Shot this V-1 in Antwerp 2 weeks ago. At first glance a normal machine, but the strut between engine and fuselage, normally a thin metal sheet, is very wide and triangular shaped. Looks to me like this was the headrest of the canopy of a manned “Reichenbach” V-1. The headrest is still there, there is also something covered, and the glass canopy is gone. Am I right or not? Maybe it is a composite with a (unmanned) front fuselage, and a manned aft fuselage. I know there was a manned V-1 in 1945 on show in Antwerp. On the photo I saw of this machine it looked as it had no original front fuselage, and the engine nacalle of a 262 was used to replace this. Maybe it was this one. So, is this realy a manned V-1 configuration? BW Roger
By: EHVB - 22nd June 2003 at 07:59
@ Flood
Thanks for your long answer. I shot the machine at the Stampe & Vertongen Museum in Antwerp. (If you search for Stampe, it will get you there). On their site, they gave a long story, with pics, of the V-1, but not a word on this one. I have no details on the manned V-1 at Wilrijk (it might be this one). The museum in Brussels has one hanging from the ceiling (for sure a replica) , and one on PV, which looks very authentic to me.
In Holland we have a manned version in the Army museum in Delft, but they put it on store recently. Before that they hung it under a stair so you could see anything of it, but couldn’t photograph it. BW Roger
By: dhfan - 22nd June 2003 at 06:03
I think I recall reading that Hanna Reitsch (spelling?) flew the first one. Unrepentant Nazi but brilliant pilot apparently.
By: Flood - 22nd June 2003 at 01:00
STOP SHOUTING!
Evening,
http://www.preservedaxisaircraft.com/
has an entry for a preserved Fi 103A-1 in/at Wilrijk, Antwerpen, Belgium. No other details, no picture. Could it be this one?
(Incidently they also mention a partial replica in the Musee Royal de l’Armee, Brussels)
From the images under the entries for Fi103A-1/Re4s (manned versions) the rear fuselarge of this one looks very similar and I am sure that, as Roger S says, this is a meeting of manned and unmanned parts brought together as one. These pictures seem to show a noticeable joint or join in line with the front of the engine – to help with mass production maybe?
A quick look through Google fails to bring up anything under Antwerpen, Antwerp, and Wilrijk in connection with Fieseler, Fi103, V1, etc being preserved – not even the Preserved Axis Aircraft site (discounting all those mentions of V1s being aimed at Antwerp, of course).
From the point of view of the noise from the engine being close to the pilot, I would have thought the possibility of going deaf would be the last thing on the mind of anyone who would have volunteered to fly one of these beasts operationally (ie, once). In fact, according to http://www.thehistorynet.com/WorldWarII/articles/1997/09973_text.htm, by 1945 it had been decided that only criminals or pilots who were in a depressed state or ill would be allowed to fly them. But maybe they’d make this last trip dosed up on aspirin coz, personally, I’d hate to enter the halls of Valhalla (“Oh gods! Not another beer! Tell those valkyrie to stop singing, please…”) with a headache!
Flood
By: macky42 - 21st June 2003 at 09:51
They must have already lost their ability to think rationally before they even got in :p
By: Mark2 - 20th June 2003 at 20:48
Sorry for being slightly off-topic, but couldn’t help but think, looking at these pictures, that the pilots that flew these ‘aircraft’ must have lost their hearing!!!!
God it must have been loud!!!
Mark
By: EHVB - 20th June 2003 at 20:35
When I compare the 2 pics, the Antwerp example looks like a manned version to me! BW Roger
By: dezz - 20th June 2003 at 19:38
I got a piccie of the manned V1 that they have at Headcorn, look’s like the cockpit is quite far back… not the best of angles but see what you think…
Dezz 🙂
By: Manonthefence - 20th June 2003 at 09:04
In all of the photos I have seen on the manned V-1 the cockpit was further forward roughly level with or slightly behind the wings.
Possibly an aerodynamic mod?
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June 19, 2003 at 11:55 pm