A 2500 TON BOMB

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 309, 30 December 1944, Page 3

A 2500 TON BOMB

FANTASTIC ROCKET

FOR FLIGHT TO REACH U.S.

WASHINGTON. German threats to bombard American cities with rocket bombs, although not taken seriously by the public, have resulted in the release of semi-official information which indicates that it would be a tremendous, if not impossible, task. It is calculated that a rocket, which could be fired from Germany to New York, would need an initial weight of 2500 tons to carry a oneton explosive. It would, to take off from the ground, have to burn about 100,0001b of fuel a second and the damage to Germany from this immense fire might be a hundred times greater than the one-ton explosive could inflict on the target area. A rocket of these gigantic proportions capable of spanning 3000 miles, would not cross in one piece, but would be a three-step projectile. Based on the much discussed prewar rocket planned to reach the moon, it would be built in four parts, three of which would be fuel-carriers and the fourth the warhead. Each fuel carrier would drop off after it had been used until only the warhead was left, travelling at its own momentum like an artillery shell. The velocity required would be about five miles a, second.