Sample Essay On Form, Function And General Condition

V-2 Rocket

Abstract
The world of rockets includes missiles, aircraft, spacecraft, or other vehicles that gets plunges from the engine of a rocket. Studies show that the first rocket or the V2 missile that could flew high enough to outer space in 1942. The Germans first used the V2 rocket and history shows that their knowledge of missiles and rockets surpassed others in that era. Rocket engine exhaust comes mainly from the propellants that come from inside the rocket before its use. Rocket engines operate based on reactions and actions. Researches show that rocket engines often thrust rockets ahead by ejecting their exhaust in directions even at high momentum. Rockets depend on airfoils, momentum, spin, supporting reaction engines, propellant flow, momentum wheels, gravity, and deflection of the exhaust stream. The following pages offer a clearer understanding of rockets and in particular the V2. The writer hopes to educate readers on the form and function, general condition, design, attributes, and sustainability of this rocket.

Introduction

The German scientist, von Braun, and his team developed the V-2 as a long range missile that existed from as early as the 1930s. The trial launches failed miserable, but von Braun’s positive attitude allowed him to continue to work on developing the V-2 to perfection. It was the fourth attempt at creating these weapons that led to the final rocket that the Germans called the V-2. To the average man, the V-2 is a deadly weapon, but to the Nazi Germans, the twelve-ton rocket as a powerful force of nature. England feared the rocket as it has the capacity to carry a single ton warhead. Nonetheless, the rocket offered a sense of distinctiveness in many ways.
Firstly, the V-2 was almost impossible to intercept or capture. At its launch, the missiles elevate almost six miles in a vertical position and eventually proceeds across a curved course. Braun’s, created the ultimate weapon at the time that would cut its own fuel based on the range that the distance requires. Eventually, the missile tips and falls on its intended target with a speed of approximately 4,000 mph. the force of the impact of the missile, buries itself several feet into the ground before it explodes. Still, the missile was created to fly at great distances and even the launch pads made it impossible for one to detect the rocket before its launch. The first launch of the V-2 rocket came against Paris on September 6, 1994. Two days later, the Nazi Germans fires at England with the rocket.
The A-4 program came under much threat as the political arena attempted to jockey to control the program. In fact, Himmler took “an interest in the ballistic missile development ever since Hitler’s attention had peaked with the proposed weapon.” Himmler recognized that the military could create and operate a system that would appease Hitler and influence his position in the Nazi leadership. The rivalry for the A-4 or the V-2 grew amidst the controversies and the Allied increased in their strength in the Britain. It was clear that the V-2 missile would allow for complementary service as it avoided the increase competition that existed in the army and the Luftwaffe. Despite the problems, the V-2 missile received a push in a position direction on June 2, 1943. The operational reality increased when it became clear that the program was at the top of the Germans arms production programs.

Rockets are comparatively inconsequential and powerful, but are able to generate accelerations as they attain exceptionally high speeds with sensible efficiency. Often, rockets do not rely on the atmospheric conditions. In fact, rockets works well in space. Rockets that were used for recreational and military purposes go back as far the thirteenth century in China. Nevertheless, the important scientific, industrial, and interplanetary use did not happen until the twentieth century. At this time, rocketry enabled the technology for the Space Age and included the first arrival of man on the moon.
In the modern day society, rockets are often used for weaponry, fireworks, human spaceflight, launches artificial satellites, and space exploration. Still, chemical rockets maintains its dominance as the most popular kind of high powered rocket as it creates a high speed exhaust through the combustion of fuel that is mixed with oxidizers. This stored propellant serves as a single liquid that disassociates when faced with the existence of monopropellants or as an uncomplicated pressurized gas. These two liquids react when they come in contact with hypergolic propellants that ignite to respond.
History shows that the V-2 rocket was only one of Hitler option to control the advance of the Allied forces. The V-2 missile stood as a single-staged vehicle that lacked a system of re-entry. In its place, the complete missile was designed to directly hit the target. Research shows that the kinetic and the mass of the missile’s impact could increase the amount of damage to the target. In additional, the fuel and oxidizer and that were not used added to the impact of the attack. Von Braun’s and Dornberger and von Braun’s ultimate design for the V-2 rocket included five major parts: “the warhead, a control compartment, a midsection that included the liquid fuel and oxidizer tanks, a propulsion unit, and a tail assembly,” making it an effective missile if used with the right speed.
The initial concept for the V-2 rocket stemmed from its launch from huge blockhouses located close to the English Channel. However, the static approach to this idea soon became extinct as the concept of mobile launchers too effect. The V-2 rockets were highly successful as the Germans launched nearly a hundred of these missiles per day because of little time it takes to launch this missile. This ballistic missile or the V-2 entered space before descending on its intended target. At the time of the missile prominence, Nazi Germany’s intended target was London. The attack started in 1944 and ended in 1945. As a fact, the use of the V-2 missile caused thousands of death on civilians. Researchers show that the developers of these German weapons came to the United States sometime after World War II and took prominence in Huntsville, Alabama. The main stakeholder in the use of the V-2 rockets, Wernher von Braun, helped to create these rockets that allowed American astronauts to go into space and eventually to the moon.
Based on the speed and the ballistic trajectory of the V-2 missiles, there was no known method that could effectively intercept the rockets. As a result, German embraced the physical power and speed of these rockets. In fact, the speed of the V-2 made it difficult to capture these missiles. The fact is that the rockets were more effective if they were accurately placed in a launching position. History shows that the rockets caused extensive damage when released and killed and wounded more civilians than soldiers as there was no control on the rocket after it was released. German effective use of the rocket drew the attention of the Soviet Republic and the United States. At the end of the war, both countries struggle to retain the V-2 rockets that remained unused. In fact, the V-2 forms the foundations of a number of rockets that both the Soviets and the Americans used in their space stations.
The fact is that the use of rockets is sophisticated in a number of ways. The effectiveness in war and the special techniques that come with the development of rockets led to the German’s controlling one of the most powerful weapons of all times. Conversely, many individuals see the Germans as the most successful nation as they built the V-2 rocket or "Vengeance Weapon" in World War II. The rocket makes use of “high-speed pumps to move large volumes of fuel into the thrust chamber very quickly.” The form and the function of the rocket are simple as “the V-2's liquid oxygen and alcohol propellants produced a thrust of 56,000 pounds” as it gives “the rocket a maximum range of 220 miles, a ceiling of 50-60 miles and a speed of 3,400 mph.
With these large liquid rocket engines there is the need for a large amount of propellants that one can feed into the combustion chamber in a quick manner and even when there is high pressure. The V-2 succeeded in speed and worked under high pressure because of the use turbo-pumps with high-speed gas-turbine pumps. In fact, “these pumps one to move liquid oxygen, the other to move alcohol - were steam powered.” Additionally, “steam pressure came from the chemical reaction of combining two liquids, sodium permanganate (tank A) and hydrogen peroxide (tank B).”
These turbines in the rockets increased to about five hundred and eighty horsepower even as the pumps turn at approximately 3,800 revolutions every minute. In addition, the cutaway that is on display gives a clear picture of the pumps as they move and even as the turbo-pumps force a little over a hundred pounds of alcohol and liquid oxygen into the V-2's combustion chamber each second. The high-speed turbo-pumps are critical equipment that the rockets’ engines use for a number of decades. Conversely, modern rocket builders use these said design to create the modern rocket. For example, the main engine in the rockets uses turbo-pumps that can produce almost one thousand pounds of liquid oxygen and less than two hundred pounds of liquid hydrogen every second.
One important aspect of the V-2 design is the thrust chamber. The three important parts of these rockets includes the “propellant-mixing system, its cooling method and its shape.” Additionally, the twin turbo-pumps often use “forced alcohol and liquid oxygen through small nozzles under high pressure into mixing "cups" at the top of the chamber,” which allows the modern nozzles to spray tiny droplets to ensure that they fuel burns efficiently as well as force. The high temperature often increases in the thrust chamber and is hot enough to melt steel. Therefore, the cooling down process in the chamber is important to helping the engine from self-destructing. As such, the V-2's designers created the regenerative and film cooling methods to cool the V-2 engine.
The ethyl alcohol or the rocket’s is important in the regenerative cooling method as it helps to remove the extra heat. The liquid circulates within the double walls of the thrust’s chambers and cools them before they enter the injector nozzles. Additionally, the film cooling employs the use of a very thin coating of alcohol that cools the internal walls of the chamber. Conversely, the alcohol film runs through the tiny hole in the chamber wall and creates a barricade between the chamber structure and the flames of the rocket. The short, round shape of the chamber made the engine even more resourceful than the older designs that were created as thinner and longer components.

Design

The German military sought new weapons in the early 1930s that would assist their cause but that which would cause a violation of the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles. A weapons man by trade, Captain Walter Dornberger, assisted with this cause and his primary job was to examine the probability of these rockets. He made the initial contact with German Rocket Society and met Wernher von Braun. With the strides that Braun had made with the launches and improvements in his rockets, Dornberger fascination with the young engineer allowed him to develop liquid-fueled rockets for the Nazi army in 1932.
The design for the V-2 rockets came after a number of attempts to improve and build on the V-2 rockets. The primary cause for concern came through developing an engine that could draw enough power that enhances the A4. The process was not easy and took almost seven years to perfect the type of engine that would lead to the invention of new nozzles for fuel, a shorter exhaust novel and system that could combine or mix the propellant and the oxidizers. Following this, the designers found that they had to create a system that would guide the rocket to reach the ideal velocity before the engines were shut off. Nevertheless, Benson writes “the V2 guidance system included small vanes in the exhaust of the nozzle to deflect the thrust from the engine.” The process led to the creation of a weapon that could destroy a city from a 200 mile radius.
The A4 was designed to travel at exceptionally great speeds, even as the team of engineers had to repeat a number of tests of the possible shapes for the A4. Even though there were supersonic wind tunnels, these were unavailable for testing the A 4. In fact, “they were not completed in time and many of the aerodynamic tests were conducted on a trial and error basis with conclusions based on informed guesswork.” Benson notes “a final issue that was overcome was developing a radio transmission system which could relay information about the rocket's performance to controllers on the ground.”
Researches show that the V-2 rocket was really a guided and unmanned ballistic missile. Additionally, the missile stemmed from an improved “gyroscopic system that sent signals to aerodynamic steering tabs on the fins and vanes in the exhaust.” The missile operated on the approximately seventy-five percent of ethyl alcohol and twenty-five percent of water along with liquid oxygen. These liquids serve as the primary factors in the thrust chamber which helped to propel the rotary pumps and the steam turbine. Closer inspection of the literature on the V-2 rocket shows “the steam turbine operated at 5,000 rpm on two auxiliary fuels, namely hydrogen peroxide (80 %) and a mixture of 66% sodium permanganate with water 33%.”
As a result, there was a thrust of approximately 55,000 pounds or 24,947 kg in the system and this figure rose to 160,000 pounds or 72,574 kg when the rocket attained its maximum speed. Additionally, the motor generally burned for about sixty seconds before increase the power and speed of the rocket to approximately 4,400 ft/second or 1,341 m/sec.  Given this build up, the V-2 rose to an altitude of sixty miles or ninety - three kilometers and embraced a range of 200 to 225 miles. But, the most interesting aspect of the V-2 is that it included an explosive warhead called amatol Fp60/40. The warhead weighs almost 738 kilograms or a tone and it had the capacity to flatten an entire city block.
Before its launch, one loads the V-2 rocket with hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, fuel, sodium permanganate and liquid oxygen. This deadly combination becomes even more potent as the nitrogen and air batteries goes into the rocket. With the increase in the weight, there is the need to connect the gyroscope and the electrical cables by twenty-eight volts. The batteries are responsible for the power supply and the cables remain connected until it is time to launch the rocket. Finally, the pressurized air combined with the hydrogen peroxide and sodium permanganate presses into the 580 HP turbine and results in a rotation of 3,800 HP per minute. Although the mixture ignites to a temperature of approximately 2,500 degrees Celsius, it does not produce enough impulse that will lift the V-2 rocket. Therefore, when the engineers check ensure that the propulsion works properly and the burning speed increases while the cables disconnect electromagnetically.
Additionally, “during burn time (about 60 sec) the V-2 is steered by 4 graphite rudders and 4 vanes (at the fins).” One can only imagine the mechanical aspect of the rudders, the vertical vanes, and the horizontal vanes. The vanes and the first and third rudders work together to control the process of oscillation as it heads in a lateral direction. The movement in the projectiles goes along a specified axis and stands at a perpendicular position “on the vertical movement by the same along the axis.” Additionally, the second and fourth rudders manipulate the oscillation even as it leans towards vertical movements in a similar fashion on their axis.
Research furthers shows that vanes two and four control the roll stabilization, while vanes one, two, three and four fall under the control of a gyroscope. The gyroscope keeps the axis of the V-2 rocket in a vertical position, while the second and fourth rudders are operated by a different gyroscope. Conversely, these take are responsible for the angle of the rocket throughout burn period. The latter gyroscope comes under the control of a third gyroscope and this ensures that the rocket remains in a straight line within the first mile of the launch and monitors the necessary turn after completing the first mile. Finally, the gyroscope shuts off the fuel supply after the rocket elevates and the speed is high enough to connect to the target.

Conclusion

In concluding, the ballistic V-2 missile which the designers referred to as the A4 still stands as the first operational liquid fueled weapon of destruction. Conversely, the V-2 missile stands as the giant quantum stride in technology. The Nazi Germans financed the program’s development with approximately two billion dollars in the mid 1940s. The weapon was primarily used in the war that involved London. Irrespective of this effort, the inaccuracy in the development of the rocket did not alter the events of the war and many critics note that the rocket was merely a waste of money. Nonetheless, the Americans, the British, and the Russians made numerous attempts to gain access to the German’s V-2's in 1945-1952. Arguably, the technology of the V-2 program created the initial development of the rockets in France, America, and Russia. Similar to the atomic bomb, the V-2 came into play despite the technological problems that was associated with the missile. In fact, there was much haste in the development of the rocket and the consumed much of the war budget. Still, while the V-2 had speed, the weapon was not war – changing and one could say that its use hurt Germany’s chances of succeeding in the war.

Works Cited

A-4/V-2 Makeup - Tech Data & Markings, Available from: http://www.v2rocket.com Accessed
Benson,Tom (2014) The V-2 Rockets, National Aerodynamics and Space Administrations.
Available from: http://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/rockpart.html Accessed
Chun, Clayton K. S. “Thunder over the horizon : from V-2 rockets to ballistic missiles” (War, technology,
and history, ISSN 1556–4924) British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. Copyright ©
2006 by Clayton K. S. Chun
Germany conducts first successful V-2 rocket test. [Internet]. 2015. The History Channel
website. Available from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germany-conducts-first-successful-v-2-rocket-test [Accessed 4 Jan 2015].
Hickman, Kennedy “World War II: V-2 Rocket” Military History Expert Available from:
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/artillerysiegeweapons/p/v2rocket.htm Accessed January 4, 2015
National Museum of the US Air Force Available from”
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=894 Accessed January 4,
2015