Wing tipping a V1 'Buzz Bomb'
 

Gents,

for some reason conversation at work turned to this amazing feat performed in WWII, where i believe the defending pilot would fly abeam the V1 and gently use his wing to tip over the V1's wing to send it off course and miss its intended target.

Just curious to find out more about this practise and how it started, was it an idea of boffins deep in underground bunkers or pi$$ed off fighter pilots trying everything thing in their tool box?

Quite a bit about it here:

http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...2-tipping.html

Absolutely no references to hand, but I seem to remember reading that...

1) V-1 could be shot down by guns, but the risk to the fighter was high due to the proximity to the exploding warhead

2) Upsetting the missile by wing tipping would result in the warhead exploding on the ground (in open country), hopefully avoiding damage to the fighter

3) In the particular case of the Meteor, the failure of the cannons was a problem and so tipping was the only option left

Heroes the lot of 'em.

Extract from a Spit pilot's book here

Late Mark Spitfire Aces 1942-45 - Google Book Search

If that's a genuine photo that's got to be one of the most amazing war pics ever taken surely? (Or is that another thread?)

It was known in fighter parlance as "The Polish Circus Trick". Seems the V1 gyro/compass guidance system had a pretty narrow design envelope (i.e. AOB greater than around 25deg was never envisaged). Hence, tipping the wing toppled the gyro. Bingo.

Must be noted, that by the time this technique was being resorted to the V1 was obsolete. Gather it only took place a few times before the V2s started raining down.

A PPRuNe search will uncover previous threads on this subject.