of fuel in there and there's an imbalance between fuel and air so we need to somehow moderate the fuel And so there is a metal capsule that has the air evacuated out in the middle of it and it is sensitive to barometric pressure. So as it goes up in altitude, the air is thinning out and getting a little less dense and it allows that metallic capsule, because it's sensitive to barometric pressure, to expand. And as it expands, it actually restricts. fuel flow to the engine and vice versa. If the V1 goes down a little bit, the metal capsule then will shrink a little bit due to barometric pressure differences, and it will allow a little bit more fuel to flow.
So we have these very simple devices. to help the fuel flow so that the pulse jet engine will produce more power and it'll go faster but also take into account differences in altitude and air density. The maximum speed of a V1 is about 400 215 miles an hour and that will reach that speed not too long after it's been launched and it's starting to lose some fuel And to get itself a little bit lighter however Remember those shutters I described 40 times a second Slamming clothes slamming clothes back and forth There's heat being generated here and those shutters will start to degrade they'll crack they'll get a little malformed and the Efficiency of this pulsejet engine does start to degrade especially in the later stage of the flight. So speeds can drop to 390, 380 miles an hour and that's just a function of the engine more or less kind of beating itself up. So there you have it the Argus Pulse Jet Engine, a very simple device and of course the rest of the operation of the V1.
I hope you've enjoyed this video I surely have enjoyed doing it for you. You can watch more videos online, but you know, why don't you make plans to come out to the Irizu. We have so much for you and your family to enjoy. So when you have a moment, make those plans. We'd love to see you out here.