The Aggregate series was a set of rocket designs developed in 1933–1945 by a research program of Nazi Germany's army. Its greatest success was the A4, more commonly known as the V-2. 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... The Vergeltungswaffe 2 (V-2) (Reprisal weapon 2 Propaganda name given by Joseph Goebbels) , also known, in the Development Process as the A4 (Aggregat 1-4), was the first and till date has the most lethal combat record of any ballistic missile. ...

Variations

A1

The A1 was the first rocket design in the Aggregate series. It was designed in 1933 by Wernher von Braun in a Wehrmacht (German army) research program at Kummersdorf headed by Walter Dornberger. The rocket was 1.4 m long, and had a takeoff weight of 150 kg. The engine, designed by Arthur Rudolph, used alcohol and liquid oxygen, and produced 3 kilonewtons of thrust. The rocket was designed to be stabilized using a heavy rotating wheel in the nose, but there was concern that this might cause problems with the liquid fuels. Although the engine had been successfully test fired, the first flight attempt blew up on the launching pad. Since the design was thought to be unstable, no further attempts were made, and efforts moved to the A2 design. 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Wernher von Braun stands at his desk in the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama in May 1964, with models of rockets developed and in progress. ... Wehrmacht   (armed forces, literally defence force(s)) was the name of the armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. ... Kummersdorf is the name of an estate near Luckenwalde at 52°05 N and 13°20 E, around 25km south of Berlin, in the Brandenburg region of Germany. ... Major-General Dr Walter Robert Dornberger (September 6, 1895 - June 27, 1980) was a German army officer whose career spanned World Wars I and II. During the 1930s and 40s, he directed Germanys rocket and missile programmes, which culminated in the V-2. ... The U.S. National Prototype Kilogram, which currently serves as the primary standard for measuring mass in the U.S. It was assigned to the United States in 1889 and is periodically recertified and traceable to the primary international standard, The Kilogram, held at the Bureau International des Poids et... Rudolph managed the Marshall Space Flight Center Saturn V Program Office. ... Functional group of an alcohol molecule. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The kilonewton, symbol kN, is an SI unit of force. ...

A2

The A2 was designed in 1934 by von Braun under the program at Kummersdorf headed by Walter Dornberger Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Kummersdorf is the name of an estate near Luckenwalde at 52°05 N and 13°20 E, around 25km south of Berlin, in the Brandenburg region of Germany. ... Major-General Dr Walter Robert Dornberger (September 6, 1895 - June 27, 1980) was a German army officer whose career spanned World Wars I and II. During the 1930s and 40s, he directed Germanys rocket and missile programmes, which culminated in the V-2. ...

At a length of 1.6 meters and thrust of 3 kN from alcohol and liquid oxygen, it was in outline similar to the A1. However, in contrast to the A1, the A2 had the stabilization gyroscopes in the center of the rocket between the alcohol and oxygen tanks, which made it more stable. The rocket weighed 72 kg empty, with takeoff weight of 107 kg. Initial flight testing was done in September 1934 at Kummersdorf. A gyroscope is a device which demonstrates the principle of conservation of angular momentum, in physics. ...

Two A2s were built for a full out test, and were named after a Wilhelm Busch cartoon, Max and Moritz. On December 19 and December 20, 1934 they were launched in front of the Army brass on Borkum island in the North Sea. They reached altitudes of 2.2 km and 3.5 km. (Gatland 1989, p. 10).Raketenaggregate „A1“ und „A2“ Works (with the year of publication) 1864 Bilderpossen 1865 Max and Moritz 1866 Schnaken und Schnurren 1867 Hans Huckebein der Unglücksrabe 1868 Schnaken und Schnurren, part II 1869 Schnurrdiburr oder die Bienen Braun 1870 Der heilige Antonius von Padua 1872 Schnaken und Schnurren, part III 1872 Die fromme Helene... Max and Moritz Max and Moritz (A Story of Seven Boyish Pranks) was a German language illustrated story in verse. ... is the 353rd day of the year (354th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Borkum photographed from a lighthouse Borkum is an island in the Leer District in Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany. ... The North Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, located between the coasts of Norway and Denmark in the east, the coast of the British Isles in the west, and the German, Dutch, Belgian and French coasts in the south. ...

A3

The A3 was first launched on December 4, 1937, and was intended to test components for the planned A4. Rockets (including missiles) can be launched from the following: for a launch into an orbital spaceflight and beyond: a launch pad, including a floating platform (see San Marco platform, Sea Launch) for the launch into a suborbital flight also: a missile silo a mobile launcher vehicle a submarine air launch... December 4th redirects here. ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Only three more test launches were carried out, all of them failures. The final launch, on December 11, 1937, was typical of all the attempts: the engine cut out early, and the rocket was destroyed as it fell to the ground, the parachute failing to deploy. All the failures were due to the unstable design of the rocket's experimental inertial guidance system. December 11 is the 345th day of the year (346th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Apollo 15 capsule landed safely despite a parachute failure. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

After this last unsuccessful launch, the A3 was abandoned, and a complete redesign was carried out to bring the A5 into being, and to continue subscale testing for the A4.

The A3 was the first Peenemünde design (Huzel 1962, p. 235). In 1936, Army General von Fritsch witnessed a static firing of an A3 at Kummersdorf, and was sufficiently impressed to lend his support to the rocket program (Huzel 1962, p. 233). Since ground was not broken until August, 1936, von Fritsch's viewing must have been in September through December. The A3 also used a pressure-fed propellant system, using the same liquid oxygen and 75% alcohol mixture as the A1 and A2. It generated 3,300 pounds of thrust for 45 seconds. It used a three gyroscope system to deflect tungsten alloy jet vanes (Huzel 1962, p. 236). Several A3s were launched, reaching a maximum downrange of 7.5 miles and maximum altitude of 11 miles. Three A3s were launched from Greifswalder Oie in Autumn 1937. They carried a three-axis gyro control system which actuated exhaust vanes. On the first launch, the parachute opened after five seconds, causing the rocket to crash into the sea. Parachutes were omitted on the second and third launches, but both rockets still went out of control (Gatland 1989, p. 11). Werner Freiherr von Fritsch (4 August 1880 in Benrath - 22 September 1939 Praga near Warsaw) was a prominent Wehrmacht officer, member of the German High Command, and the first German general to die in the Second World War. ... Greifswalder Oie is a small island in the Baltic Sea, located east of Rügen on the German coast. ...

Specifications

Length: 6.74 meters.

Diameter: 0.68 m.

Finspan: 0.93 m.

Launch mass: 748 kilograms.

Fuel: ethanol and liquid oxygen.

Liftoff thrust: 14.7 kN (1500 kgf).

Ethyl alcohol, also known as ethanol or grain alcohol, is a flammable, colorless chemical compound, one of the alcohols that is most often found in alcoholic beverages. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The deprecated unit kilogram-force (kgf) or kilopond (kp) is the force exerted by one kilogram of mass in standard Earth gravity (defined as exactly 9. ...

A4 (V-2 rocket)

Main article: V-2 rocket

The A4 was a full-sized design with a range of about 175 km (110 miles), a top altitude of 80 km and a payload of about a tonne. Versions of the A4 included the first ballistic missile, the first projectile to reach space, and were actively used in warfare. The Vergeltungswaffe 2 (V-2) (Reprisal weapon 2 Propaganda name given by Joseph Goebbels) , also known, in the Development Process as the A4 (Aggregat 1-4), was the first and till date has the most lethal combat record of any ballistic missile. ... A tonne or metric ton (symbol t), sometimes referred to as a metric tonne, is a measurement of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. ... Space has been an interest for philosophers and scientists for much of human history. ...

This increase in capability had come through a complete redesign of the A3 engine by Walter Thiel, known as the A5. It became clearer that von Braun's designs were turning into real weapons, and Dornberger moved the team from the artillery testing grounds at Kummersdorf (near Berlin) to a small town, Peenemünde, on the island of Usedom on Germany's Baltic coast, in order to provide more room for testing and greater secrecy. This version was completely reliable, and by 1941 the team had fired about 70 A5 rockets. The first A4 flew in March 1942, flying about 1.6 km and crashing into the water. The second launch reached an altitude of 11 km before exploding. The third rocket, launched on October 3, 1942, followed its trajectory perfectly. It landed 193 km away, and reached a height of 80 km (50 mi). Walter Thiel (March 2, 1910 - August 17, 1943) was a German engineer who largely designed the rocket engine that powered the V-2 missile. ... Kummersdorf is the name of an estate near Luckenwalde at 52°05 N and 13°20 E, around 25km south of Berlin, in the Brandenburg region of Germany. ... This article is about the capital of Germany. ... Peenemündes position in Germany Peenemünde is a village in the northeast of the German (Western) part of the Usedom island. ... Landsat satellite photo of Szczecin Lagoon - Usedom is the western of the two large islands separating the waters of the Lagoon from the Baltic Sea, the eastern island is Wolin. ... The Baltic Sea is located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. ... is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ...

Production started in 1943 on the rocket, now known as the Vergeltungswaffe 2 (Vengeance Weapon 2) or V-2, at the insistence of Goebbels' propaganda ministry. The Allies were already aware of the weapon - at a test site at Blizna in Poland a fired missile had been recovered by Polish resistance agents from the banks of the Western Bug, and vital technical details had been given to British intelligence. Paul Joseph Goebbels (German pronunciation: IPA: ) (29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German politician and Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during the National Socialist regime from 1933 to 1945. ... Soviet Propaganda Poster during the World War II. The text reads Red Army Fighter, SAVE US! Chinese propaganda poster from during the Cultural Revolution. ... Look up ally in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Blizna is a village with 250 inhabitants in southeast Poland. ... Bug at Wlodawa One of the two rivers called Bug (pronounced Boog), the Western Bug, or Buh (Belarusian: Захо́дні Буг; Russian: За́падный Буг; Ukrainian: Західн&#1080...

A4b

In June of 1939, Kurt Patt of the Peenemünde Design Office proposed wings for converting rocket speed and altitude into aerodynamic lift and range.^[1] First dubbed the "Glider"^[2] and the Flossengeschoss (fin projectile), Walter Dornberger drafted a memo for presentation to Hitler regarding the "America rocket" on July 31, 1940.^[3] After the A-9 project was altogether halted in October 1942, Wernher von Braun proposed the winged "A-4 Bastard" ^[4] on 10 October 1944 and serious A-4b design and development was started.^[5] Peenemündes position in Germany Peenemünde is a village in the northeast of the German (Western) part of the Usedom island. ... Major-General Dr Walter Robert Dornberger (September 6, 1895 - June 27, 1980) was a German army officer whose career spanned World Wars I and II. During the 1930s and 40s, he directed Germanys rocket and missile programmes, which culminated in the V-2. ... Wernher von Braun stands at his desk in the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama in May 1964, with models of rockets developed and in progress. ...

Peenemünde A4b Test Launches

First human spaceflights in 1945? December 27 is the 361st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (362nd in leap years). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... January 13 is the 13th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... January 24 is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Greifswalder Oie is a small island in the Baltic Sea, located east of Rügen on the German coast. ... These chronological lists include all crewed spaceflights that reached an altitude of at least 100 km (the FAI definition of spaceflight), or were launched with that intention but failed. ...

Even though on 1 March 1945 Lothar Sieber made the first vertical take-off manned rocket flight in a Bachem Ba 349 "Natter" capable of a service ceiling of 14,000 m (that is far of space boundary), the suborbital flights to altitude of 80 km or above aboard of the A4b (or A9 or A9/A10) rockets, reported by some sources([1], [2], [3], [4]), are not confirmed: is the 60th day of the year (61st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Lothar Sieber (born 7 April 1922 in Dresden; died 1 March 1945 at Lager Heuberg) was a German test pilot. ... Bachem Ba 349 Natter (Adder) was a World War II era German experimental rocket-powered interceptor aircraft which was to be used in a very similar way as surface-to-air missiles. ...

• January 24 Rudolph Schroeder
• February 18 Martin von Duhlen "exploded in about three minutes after the start"
• February 24 Raul Streicher "landed on water in Japan"

January 24 is the 24th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

A5

The A5 had a length of 5.825 meters, a diameter of 0.78 meters, a takeoff weight of 900 kilograms and a takeoff thrust of 15 kN. The engines were alcohol fueled with liquid oxygen as an oxidant. The first launch of the A5 took place in the summer of 1938 at Greifswalder Oie. The first successful guided flights were in October 1939 in order to test the control systems planned for use in the A4. The A5 reached a ceiling of up to 12 kilometers and could be used several times. An oxidizing agent is a substance that oxidizes another substance in electrochemistry or redox chemical reactions in general. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Greifswalder Oie is a small island in the Baltic Sea, located east of Rügen on the German coast. ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

A6

The A6 was a war rocket suggested by von Braun at the beginning of the 1940s. The A6 was to be an improved A4b, propelled by nitric acid and kerosene and with a longer range than the A4. It was not realized because of the progress of the war. The takeoff thrust would have been about 12,500 kgf (123 kN), a wing span of 6.3 m, and the overall length 15.75 m. [5] This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

A7

The A7 was a winged design that was never fully constructed. It was worked on between 1940 and 1943 at Peenemünde for the Kriegsmarine. The A7 was similar in structure to the A5, but had larger tail unit fins (1.621 m²) in order to obtain greater range in gliding flight. Two unpowered models of the A7 were dropped from airplanes in order to test flight stability; no powered test was ever performed. The finished rocket should have produced a takeoff thrust of 15 kN and a takeoff weight of 1000 kg. The design had a diameter of 0.38 m and a length of 5.91 m. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Kriegsmarine (or War Navy) was the name of the German Navy between 1935 and 1945, during the Nazi regime, superseding the Reichsmarine. ...

A8

The A8 was prepared in Peenemünde and never finished because of the progressing war situation. The A8 would have had a takeoff thrust of 340 kN with a takeoff weight of 22,370 kg. The diameter was 0.78 m. The weapon designs were finished in 1944.

A9

The A9 was a further development of the A4 rocket. No prototype was ever developed due to the ending of the war, although a variant, the A4b, was produced before the end of the war. The A9 would have been used as the upper stage for an intercontinental missile or a manned craft. The A10 was to have been used for the lower stage. A Minuteman III missile soars after a test launch. ... Peenemündes position in Germany Peenemünde is a village in the northeast of the German (Western) part of the Usedom island. ... A B61 nuclear bomb in various stages of assembly; the nuclear warhead is the bullet-shaped silver cannister in the middle-left of the photograph. ...

A10

The A10, which was never actually constructed, was intended to serve as first stage for the A9, to help it to reach an intercontinental range. New York City and other targets in the north-eastern U.S. were its intended targets. Test Stand VII was built at Peenemünde for use in the A10's development. New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Test Stand VII (Prüfstand VII in German) was the most important launch pad for testing V-2 rockets at Peenemünde during World War II. Test Stand VII was located at 54° 10′ 6″ N 13° 48′ 17″ E. It was surrounded by an elliptical... Peenemündes position in Germany Peenemünde is a village in the northeast of the German (Western) part of the Usedom island. ...

The A10 was designed to have a diameter of 4.12 meters and to exceed the A4 in its size. It was to be fueled with alcohol and liquid oxygen. The thrust of the engines would have been 235,000 kgf (2300 kN) with a 55 second burn time. Two different concepts for the A10's engine were studied. In one, a single very large combustion chamber and exit nozzle were used; in the other, six standard A4 (V-2) engines were to exhaust into a single combustion chamber and their mixed exhaust was to exit through a single nozzle. The A10 was intended to be recoverable for re-use and would have descended into the Atlantic under a large parachute after the upper stage A9 had separated from it. To keep range to its target (New York City or Washington DC) to a minimum, it was intended to be launched from western Spain in its original form.

A11

The A11, along with the A10 and A9, had the potential of launching a satellite payload. However, the conclusion of the war halted further efforts to develop or deploy this weapon. An Earth observation satellite, ERS 2 In the context of spaceflight, satellites are objects which have been placed into orbit by human endeavor. ...

It had a takeoff weight of 500 metric tons, a thrust of 1,200,000 kgf (11.8 meganewtons (MN)) or thrust (vacuum) 1,400,000 kgf (14 MN), a diameter of 8.10 m, a span of 16.50 m and a length of 25.00 m. A tonne or metric ton (symbol t), sometimes referred to as a metric tonne, is a measurement of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. ...

A12

The A12 would have been a space transporter, capable of bringing up to 10 metric tons into low Earth orbit. The A12 was never constructed. A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit in which objects such as satellites are below intermediate circular orbit (ICO) and far below geostationary orbit, but typically around 350 - 1400 km above the Earths surface. ...

It is estimated that the A12 would have had a takeoff weight of 3,500 metric tons, a thrust of 10,000,000 kgf (100 MN), a diameter of 11 m, a span of 23 m and a length of 33 m. The A12 was similar in design to the initial designs of the Saturn rockets. The Saturn family of rockets were developed to launch heavy payloads to Earth orbit and beyond. ...

See also

• Axis plans for invasion of the United States during WWII

To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

External links

• Encyclopedia Astronautica: A1, A2, A3, A5, A7, A8, A9, A10, A11, A9/A10/A11/A12
• V2 EMW A4b die bemannte Rakete
• http://www.aggregat-2.de/neubau.html - a site about the A2 (in German)
• The A4 Rocket (in German)
• Aerospace museum
• University of Oregon
• A8 statistics