Chronology - Quarter 3 1942

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1942 July -

Goddard leaves Roswell. Nation: USA. Goddard's rocket team and equipment were moved from Roswell, New Mexico, to the Naval Engineering Experiment Station at Annapolis, Maryland, where they continued work until the end of the war. During this time a liquid-propellant assisted-takeoff unit for aircraft was developed and flight-tested. References: 482.

Summer 1942 - Launch Site: Peenemuende. Launch Complex: -. Launch Pad: -. Launch Vehicle: V-2.

Submarine launch of powder rockets Nation: Germany. Solid propellant rockets were fired from a submerged platform off Greifswalder Oie to test the concept of a submarine-launched missile. The idea came from Steihoff, an engineer on the rocket team whose brother was a submarine captain. 20 to 30 Wurfgeraete of the Army's smoke corps, equipped with flammable oil or explosive warheads, were shot at the coast from up to 3 km away. The concept was to put enemy coastal oil storage tanks into flames. At Swinemuende a launcher was installed aboard a Submarine and salvoes of 20 rockets successfully fired from 10 to 15 m under water. The launcher was unnoticeable on the submarine, and the dispersion of the rockets was only a bit worse than a shot from land. But the German Navy wouldn't accept simply using an existing Army launcher. They insisted on developing a different one themselves, which would take a year, putting deployment of the system beyond the end of the war. References: 693.

1942 July 3 - Launch Vehicle: JATO.

Use of rockets for short landing tested. Nation: USA. First airborne test firing of a retrocrocket at Goldstone Lake, Calif., from a PBY-5A piloted by Lt. Comdr. J. H. Hean (USN). References: 17.

1942 September 24 - Launch Vehicle: EA 1941.

EA 1941 engine run. Nation: France. The EA-1941 finally runs at 655 kgf for 11 seconds in a full-duration run. Barre feels the missile is ready for flight test, but this will have to be done in Algeria.

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