Trip to France......

[Astro-Baby]

I was on a trip to France last week and managed to bag a few rocketry based trips. Thought you guys might like to see some pics.

First up is the Aerospace Museum at Le Bourget (Lindburgh landed there)....heres some pics of an Arianne 5 they have there plus a reconstruction of a French ICBM launch control centre. Lots of space/missile exhibits but sadly two of the hangers were closed for maintenance. None the less still a lot to see including a massive display of beautiful scale models and Guynemers actual SPAD fighter.

Interestingly in the missile section there was a display of amateur rocketry which the French government actively funds for schools with equipment and know how - the display included a quite sophisticated looking rocket plus exhibits of some of the stuff they supply to schools - France is very active in this with over 120 rocketry clubs.

Heres some pics of the museum...I have loads more but wont risk boring you....

 

[Astro-Baby]

Last stop on the trip back to the ferry was La Coupole which was a German V2 launch site near Calais. It was designed to be a kind of forerunner of a Minuteman silo. It was never completed as the RAF bombed it very heavily and the Normandy landings meant it was quite quickly overrun. You can read up more on it on Wiki. Heres a pic thats very processed of the main dome......

 

[Astro-Baby]

Inside the dome there are exhibits on the V1/V2 and also some very moving exhibits on the people who were used as slave labour to dig the tunnels out. To give you a sense of scale the pic of the main tunnel is large enough to accommodate a railway wagon which would have bought the pre assembled V2s into the complex.

The other picture is a memorial to the people of the area who disappeared during the occupation into various camps or who were simply executed.

 

[Daddyisabar]

The La Coupole photo looks like something out of Star Wars. A secret rebel base on a distant forest moon.

 

[GregGleason]

Last stop on the trip back to the ferry was La Coupole which was a German V2 launch site near Calais. It was designed to be a kind of forerunner of a Minuteman silo. It was never completed as the RAF bombed it very heavily and the Normandy landings meant it was quite quickly overrun. You can read up more on it on Wiki. Heres a pic thats very processed of the main dome......

I didn't learn about that place until less than a year ago. It was basically a massive facility to assemble and launch V2's. So cool that you were able to go there and see it.

Greg

 

[Astro-Baby]

There are two other bases nearby - one for V2 launching and one for the V3 multi chamber super gun - I hope to go back that way quite soon and get some more pics.

Heres a few more pics of La Coupole - one of the approach to the main entrance with the dome in the background and one of the exterior with a different process applied to lighten it up. Unfortunately inside its quite cramped and nigh on impossible to get any pics of the V2 inside it. The entrance is where trains would arrive, the V2 would be shunted down inside the tunnel, turned round and then erected upright inside the dome, once fuelled and armed it would be pushed out of the dome through a pair of huge armoured doors (this would be to the right and behind the hill in the second pic. From there it would be fired off. There were two sets of doors and a kind of carousel inside the dome so that V2s could be sent out alternate doors for firing. I

Only the entrance tunnel and a few small off shoots were ever completed. The core of the dome was never dug out for the concrete works and the carousel arrangement. For the visitor today you walk down the main entrance tunnel, turn off on one of the spurs and then take an elevator to the top of what would have been the inner gantry so you are under the dome.

Its quite a moving place to visit when you realise how many people died digging it out - its a kind of silent but eloquent testament to the insanity of war.

When I went it was a weekday and late in the day so the site was near empty - unfortunately I was running a tight schedule for the ferry so didnt have time to take a walk to a high point to get a better view of the dome from a high spot and a bit more distant.