| When Germany began launching the Fieseler
Fi-103 V-1 at England from sites in France in 1944, the U.S.Army had
been interested in starting a missile program. An unexploded Fi-103 was
shipped to America for study. In September 1944 the Republic company was
awarded the contract to build duplicates of the Fi-103, with the Ford Motor
Co making the engine which was a copy of the Argus 014 Pulsejet, now known
as the PJ-31-1. In exactly two months the first operational JB-2's (Jet
Bomb Model 2) came off the assembly line. After intensive testing the USAAF
ordered 75,000 "Loons", how ever by the time the Second World
War had ended there was no need for such a weapon in the numbers ordered
(as there would be no invasion of Japan), so the contract was terminated
after only 1200 JB-2's were built. The JB-2 was the first U.S. guided missile
and it was intended to be launched from the ground, aircraft and ships ,
tests continued up to 1947 with the US Navy launching the JB-2 from submarines.
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A line drawing of the Republic
JB-2"Loon"
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