Originally Posted By: G-MAN
I'm not forgetting about the nascent US rocket program. But it's clear that the real advancement in US rocketry began when the captured Nazi scientists were brought over after the war.
Your statement about the Redstone is just flat out ridiculous. The F-4 was in no way, shape, or form derived directly from the ME-262. It is well documented that Von Braun developed the Redstone directly from the V2. In fact, operational parameters (max range and altitude) of the first Redstone are almost identical to the V2. Granted, the Redstone that was used for Mercury was a highly advanced iteration (a modified Jupiter C, which was directly developed from the first Redstone), but was still a rocket that was developed and derived from the V2.
So...was the Redstone that carried the Mercury capsule highly modified or not? You say the first Redstone was almost identical in performance, (no argument) but the discussion was on the Mercury capsule rocket...and you say it's highly modified...
OK, let's define highly modified. Let's look at the F/A-18 for example. The -E/F model is a highly modified version of the -C/D model. It has a new fuselage, wings, hard points, rudders, tails, landing gear and weapon systems...highly modified in other words. Derived from the earlier model but when it was rolled out, the only common parts were the ARC-210 radio and the NACES ejection seat. Super Hornet weapon system components have since been retrofitted to the legacy platform.
Looking at the V-2 specs (weight, size, range, thrust) and the Redstone that carried Mercury into space, even though the architectures are similar, there are even more pronounced differences than the two versions of the Hornet. Airframe, powerplant, size, thrust, fuel capacity, were all changed...