A-9rocket - $$9.50

This Secret Nazi Intercontinental manned rocket was the brainchild of Wernher von Braun who paved the way for the space race and tactical nuclear weapons.

EMW A-9 Nazi Rocket

The Nazi A9 Rocket

In this age of information and disinformation it gets increasingly difficult to determine with any certainty exactly what was done (or not done) by those who have been defeated in war. Great accomplishments of the vanquished get played down, denied, scoffed at, and classified while the true historians try for years to sort it out without taking sides. Some things will never be known, but there are things we know that will soon be forgotten.

An old chunk of rocketry rusts in a field that no longer feels the plow. The old man who told the story of how it dropped from the sky when he was a boy no longer tells of such things. They were both awesome and awful to his young mind where they remained until his last breath.

In a box in the attic next to an old folded flag, some long forgotten things were found. Among them, a yellowed magazine...

Transatlantic Roller Coaster Designed to Bomb U.S.A

Popular Science - October 1947

Hitler's blueprints found; mighty winged missiles were to be used in 1946

When the Allied invasion upset the Nazis' plans, they had a supersonic, 3,000-mile-range rocket in the works. Already in the blueprint stage was its successor - a true rocket bomber of equal speed and range. Actual sketches and plans for it are shown on page 110.

Rocket projects were Hitler's equivalent of America's Manhattan District Project. Blueprints for atomic bombs are still tightly guarded secrets, but the Nazis' detailed plans for push-button, transoceanic war have now been exposed. They are a clue to developments that may reasonably be expected if there is another war.

If the invasion of Europe had been delayed six months, German robot missiles and piloted rocket bombers would have been hurtling across the Atlantic. Rocket bombing of New York was scheduled for early 1946.

In 1943 Germany's top scientists were drafted for work on the A series of guided and piloted rockets. The first three of these rockets were designed for basic research in aerodynamics, airframes and propulsion. The first "commercial" model was the A-4, better known to us as the V-2, which made its devastating debut on British soil on September 8, 1944.

The A-4 was a product of the A series far enough advanced to market death while Hitler's scientists developed deadlier and more far-reaching missiles. Next came the A-5, which was only one-half the size of the A-4. It was used for experiments in new control mechanisms. This was followed by the A-6, designed for tests at supersonic speeds.

But range was what the Nazis wanted - range to reach the United States. And wings would have given it to them. Wings would permit a rocket, after achieving maximum speed and altitude, to skim and skip between the rarefied air of the ionosphere and the heavier air of the atmosphere. The experimental model was the A-7, a winged version of the small A-5; then the A-4 (V-2) sprouted wings to become the A-8, followed by the A-9, which used acid instead of oxygen as an oxidizer. The A-9's fuel pumps were driven by a turbine using hydrogen peroxide and calcium permanganate.

Booster for Altitude

Next problem was to get the A-9 up into the ionosphere for the start of its roller-coaster journey across the Atlantic. Its own fuel supply was insufficient. The answer was the A-10, a 190,000-pound booster rocket, of which 140,000 pounds was to have been fuel. This booster was to have carried the A-9 up into the ionosphere at 2,450 miles an hour. When the fuel was exhausted, the booster could be released and the A-9 rocket motor would take over, increasing the missile's speed to 5,870 miles an hour.

Hitler's scientists, with typical German thoroughness, tried everything. They designed some 138 missiles of various types. For power plants they used reciprocating engines with jet exhaust, gas turbines, turbojets, ramjets and pure rockets. In fuels they experimented with nitric acid and mixtures of xylidines and amine compounds; others included gaseous oxygen and powdered coal for a coal ramjet.

Control Systems Galore

In the field of controls they branched out from the early method of direct wire control from a "mother" plane to the use of radio, radar, continuous wave, acoustics, infrared, light beams and magnetics. One missile had a television set in the nose. Turned on about 2-1/2 miles from the target, it enabled controllers at the home base to direct the rocket visually at a specific building or installation, such as an ammunition dump.

One control device refused to be controlled. In this case the missile was supposed to follow a beam of energy from a radar unit, which aimed it at an enemy target. In a test firing, however, the missile reversed itself in flight and followed the beam for a direct hit on the control station. After that the Nazi scientists favored "homing" or "seeking" devices sensitive to heat or sound.

The Nazis had other troubles, too. They were behind us in certain essential research, such as nuclear energy for warheads and alloys that would resist the terrific heat developed by rocket-powered engines. The acids they used had a tendency to corrode tanks and pipes; explosions on the ground were frequent and the fatalities high. But still there is no doubt that Hitler's scientists were 10 years ahead of us in "pushbutton" warfare.

Although the A-9-plus-A-10 combination was the last word in the A series of long-range missiles, all design studies and computations had been made for the next step - the true rocket bomber. Equipped with landing gear and a bomb bay, it would have been able to drop its bombs and alight after its transoceanic trip. With a liquid-fuel engine weighing 2-1/2 tons and developing a thrust of 200,000 pounds, it was to have spanned the Atlantic from Germany to New York in 40 minutes.

Only time prevented Hitler from realizing a boast made in 1944 after watching early firing trials of his "secret weapons"

" ...These are not the product of dreamers ... and the whole world will soon feel their effect."

Captured Evil Nazi War Heroes

It's widely accepted that missiles developed by both the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War were based on the basic principles of the German V-2 Rocket, also known as the A4. Captured German rocket scientists were considered to be valuable spoils of war, and American companies were eager to make use of the advancements in technology that they offered. In the United States, somewhat behind the scenes, the US army was attempting to get the upper hand in the arms race with Operation Paperclip by using captured Nazi scientists to develop their own sinister weapons. After the Soviets launched the first man made satellite, Sputnik, into Earth orbit atop the R-7 rocket, the race began to heat up. Both sides wanted to be able to deliver nuclear bombs and show off by putting people in space, so the German scientists were now in high demand.

Wernher von Braun went from a German scientist to a top secret weapons developer under Hitler. While in this position, Von Braun was considered "Evil" by Western powers. Then, after helping to send a man to the moon (under the U.S. space program), he became a national hero proving if you study hard and get good grades almost anything is possable. If you would like to see how this was done, I highly recommend that you read about his life.

Here is a Wiki link.