Science & Tech
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The Vergeltungswaffe 2, or “Vengeance Weapon-2” (V-2), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. Nazi Germany used the V-2 near the end of World War II as a terror weapon against London, Antwerp, and other Allied targets. After the war, German scientists assisted the U.S. military in developing V-2 technology for defense and early space exploration. The engine and flight components here were used for a research flight and recovered from the White Sands Missile Range. The V-2 was 46 feet long, weighed 27,600 pounds, produced 56,600 pounds of thrust, had an operational range of 200 miles, and used 75 percent ethanol-water and liquid oxygen as fuel. The German Vengeance Weapon programs, V-1 and V-2, cost $3 billion in 1944 values, more than the United States’ Manhattan Project, which cost $1.9 billion.
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