Fieseler Fi 103R

by David Myhra

The Fi 103 V-1 was the world's first practical cruise missile. The manned V-1s, the Fi 103R - known as the "Reichenburg" - were developed as a measure to continue the use of the V-1s after the Allies destroyed the missile's launch sites. Only about 175 manned V-1s were constructed, converted from existing new V-1s yet not a single machine was ever flown against an Allied target because the program was canceled in October 1944. Here is the complete story.

104 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2001

About the author

David Myhra is a US-based author and researcher, actively publishing from 1980 to the present; he has published more than 130+ books, and dozens of eBooks & articles on varied historical topics, from Soviet-era aircraft carriers and Japanese battleships to X-planes and World War II German flying machines. His primary focus was the later; most of his books cover individual aircraft types, both paper-projects and full production warplanes, and their designers - many he personally interviewed. Myhra was first to publish books on VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) test aircraft. He interviewed dozens of aviation designers, gas turbine & rocket scientists all over the world. He traveled extensively to research and interview German scientists captured and taken to the Soviet Union, forced to work on their derivative projects after the war. He was involved in production of numerous "History Channel" documentaries and other historical programming, foremost being the National Geographic 2009 documentary “Hitler’s Stealth Fighter” which featured the building of a full-scale model of the Horten "Flying Wing" by the Northrop Grumman Corporation. This model was built to investigate the stealth characteristics and radar cross section of the original 1944 design.