Country of origin:

Germany

Description:

Manned and un-manned flying bomb

Power Plant:

One 336 kg (740 lbst) Argus AS 109-014 pulse duct or pulsating athodyd

Specifications:

History:

Gerhard Fieseler was born near Cologne, Germany in 1886 [he died in 1987] and served as a fighter pilot during World War I, later becoming an aerobatic pilot. In 1930 he purchased Segel Flugzeugbau, a glider manufacturer, and commenced to build and design aircraft, including the very successful Fi 156 Storch.

To meet the requirements of the German Government his Company designed the un-manned Fi 103 flying bomb, better known as the V-1, piloted variants known as the Fi 103R Reichenberg being produced for test purposes and flown in 1943 by a number of pilots, including aviatrix Hanna Reitsch (29 March 1912 to 24 August 1979). As the situation in Germany deteriorated consideration was given to a piloted variant being used as a suicide weapon but this was unacceptable politically so the Fi 103 was produced in large numbers as an un-manned aircraft, and thousands of Fi 103 aircraft were launched against the United Kingdom.

The Fi 103 (or FZG 76) became known as the ‘Vergeltungswaffe Eins’ or Reprisal Weapon One and was developed under the code-name ‘Reichenberg’. In 1944 a scheme was considered to use Focke Wulf Fw 190 aircraft to carry the aircraft but this was dropped. Production took place at the Henschel facility at Schonefeld, but after bombing of the manufacturing facilities, production was diversified and took place also at the Volkswagen plant at Fallersleben. Priority was given to the aircraft and within fourteen days training and operational variants were completed, known as the Reichenberg I, II, III and IV.

The aircraft was a simple, mid-wing, cantilever monoplane containing six compartments, comprising a magnetic compass, Amatol warhead, fuel tank compressed air bottle, auto-pilot, height and range setting controls, and servo mechanisms controlling the rudder and elevators.

For the piloted test examples a cockpit was inserted ahead of the Argus pulse jet , this occupying the space normally occupied by the auto-pilot, an armoured-glass windscreen was installed and ailerons were fitted to the standard wings. The idea was for the aircraft to be carried by a Heinkel He 111H to the scene of operations and for the pilot to jettison the hood and bail out after directing the bomb towards the target, but the chances of the pilot surviving were slim.

Three training variants were evolved, the Reichenberg I being a single-seater with skids and landing flaps, no engine and ballast in place of the warhead. The Reichenberg II was similar but had a second seat replacing the warhead in the nose; and the Reichenberg III was a single-seat trainer with an Argus AS 109-014 engine, a central skid and flaps.

KG 200 was formed in October 1944 to operate the Reichenberg IV but it is not believed any were used operationally. A total of 175 piloted variants was completed. These aircraft subsequently became known as the Fi 103R, and the operational variant became known as the Fi 103R-IV. Six examples are known to have survived, one being restored in the Bavarian town of Geisenhausen in 2013 before being placed on display at the Lashenden Air Warfare Museum at Headcorn in Kent, United Kingdom.

Testing of the aircraft commenced at Peenemunde on the Baltic Coast on 13 June 1942. The first V-1 launched against the United Kingdom landed at Swanscombe in Kent on 13 June 1944, another crashing at Bethnal Green, East London later that day. It is known 7,540 examples were launched, those reaching Britain mainly hitting London, Kent, Sussex and Surrey. Death toll from the aircraft amounted to approximately 5,500 people, 16,000 injured, 23,000 houses demolished and 750,000 buildings damaged. Of those launched, 1,000 were air launched; 1,866 were shot down by Anti Aircraft (AA) fire; 1,847 were destroyed by fighters; 232 were destroyed by the London balloon barrage; and 12 were destroyed by the Royal Navy. By June 1944 50 examples a day were reaching Britain.

The engine installed in the Fi 103 was the AS 014 or AS 109-14 developed by Argus-Motoren-Gessellschaft mbH mainly developed in the 1930s by Paul Schmitt and Fritz Gosslau. The airframe design team was headed by Robert Lusser who had previously worked for Heinkel. Construction varied depending on material available at the time. The wing was built around a single tubular spar which passed through the centre of the fuel compartment. The first operational variant was the FZG 76A and the wing was built of steel. Others had a wooden structure. The FZG 76B was an experimental model fitted with a 1,100 lbst Porsche 109-005 turbojet, carrying a 907 kg (2,000 lb) warhead and having a range of 563 km (350 miles).

Most operational V-1s were launched from an inclined ramp built of pre-fabricated metal. This was about 46 m (150 ft) long with the end about 4.87 m (16 ft) above ground level. Under the ramp was a firing tube built in eight sections. A dumb-bell-shaped piston was inserted into the firing tube, a lug from the piston was then attached to the fuselage of the bomb, and the aircraft was then fuelled and placed on a sledge resting on rails. A rocket starter trolley was connected to the tube and at the time of launch a switch was pressed in a close-by pillbox. The fuel feed valve was then opened allowing fuel to pass into the combustion chamber. The rocket starter trolley was then run at full power until sufficient pressure built up behind the piston to shear the retaining bolt. The bomb then accelerated up the ramp, the sledge and piston then left the rail and were subsequently recovered. Up to two V-1 bombs were able to be fired in an hour.

It is well known the type was used extensively against the United Kingdom and it became known as the ‘Doodlebug’ or ‘Buzz-bomb’. To the RAF it was known as the Diver and the launch sites along the French coast were known as ‘Noball’ and ‘Crossbow’ targets. The launch sites were regularly bombed by Allied units to try to reduce the number of firings.

Eventually 412 heavy and 572 light anti-aircraft guns were moved to the English coast, as well as 168 Bofors guns, and 416 20 mm cannon were set up to intercept the bombs. The number of barrage balloons exceeded 2,000.

On the night of 27-28 August 1944 87 of 97 bombs fired were destroyed. By September 1944 the Allies had overrun most of the flying-bomb sites after D-day and the only method left to fire the bombs was by air-launching, with about 850 examples being launched from beneath the starboard wing of Heinkel He IIIs of KG 53 ‘Legion Condor’ and III/KG 3 but only 65 reached London.

At the end of World War II many examples were captured and a number of these have survived in museums around the world. Some of the captured aircraft were studied and tested in the United States, Republic Aviation building 1,300 examples known as the JB-2, also known as the Loon Missile. However, during testing many of these launches were not particularly successful and chase aircraft were flown after them when launched in case it was necessary to shoot them down.

Three replicas of the V-1 ‘Doodlebug’ were built in New Zealand for the Classic Fighters event at Omaka held at Easter 2015. Two were for static display and one of these was blown up as part of the event. A third machine was an 80 per cent scale radio-controlled aircraft powered by five electric ducted fans housed in the replica engine pod which had originally housed the pulse jet, the machine being flown on that occasion and being chased by a Supermarine Spitfire. It was expected to be used at other events in the future, and made a number of flights at the 2017 Classic Fighters Aviation event at Omaka.

A replica of a Fi 103R Reichenberg with a pilots  cockpit was built in Australia for the Gold Coast War Museum and it was on display for some years until sold in 1993. This could be the replica on display at the Evans Head Aviation Heritage Museum on the New South Wales north coast.

An original Fi 103 aircraft captured late in World War II has been held in the collection of aircraft at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, ACT.

A further replica has been placed on display at the War Museum at Mareeba, QLD.