![]() Even as early as the summer of 1945, the British defense scientist Sir Henry Tizard had compiled a report for his government claiming that long-range rockets would soon “render the strategic bomber obsolete.” This prediction never quite came true – and bomber aircraft remain a core part of some nations’ air forces to this day – but investment in ballistic missile development seemed a sensible, even necessary, step, throughout the late 1940s and 1950s. Despite this, there was also a widespread sense that missiles offered a much more practical solution to the need to be able to deliver almost instantaneous retaliation, and thus deter the enemy from making any first strike. It was powered by a liquid propellant rocket engine of liquid ethanol (which took 30 tons of potatoes to fuel a single launch) and liquid oxygen. It was 17 times more powerful than the largest rocket engine at the time and flew at five times the speed of sound. Air Force ensured that there were always a certain number of nuclear-armed bomber aircraft airborne and loitering not far from key targets within the Soviet Union, at any given time. The final V2 design weighed 12,500 kg, was 14 m in length and 1.65 m in diameter. By 1960, under Operation Chrome Dome, the U.S. Commonly referred to as the V-2 rocket, the liquid-propellant rocket was the worlds first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known human. Its 2,200 pounds of explosives and liquid propellant rocket engine allowed Hitler's army to employ it with deadly accuracy. For much of the initial post-war period, the answer came in the form of conventional bomber aircraft, albeit planes with ever-increasing ranges and ever-improving navigational and targeting systems. Originally known as the A4, the V-2 featured a range of 200 miles and a maximum speed of 3,545 mph. ![]()
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