"Mike the Strike" wrote in message
...


They were supposed to dive on their "targets", but the pitch change
starved the engine which cut. If you heard one do this you had about 30
seconds to get under the kitchen table.


True. They flew on a magnetic heading for a distance determined by a
simple device consisting of a propeller-driven screw and travelling
nut. At the destination, the mechanism applied down-elevator but the
negative Gs usually stalled the pulse jet.


British Scientific Intelligence conned the Germans into reducing the
range of the V-1s aimed at London, which were undershooting anyway.


True - they had captured German agents radio incorrect information
back home to suggest they were overshooting. Despite the German
military having radar that showed the actual landing zone, the ruse is
reported to have been at least partially successful.


There is a belief around that RAF pilots could sometimes upset the V-1's
by using the Spitfire's wing-tip vortices to tip them up. Looks like a
tall story to me.
--

Not tall at all. It was a tricky manouever but was carried out by a
number of aircraft. There is actually at least one photo of this
he

http://thefew.info/spitfire_tipping_V1.html

I have read it described as tipping the wing rather than using
vortices - the V1s wing was lifted by the Spitfire's, but no contact
occurred because of airflow between the two wings.

I have also witnessed a small model pulse-jet engine being tested and
flown (many years ago) and have to say it was the loudest and scariest
propulsion device I have ever seen.

Mike


I once knew a German engineer who worked on the Fieseler Fi 103 (V1) Argus
Schmidt pulsejet. He said that it did an excellent job of converting fuel
into huge amounts of incredibly irritating noise and a "small but useful"
amount of thrust.

He said he thought it would have been a better weapon if the warhead had
been replaced with a larger fuel tank so it could circle London "driving the
English crazy".

Bill Daniels