FLYING BOMBS’ DESIGN

Southland Times, Issue 25484, 3 October 1944, Page 5

FLYING BOMBS’ DESIGN

Lives May Have Been Saved By Fault

(Rec. 8.20 p.m.) LONDON, October 2. Details of the flying bomb’s construction and an unexpected fault which may have saved hundreds of lives were revealed to the Press on a visit to the Ministry of Aircraft Production research station when a flying bomb which had landed without exploding was examined and photographed. The Times says the distance travelled by the flying bomb was controlled by a small windmill in the nose. The windmill’s revolutions were recorded on an electrical counter and when it had travelled a certain distance the flying bomb was pushed over into a steep dive. Experts say that many lives were saved by an unforeseen warning by this action. A flying bomb when directed downward throws the fuel into the top petrol tank and the engine is thus starved of fuel. Experts say that the flying bomb certainly was intended to dive with its engine running. Londoners learned to listen for the stopping of the engine—the warning the Germans never intended to give. The belief that the flying bomb was radio-controlled has not survived investigation. There was nothing in the

nature of a radio receiver, but a small number of flying bombs carried a wireless transmitter with a trailing aerial allowing information to be obtained on the flying bomb’s course.

The flying bombs are made for utmost ease in production, . the - construction being almost entirely of mild steel. The jet propulsion unit is cheap and easy to build. The flying bomb, filled _ with’ fuel ready for launching, weighed 4700 lb, including a warhead of 20001 b which was composed almost entirely of explosives. There are two mechanical and one electrical fuses.