Air Force Museum
V-2 with Meillerwagen
The German army developed the V-2, known also as the A4 missile, as an alternative to super-long-range artillery, which the Treaty of Versailles prohibited after World War I. Designed by rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun, the V-2 was a breakthrough in missile technology but failed to prevent Germany's defeat in World War II. The rocket was inaccurate, which made it a poor military weapon but an effective terror device.
In depth
History & service
Though the rocket was destructive, killing almost 3,000 people in England and probably even more in Belgium in the last year of the war, the German forced-labor system could not produce enough V-2s to affect the outcome of the war. In any case, the comparatively small power of V-2 attacks could not match the massive effect of Allied strategic bombing.
After the war, the German rocket team and many captured missiles were brought to the United States, where V-2 technology helped to build the technological base for human spaceflight and advanced strategic missiles.
The V-2 was the first practical modern ballistic missile. Its operation was complex and involved specialized transport and launching equipment. Unlike the V-1 flying bomb operated by the Luftwaffe, the German army operated the V-2 rocket. Erecting, servicing and launching a V-2 took from four to six hours and required some 32 different trailers and vehicles carrying fuel, batteries, pumps, spare parts, radios and other equipment.
The entire operation required hundreds of soldiers, with the launch team alone needing more than 100 people to service and test the rocket, survey the site, run the support equipment and command the process. In all, more than 10,000 people and 3,000 vehicles were devoted to V-2 activities.
After rail transport to the launching vicinity, large mobile cranes loaded rockets onto trailers, which took them to the actual launch site. The V-2 on display is on such a trailer, called a Meillerwagen.
The best launch sites were flat, wooded areas with clearings big enough to operate the missile and with ground or pavement firm enough to hold it. At the launch site, crews raised the rocket vertically with the Meillerwagen, then fueled it with alcohol and liquid oxygen. After several tests and adjustments, the rocket could be fired from the safety of an armored control car some distance away. The V-2's rocket engine burned for about a minute.
The missile then continued in a ballistic unpowered trajectory to its target. During its flight, the V-2 reached an altitude of 50-60 miles, and its top speed was around 3,400 mph.
The V-2, once launched, could not be stopped -- it was too fast and flew too high. Since the V-2 arrived at several times the speed of sound, there could be no warning to its approach. The missiles impacted before the sonic boom they created was heard. Allied efforts to prevent rocket attacks depended on bombing production facilities and attacking rail transit with fighters. Allied air power destroyed many V-2s before they reached launch sites; the V-2 on display was damaged in an air attack.
The aircraft in figures
Warhead: 2,152 or 2,205 lbs. Amatol 39A explosive · Maximum speed: 3,400 mph · Range: 180-220 miles · Maximum altitude: 50-60 miles · Weight: 28,000 lbs. fueled
Keeping people alive beyond the atmosphere
A crewed spacecraft carries a small, controlled environment into a place that cannot support unprotected human life. Pressure, temperature, oxygen, carbon dioxide removal, water, electrical power, and waste management all become engineering responsibilities. The flight suit or capsule displayed in a museum is therefore part of a larger life-support system, not simply clothing or a vehicle body.
Early missions established capabilities in stages. Launch and recovery, orbital flight, longer duration, maneuvering, rendezvous, and work outside a spacecraft each introduced different demands. Ground controllers, tracking stations, medical teams, recovery forces, and manufacturers supported the crew. A successful mission depended on that network as much as on the people visible in the cabin.
Artifacts preserve evidence of those demands at a human scale. A small hatch suggests the difficulty of entering or leaving in bulky equipment. A glove makes clear that pressure protection can restrict dexterity. The shape of a returning capsule reveals the importance of managing atmospheric heating and deceleration. Connections to high-altitude aviation are especially strong: pressure suits, research aircraft, and instrumented test flights helped build knowledge that spacecraft designers could use. The history is a sequence of carefully developed capabilities, with extraordinary journeys resting on many ordinary systems that had to keep working together.
