As world war winds down, the Germans are desperate to make last attempts at the allies with vengeances weapons. Even though it seems futile, they still try. With an old rocket program known as the A9, the Germans decide to see if they can reach New York City. However, the A9 protype they had on hand wasn’t flight worthy enough to reach America, but with the modifications to the wing design, giving the craft some lift it was theatrically able to reach America.
Feb 24, 1944 They star their rocket flying coar with a few hundred men, over time it was narrowed down to 6 pilots deemed trustworthy enough to fly such a craft. Eleven months later he was ready for his launch. Not only would be flying in a rocket, but he would also be in the first 2 stage rocket. The Germans have tested these out before, but never with a person on board.
Early on that fate full day, Schroeder put on his pressurized suit. Before putting on his helmet he stuck a glass cyanide pill, in between his cheek and jaw, as instructed. After towering into the tall craft, he waited for the ground crews to finish their work before liftoff.
Even though this was just a test flight of a new kind of rocket, it was still dangerous. For instance, the cabin wasn’t pressurized, so a leak to the suit, would mean death. Unfortunately, he never even made it that high.
Upon lift off everything seem nominal, but only for a few seconds, smoke filled the cabin. Knowing how painful an inferno could be Rudolf bit into the cyanide capsule anticipating the worse. Still in flight, Rudolf Schroeder died. Undenounced to him it was just a small electrical fire, with a majority of the controls still working. The rocket still followed the plan direction for a few minutes, but with no controls, splashed into the Atlantic Ocean, with a corps on board.
With this failure and the war making resources scares, Germany cut its manned rocket program, to focus the rocket industry on weapon development only.
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