Wasserfall The Wasserfall Ferngelenkte FlaRakete ( Waterfall Remote - Controlled A - A Rocket ) , was a World War II guided surface - to - air missile developed at Peenemünde , Germany . In spite of considerable development , Wasserfall never became operational . Technical characteristics . " Wasserfall " was essentially an anti - aircraft development of the V - 2 rocket , sharing the same general layout and shaping . Since the missile had to fly only to the altitudes of the attacking bombers , and needed a far smaller warhead to destroy these , it could be much smaller than the V - 2 , about 1 / 4 the size . The " Wasserfall " design also included an additional set of fins located at the middle of the fuselage to provide extra maneuvering capability . Unlike the V - 2 , " Wasserfall " was designed to stand ready for periods of up to a month and fire on command , therefore the volatile liquid oxygen used in the V - 2 was inappropriate . A new engine design , developed by Dr . Walter Thiel , was based on " Visol " ( vinyl isobutyl ether ) and " SV - Stoff " , or ' red fuming nitric acid ' ( RFNA ) , ( 94 % nitric acid , 6 % dinitrogen tetroxide ) . This hypergolic mixture was forced into the combustion chamber by pressurizing the fuel tanks with nitrogen gas released from another tank . " Wasserfall " was to be launched from rocket bases ( code - named Vesuvius ) that could tolerate leaked hypergolic fuels in the event of a launch problem . Guidance was to be a simple radio control manual command to line of sight ( MCLOS ) system for use against daytime targets , but night - time use was considerably more complex because neither the target nor the missile would be easily visible . For this role a new system known as " Rheinland " was under development . Rheinland used a radar unit for tracking the target and a transponder in the missile for locating it in flight , read by a radio direction finder on the ground ) . A simple analog computer guided the missile into the tracking radar beam as soon as possible after launch , using the transponder to locate it , at which point the operator could see both " blips " on a single display , and guide the missile onto the target as during the day . Steering during the launch phase was accomplished by four graphite rudders placed in the exhaust stream of the combustion chamber , and ( once high airspeeds had been attained ) by the four air rudders mounted on the rocket tail . Commands were sent to the missile using a modified version of the " Kehl - Strassburg " ( code name Burgund ) joy - stick system used to direct Henschel Hs 293 glide bomb , which had some significant successes against allied ships in the Mediterranean . The original design had called for a 100 kg warhead , but because of accuracy concerns it was replaced with a much larger one ( 306 kg ) based on a liquid explosive . The idea was to create a large blast area effect amidst the enemy bomber stream , which would conceivably bring down several airplanes for each missile deployed . For daytime use the operator would detonate the warhead by remote control . Conceptual work began in 1941 , and final specifications were defined on November 2 , 1942 . The first models were being tested in March 1943 , but a major setback occurred in August 1943 when Dr . Walter Thiel was killed during the bombing of Operation Hydra , the start of the Operation Crossbow bombing campaign against V - 2 production . After the first successful firing ( the third prototype ) on March 8 , 1944 , three Wasserfall trial launches were completed by the end of June 1944 . A launch on January 8 , 1944 was a failure , with the engine " fizzling " and launching the missile to only 7 km of altitude at subsonic speeds . The following February saw a successful launch which reached a speed of 770 m / s ( 2 , 800 km / h ) in vertical flight . Thirty - five Wasserfall trial firings had been completed by the time Peenemünde was evacuated on February 17 , 1945 . The Bäckebo Rocket , a V - 2 rocket using Wasserfall radio guidance , crashed in Sweden on June 13 , 1944 . Assessment . According to Albert Speer and Carl Krauch it could have devastated the Allied bomber fleets . The project enjoyed little support in its earlier stages . Speer , Nazi Germany Minister of Armaments and War Production later claimed :