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00:45:43
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Transcription: [00:41:01]
{SPEAKER name="WALTER HAEUSSERMANN"}
...we, especially Helmut Hoelzer, promoted the use of electronic differentiation to obtain the rate from the attitude signal, and he succeeded with this.

[00:41:19]
And then of course we tested this first also in the laboratory, and then in actual flight.

{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
In A-5?

{SPEAKER name="WALTER HAEUSSERMANN"}
Right.

{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
You did simulate this with A-5s, where you took out the rate gyros and did it that way.

[00:41:38]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
See, what he told me was that at some point, there was a A-4 simulations, where they had built A-4 control systems and using the whole rocket suspended in gimbals, that they had attempted to demonstrate the competing control systems without using the electronic differentiation.

[00:42:05]
And that those systems were not inherently stable, as opposed to using the Mischgerät or whatever.

{SPEAKER name="WALTER HAEUSSERMANN"}
Well, mainly the stability problem at that time was with the method to suspend the missile - you had huge friction, and so even if you had some results of stability on your test stand, it was no guarantee you would have the same results in flight, because the simulation was too poor.

[00:42:39]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
OK. So, you were working on these competing systems... I guess another question I had about the competition between differing guidance and control systems was...

[00:42:57]
...Why did the Siemens system become the standard system? Because Kreiselgeräte had the advantage, that they'd been there from the beginning, and had built the system for A-3, which had its problems, and then had built a three-axis stabilized platform for A-5, and so forth, but...

[00:43:19]
...the Siemens system — I guess because it's simpler, I don't know if that's what it — became the standard system.

{SPEAKER name="WALTER HAEUSSERMANN"}
—I recall it also ... because you did not need the gimbal, large gimbal arrangement, and it was easier and faster to be developed, time-wise.

[00:43:42]
And we had always, tremendous time pressure. And so, as far as I recall, this was the reason why the Siemens system was given first priority.

[00:43:54]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
When you say given first priority, was that — in resources?

{SPEAKER name="WALTER HAEUSSERMANN"}
—I think this came automatically because — No, resource-wise, I think they were treated... the same way, in priority. But, the decision was then made to use the Siemens because they just had earlier results in production.

[00:44:15]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
Basically they only had two gyros to produce.

{SPEAKER name="WALTER HAEUSSERMANN"}
—Right.

{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
—No servo loops for...

{SPEAKER name="WALTER HAEUSSERMANN"}
—Not the complex servo loops as needed for the system...

{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
—platform.

{SPEAKER name="WALTER HAEUSSERMANN"}
—for the platform.

[00:44:28]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
And it could be produced faster.

{SPEAKER name="WALTER HAEUSSERMANN"}
Yes.

[00:44:33]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
So that, from what you're saying, it sounds like sometime - maybe in 1940, the latest in '41 - it was clear that Anschütz, Askania had been eliminated, that Siemens was going to be the primary system for A-4, and that Kreiselgeräte was going to develop a platform that was going to take longer—

{SPEAKER name="WALTER HAEUSSERMANN"}
—I think that time-wise, the competition between Siemens and Kreiselgeräte went much longer, beyond the time I had been in Peenemünde. I left Peenemünde, as I said, by the 1st of May '42. And at that time, both were still in clear competition.

[00:45:20]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
So that Siemens was still trying to improve its system as a competitor. You considered them in a sense competitors.

{SPEAKER name="WALTER HAEUSSERMANN"}
Oh yes.

[00:45:30]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
That they were fighting for a long-term, improved system over the initial basic system...

{SPEAKER name="WALTER HAEUSSERMANN"}
Yes, right.

{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
...that was done for A-4. OK let me just stop and turn over the tape.