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V-1 flying bomb facts for kids

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V-1 flying bomb
Fieseler Fi 103
Flakzielgerät 76 (FZG-76)
Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1975-117-26, Marschflugkörper V1 vor Start.jpg
Type Guided missile
Place of origin Nazi Germany
Service history
In service 1944–1945
Used by Luftwaffe
Wars World War II
Production history
Designer Robert Lusser
Manufacturer Fieseler
Unit cost 5,090 RM
Specifications
Mass 2,150 kg (4,740 lb)
Length 8.32 m (27.3 ft)
Width 5.37 m (17.6 ft)
Height 1.42 m (4 ft 8 in)
Warhead Amatol-39
Warhead weight 850 kg (1,870 lb)
Engine Argus As 109-014 Pulse jet engine
Operational
range
 250 km (160 mi)
Maximum speed 640 km/h (400 mph) flying between 600 to 900 m (2,000 to 3,000 ft)
Guidance
system
 Gyrocompass based autopilot

The V-1 flying bomb (also called the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug) was a World War II weapon. It was a flying bomb, an early cruise missile. Its jet engine made it travel at 350 mph (600 kmph). The Luftwaffe people who controlled it pointed it at London, UK and Antwerp in Belgium. V-1s destroyed nearly as many houses as the Blitz did but killed fewer: 22,892 people died after being attacked by them. The Allies tried to stop these attacks by bombing their launching places, by shooting at them in the air, and by flying fast planes close to them and nudging them off course using their wings.

They had a fairly crude guidance system. Overall, only about 25 per cent of V-1s hit their targets. Most were lost lost by defensive measures, mechanical unreliability or guidance errors.

Related pages

Images for kids

  • V-1 cutaway

    V-1 cutaway

  • V1 Launcher IWM Duxford

    Rear view of V-1 in IWM Duxford, showing launch ramp section

  • V1Musee

    A V-1 on display in the Musée de l'Armée, Paris

  • V1 flying bomb on ramp

    V1 on Walter catapult ramp at Éperlecque

  • Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1973-029A-24A, Marschflugkörper V1 vor Start

    A German crew rolls out a V-1.

  • Arado Ar 234 Blitz mit V1 pic1

    Model of an Arado Ar 234 carrying a V-1 at the Technikmuseum Speyer

  • The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H39728

    A battery of static QF 3.7-inch guns on railway-sleeper platforms at Hastings on the south coast of England, July 1944

  • Spitfire Tipping V-1 Flying Bomb

    A Spitfire using its wingtip to "topple" a V-1 flying bomb

  • Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1981-004-19, Max Wachtel

    Max Wachtel

  • DoodleBug1

    A V-1 and launching ramp section on display at the Imperial War Museum Duxford (2009)

  • 13 Greencastle V-1

    War Memorial in Greencastle, Indiana

  • Side view of V-1 on launch rail at IWM Duxford during May 2006

    V-1 launch ramp recreated at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford

  • Imperial War Museum, London (geograph 4108596) (cropped)

    V-1 flying bomb on display at the Imperial War Museum London

  • Air Zoo December 2019 024 (V-1 flying bomb)

    V-1 on display at the Air Zoo

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Fieseler Fi 103 para niños

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