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To Thuringia
life? Our developers need to find another application. It seems the Germans have
found it, and we simply have not matured.We don’t need a rocket-powered fighter
with a pilot, but an unmanned rocket. I heard about the Wasserfall in Peenemünde
and a little bit here in Basdorf.This rocket is an aircraft fighter.That is precisely what
our engines will be needed for. But we, the engine specialists, won’t be the most
important contributors—it will be you, the guidance specialists. The engines—
they’re a given.The design of a rocket, the body, that’s much simpler than for an
airplane. But how to find an airplane and hit it—that’s the main thing!”
Isayev was morose.The thoughts that tormented him had taken shape here in
quiet Basdorf.
“Blow our brains out! And Messerschmitt’s too! We have squandered four years
developing airplanes that nobody needs.The Germans managed to go farther, but
the result is the same! We were discussing unmanned rocket-fighters with the late
Roman Popov back in Khimki, after returning from Bilimbay. He and Abo
Kadyshevich showed me these multi-ton radar systems and told me that if a
rocket were to lift them into the air, they would be worth more than the airplane
they shot down.”
Our evening discussions about the future, which we held during those quiet
evenings in Basdorf over steins of flat local beer, led us all to conclude that aircraft
with liquid-propellant rocket engines were not necessary. Isayev was already full
of new ideas. He asked me to get in touch with Moscow upon my return to
Berlin and arrange for him to be recalled to the NII-1 institute—otherwise we
would form an expedition and make our way west to Nordhausen without waiting
for orders.
After returning to Berlin, I discovered that our headquarters in Adlershof had
been greatly expanded. I received orders to fly to Moscow for a brief report and
to receive new instructions.
Our NII-1, which was enjoying friendly relations with the Air Force command
(the NII chiefs were aviation generals), had received an American Boston B-25 twoengine,
high-speed bomber as a gift. It was much more pleasant to fly in than the
Douglas transport planes.The view from the navigator’s cockpit was magnificent,and
it was faster—the flight from Berlin to Moscow took just a little over five hours.
I was in Moscow for just two days. I managed to meet with Bolkhovitinov, who
sounded depressed.There was an “opinion” in the People’s Commissariat that the
NII-1 leadership should be replaced and the NII should be reoriented to pure
science—to areas such as gas dynamics and air-breathing jet engines. Viktor
Fedorovich asked me to immediately familiarize myself with Nordhausen and
return to Moscow.
I was trying to understand who in Moscow would be conducting work on
subject matter that was purely rocket-oriented; in other words, who needed the
V-2 and all the German secrets immediately. His opinion was, “Nobody needs
the V-2.We need jet aviation, and as fast as possible. Rockets are the future, but at
the People’s Commissariat they don’t think that’s the business of aviation.”
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