Republic/Ford JB-2 Loon Cruise Missile

The JB-2 was a U.S.-made copy of the famous German V-1 surface-to-surface, pilotless flying bomb first used against England in June 1944. The Republic Aviation Corp. built the airframe for the JB-2 from drawings prepared at Wright Field, using dimensions taken from the remains of several V-1s brought from Germany. The Ford Motor Co. built the engine, which was a copy of the V-1's 900-lb. thrust Argus-Schmidt pulse-jet.

Republic and Ford built 1,000 JB-2s for the Army and Navy. Production delivery began in January 1945, but the U.S. Army Air Forces cancelled further production when World War II ended. The first JB-2 test flight in took place at Eglin Field, Fla., in October 1944. Just before the end of the war, an aircraft carrier en route to the Pacific took on a load of JB-2s for possible use in the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands. Although never used in combat, the JB-2 provided valuable data for the design and construction of more advanced weapons.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Republic
• Ford
• JB-2
• Loon
• German
• V-1
• B-17
• Flying
• Fortress
• cruise
• missiles

[lejink]

let your opponent do the expensive R&D, steal the idea.. improve it

and win!

[RustyRazor2010]

Mindful of the alternative, it's hard to see a US Military Star and Stripes aircraft crest slapped on one of those things...

[soverato3]

its a V1!!! hahaa

[KevinByrne2]

All of the combatants in W.W. 2 stole from each other -- necessarily. The Germans stole the bazooka and their Panther tanks copied elements of the Soviet T34. If you don't copy your opponent's best weapon(s), you lose.

[solidsnake2234]

Heh, just a German V1 knockoff

[CumbyOnThePiss]

why did Fairchild/Ford produce these bombs?

[SMGJohn]

@liketechnologie11 Tes I know all that stuff. But I am just refering to Soviet Union as first to send a rocket to space

[SMGJohn]

@liketechnologie11 The first rocket for space was made in Soviet Union where they had achieved Rocket technology long before Nazi Germany and any other.

[Mark49007]

This v-1 was from Werner von Braun becouse he and his people go to USA work for us army.

[shawn2007g]

@wotansteel no, USSR is that.