35020 RHEINMETALL-BORSIG R1 RHEINTOCHTER ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILE

The Rheintochter (German daughter of the Renu) was a German, experimental, surface-to-air guided missile of the Second World War. The Rheintochter was a two-stage missile with a range from 16,000 meters capable of carrying a warhead weighing up to 22-24 kilograms. The first works on the Rheintochter began in 1941 at the Rheinmetall-Borsig company, but the first copies of the missile were not ready until the fall of 1943. The Rheintochter was to constitute the equipment of anti-aircraft units and - from 1943 - to fight the Allied bomb expeditions over Germany. The missile was to be as effective as possible, which meant the use of radio-wave guidance. In total, three versions of the Rheintochter missile were created. The first one, marked as R1, did not reach the speed of sound and in fact was used primarily for experiments with the steering system and general aerodynamic assumptions of the projectile. Very similar to the R1 version was the R2 version which, however, proved to be highly unsuccessful and was abandoned in 1944. The final version was the Rheintochter R3 missile in which the propulsion system and the location of the warhead were changed. This resulted in a significant improvement in performance, but the power unit turned out to be extremely emergency, which made it impossible to introduce the system into the line. Finally, the Rheintochter program was canceled in February 1945. Probably about 50 missiles of this type were created, which were used only for tests and experiments.