The Regener barrel ( de , Regener-Tonne) was the name of a scientific payload for the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

V-2 rocket The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develop ...

. Mid-1942 plans for subsequent launches to study upper-atmospheric guidance and science were not carried out due to the need for test launches and the eventual advance of the Russian armies. The first meeting was held on July 8, 1942, at the Peenemünde Army Research Station under the direction of

Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...

with the participation of

Erich Regener Erich Rudolf Alexander Regener (12 November 1881 – 27 February 1955) was a German physicist known primarily for the design and construction of instruments to measure cosmic ray intensity at various altitudes. He is also known for predicting ...

Ernst Steinhoff Ernst August Wilhelm Steinhoff (February 11, 1908 – December 2, 1987) was a rocket scientist and member of the " von Braun rocket group", at the Peenemünde Army Research Center (1939–1945). Ernst Steinhoff saw National Socialist (Nazi) ...

Gerhard Reisig Gerhard Herbert Richard Reisig (March 3, 1910 - March 9, 2005) was a German-American engineer and rocket scientist. He worked at the Peenemünde Army Research Center during World War II and later, through Operation Paperclip, at the Marshall Spa ...

Helmut Gröttrup Helmut Gröttrup (12 February 1916 – 4 July 1981) was a German engineer, rocket scientist and inventor of the smart card. During World War II, he worked in the German V-2 rocket program under Wernher von Braun. From 1946 to 1950 he headed a grou ...

, Alfred Ehmert, and Erwin Schopper, among others. Wernher von Braun also tried to win

Manfred von Ardenne Manfred von Ardenne (20 January 1907 – 26 May 1997) was a German researcher and applied physicist and inventor. He took out approximately 600 patents in fields including electron microscopy, medical technology, nuclear technology, plasma physics ...

for cooperation, but he declined. Instrumentation had been contracted on July 11, 1942; and the Research Foundation for the Physics of the Stratosphere was to develop the "Regener barrel" with a quartz

barograph A barograph is a barometer that records the barometric pressure over time in graphical form. This instrument is also used to make a continuous recording of atmospheric pressure. The pressure-sensitive element, a partially evacuated metal cylinde ...

, a recording thermometer, an ultraviolet spectrograph, and an air sampler. By January 18, 1945, rumors of nearby Soviet tanks resulted in Erich Regener's organization being sent from Peenemünde before the A-4 instrument package had been finished. The ''Regener-Tonne'' parachute was tested at

Test Stand VII , partof = Army Research Center Peenemünde,Nazi Germany , location = Usedom island , coordinates = , image = Peenemunde-165515.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = 23 June 1943 RAF reconnaissance ...

of the

Peenemünde Army Research Center The Peenemünde Army Research Center (german: Heeresversuchsanstalt Peenemünde, HVP) was founded in 1937 as one of five military proving grounds under the German Army Weapons Office (''Heereswaffenamt''). Several German guided missiles an ...

and a mock-up was launched in January 1945.

References

*{{cite web , last=Kliebenschedel , first=Thomas , title=The Birth of Extraterrestrial Physics Research Methods , url=https://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.v2werk-oberraderach.de%2FHoehenforschung.htm&sl=de&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 , work=A4 (V2) rocket manufacturing plant in Friedrichshafen 1942-45 , publisher=www.V2Werk-Oberraderach.de , access-date=2009-01-26 World War II guided missiles of Germany