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At the outset of World War II, Adolf Hitler commissioned a flying bomb with a
chilling mandate: It would be used against "non-military targets." Fieseler
Flugzeuhau designed the Fieseler Fi-103, better known as the
Vergeltungswaffe (Revenge weapon)-1, or V-1, to launch via a long
catapult-like ramp and fly at 470 mph. The V-1 UAV was powered by a thrust
pulsejet, which produced a signature buzzing sound. It could carry a
2,000-pound warhead and was pre-programmed to fly 150 miles before it dropped
its bomb. First launched against Britain in 1944, V-1s killed more than 900
civilians and injured more than 35,000 in British cities.
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