Republic-Ford JB-2

The Republic-Ford JB-2, also known as the Thunderbug, KGW and LTV-N-2 Loon, was an American copy of the German V-1 flying bomb, built as a pulsejet cruise missile and developed in 1944. The United States studied crashed V-1s, had Wright Field reverse engineer a working copy of the Argus As 014 pulsejet engine, and assembled the first of thirteen complete test missiles at Republic Aviation in September 1944. Because Republic was busy building P-47 Thunderbolts, airframe production went to Willys-Overland, while Ford built the PJ31 pulsejet engine. Command guidance by radio and radar made it more advanced than the German weapon. It was meant for the planned invasion of Japan but was never used in combat. Production ended on 15 September 1945 after 1,391 had been built, and the JB-2 served for years afterward as a test vehicle that shaped later missiles such as the MGM-1 Matador and the Navy Regulus programme.