Скачать или смотреть The V2 rocket's secret afterburner

Did every V2 rocket launched during WWII use a secret afterburner for additional thrust? It may seem strange to ask this so many decades after the last V2 flew, given the extensive study of the V2 and its foundational role in modern rocketry. How could something so crucial go unnoticed for so long? The answer (spoiler alert!) is that it wasn't overlooked; a brilliant young American scientist discovered this phenomenon and accurately described its functioning. However, his team's technical paper detailing the afterburner remained unpublished until very recently. Before it was declassified in 1999, only about 30 people had been permitted to view the document. We explain how this important technology remained a secret until 1948/49, when J.B. Edson employed "Little Bright-Eyes" to track the V2 into the mesosphere, leading to his groundbreaking report number 708.

In this video, Robert will discuss the findings of secret report 708 and explain why the designers of the V2, based at wartime Peenemunde in Germany, missed this phenomenon and failed to understand the contribution of the afterburner to every successful missile launch.

We created a shorter version of this video for Turbopump Part 2. This extended and revised version corrects a shortcoming of the earlier release regarding Germany's limited progress in long-range telescopic observation of rocket engine phenomena.

00:00 Introduction
00:55 Coming attractions
01:48 The problem of visibility
02:27 Report No. 708
03:23 Thrust outside the missile!
04:36 German Optics
06:49 Giant Zeiss binocular
08:48 The V-2 in America
09:14 American Optics
09:46 Little Bright-Eyes
11:30 Test missile No 38
12:10 Jet flame not round
15:40 Combustion
19:50 Afterburner steps
22:21 Afterburner visualised
27:15 Summary Inside the outside
29:25 Last word, Dr J.B. Edson

Literature

Edson, James B. Optical Studies of the Jet Flame of the V-2 Missile in Flight (1949), Army Ballistics Research Lab., ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND

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Presented by Robert J Dalby FRAS

Produced by Astronomy and Nature TV