This is the first image blog from Alexsander Savochkin in what we hope will become an expanding resource for those wishing to find out more about the design and construction of the A4/V2 missile. The precise 3D CAD model imagery is based exclusively on original drawings produced in Germany from 1940 to 1945. When enough material has been uploaded we will create a fixed menu item called ‘Anatomy of the V2‘ where we hope to be able to offer coverage of the entire missile in detailed 3D models like the ones shown here – Robert J. Dalby, editor in chief, V2 Rocket History.com
Click the above video to see an animation of the diffuser cup inner core (the animation may take a few seconds to show at maximum resolution).
The image gallery below has all the above pictures in higher resolution, some with additional text, as well as additional pictures not included in this post.
Control compartment 3
Control compartment 3
Control compartments 3 showing gyro mounting platform with two gyros and DC motor driven 3 phase AC voltage generator. The alcohol tank pressurisation pipe is also shown running through the equipment bay (large silver coloured pipe). Image copyright Imperial War Museum
LEV-3 Horizont and Vertikant gyroscope system 1940
LEV-3 Horizont and Vertikant gyroscope system 1940
LEV-3 V2 missile gyroscope system with mounting plate. The third component of this system, the Muller gyroscopic accelerometer, is missing - the 2x mounting points can be seen on the right-hand side of the mounting plate.
Photo shows rare surviving complete set of 8 lead acid battery cells from one of the V2 rocket's 32 volt (100 amp) lead acid batteries. Two sets of batteries like this were used to provide the direct current (DC) voltage used aboard the V2 missile to power the DC to 3-phase alternating current (AC) generators, that in turn, powered the gyroscopes, electro-hydraulic servos, trim motors and other vital guidance and control devices. Photo copyright: The Horst Beck Collection
Photo shows rare surviving 1.2 volt cell from the V2 missile's 50 volt command or signalling battery used in its gyro guidance system (note, the terminal connection on the left is missing from this exhibit, it would be identical to the one on the right). This wet nickel-cadmium battery cell was combined in pairs to a total set of 21 providing a 50.4 voltage at 300mA. The cells were contained in a wooden box that was held on a rack in equipment bay III. Its function was to provide the direct current (DC) signalling voltage that communicated the moment to moment resistance of the gyroscope's potentiometers to the analog guidance computer (Mischgerät = Mixer-device or control amplifier) aboard the V2 missile. It was critical that the signalling voltage was maintained between 48 and 50.4 volts. Photo copyright: The Horst Beck Collection
The J device no1 (J Gerate Eins). The full name of this device is: the Muller Pendulous (or mechanical) Integrating Gyroscopic Accelerometer - today normally referred to as a PIGA. The device, designed by Fritz K Muller, operates as a switch to initiate rocket engine shutdown and is able to smoothly record and accumulate every moment of acceleration, without any kind of recording resolution or discrete time interval limit, of the rocket's entire motor burn phase, and at the same time process this accumulated acceleration with respect to time as a gradually increasing velocity. In the case of the V2 missile, when the correct predetermined velocity is reached, the velicity sufficient to achieve the desired range of the missile, the device trips the relays that close valves that shutdown the supply of steam to the turbo-pump, and thus shutdown the rocket motor itself.
A tutor in computer-aided design at Moscow State Technical University, Alexander Savochkin says he finds relaxation in transcribing 75-year-old missile plans into modern 3D CAD models. He lives with his very patient wife in the leafy suburbs of Moscow.