File:V-1 cruise missile - Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - 2012-05-15 (7259409966).jpg

V-1 cruise missile on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Known as the "Buzz Bomb" (for the characteristic noise its rocket motor made in flight) or the "Doodlebug", the V-1 was the world's first cruise missile.

The V-1 was developed by Nazi German at the beginning of World War II. The primary developer was Fritz Gosslau of the Argus Motoren company, with the assistance of Robert Lusser (chief designer first at the Heinkel and then at the Fieseler aircraft company).

The V-1's motor was ignited on the ground. Because the wings were so lacking in aerodynamic lift, it had a tendency to stall. So it was invariably lauched from an aircraft catapult or dropped from a bomber. V-1 launching sites were all along the Pas-de-Calais and Dutch coast. The first V-1 was launched June 13, 1944. More than one hundred V-1s a day were fired at southeast England until October 1944. V-1 attacks on Antwerp and other Belgian targets then began, with nearly 2,500 V-1s launched. Allied forced captured the last V-1 launching site on March 29, 1945.

The V-1 simple pendulums and a gyrocompass provided control. Internal power came from compressed air! Pitch, yaw, and roll were controlled via a rudder, which responded to additional pendulums, magnets, and a gyrocompass. A vane-driven odometer armed the bomb after 35 miles. A device (set by hand before launch) in the V-1 determined when the bomb had reached its target (as determined by the odometer). This device shut off the rudder, which causes the bomb to plunge.