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00:18:06
00:21:34
00:18:06
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Transcription: [00:18:06]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
OK, so that -- You were testing this 18-head injecting motor from, oh say '41, and got reasonable performance out of it, by when? Do you have any, any recollection?

[00:18:25]
{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
Well, we were still working on improvements when the engine was being used already, so I would say, later V-2s had a somewhat better performance than the early ones.

[00:18:36]
Because again, we had a lot of flexibility, ja, to change the film-cooling flow, that improves the performance. To change the injection system.

[00:18:46]
And I think, almost to the last moment where you finally went into mass production, once we were in mass production, there were no changes of that type any more. Then the people took it.

[00:18:57]
And I would say the mass production was finally ordered in late '43, and so from then on you couldn't make changes of this nature

[00:19:06]
just to improve the performance. We still had many changes, and some people even complained we had too many. When you had a real critical condition, ja.

[00:19:17]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
Yeah, and I, and I, did you also have the problem that materials would suddenly disappear [[cross talk]] so you had--

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
Right, you couldn't get it any more.

[00:19:26]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
You had, did you have to make the part a different way?

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
Ja, ja. We were short in aluminum, so we were working on fuel tanks basically made from paper-board.

[00:19:37]
Well, paper-board a little bit more like the milk cartons we use today, ja. So relatively solid, saturated paper with wax in it, or something like that.

[00:19:50]
Pretty much like the milk cartons we use today. And again the main reason was we just couldn't get enough aluminum. We did need aluminum for the LOX tanks, so there was no plan to replace that.

[00:20:03]
But we were seriously working on replacing the fuel tank. Now, I think it was never done. We just did some research and development tests.

[00:20:11]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
The LOX tank had to be aluminum for reason of interaction?

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
For brittleness reasons. Steel becomes so brittle it just cannot stand the vibrations during burning, and contain the very cold liquid oxygen.

[00:20:27]
So we had to go to aluminum for that. And that's why we also have a separate, you probably know, the V-2 has a separate outer shell, that has to be from steel, because it gets awfully hot during re-entry.

[00:20:43]
You couldn't use aluminum there. But the fuel tank, the flux tank, had to be aluminum because otherwise with our existing steels, we didn't have any steel that would take these very cold temperatures.

[00:20:55]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
And the fuel tank? The alcohol tank?

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
Well, that was initially built also from aluminum, and when aluminum supply became short, then we were asked to work on alternate methods.

[00:21:08]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
With the steel--

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
And steel was also relatively short, ja. So steel was kind of ruled out, also. We could have used steel, that would not have been too difficult.

[00:21:17]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
You could have built a steel fuel tank, but early on you had determined to build these things in aluminum.

[00:21:26]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
Now, before I get to these other injector versions. You, umm--
[00:21:35]


Transcription Notes:
LOX tank = Liquid Oxygen tank