At the end of the war, we managed to run off with a few German rocket scientists as well, and one would think that they would be up on what their colleagues were monkeying with.

Werner Von Braun was no dummy, and, in fact, he was the one who managed to get the U. S.'s first satellite off the ground. He said he could do it with his Redstone launch vehicle, but the contract had been given to the Navy with their Vanguard rocket. According to some rocket engineers, its fuel system was a plumber's nightmare, which may account for the fact that, after much fanfare, embarrassingly, it blew up on the launch pad. Grudgingly, they told Von Braun to go ahead and launch the Redstone. Went off like a walk in the park.

The Germans did have the untested A9-A10, a two stage presumably intercontinental ballistic missile waiting for Germany's atomic bomb, which was almost ready to go, according to some reports. (shudder!)

One would think that if the Germans had something like a functional "flying saucer" in the works, people like Von Braun would have known about it.

Don Firth