Cruise missiles, unlike ballistic missiles, fly at a lower altitude like an airplane. Modern cruise missiles travel at a specific altitude while following the terrain, at supersonic speed, in order to avoid radar detection and strike unsuspecting targets. They are often guided using GPS and have an effective range of thousands of miles, and can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads, with an accuracy measured in feet and inches.

The V1 Rocket developed by Germany during World War II was hard to define since it wasn't a true rocket because it used a jet engine and flew more like an airplane, but it used a pulse jet engine. It could be classified as an early prototype of a cruise missile and was called a flying bomb. The V1 was 25 feet long and had a 16 foot wingspan and flew between 340 and 400 mph at an altitude ranging between 2,000 and 3,000 feet. It carried a 2,000 lb warhead and had an initial range of 150 miles, which was later upgraded to 250 miles, allowing England to be attacked from Holland.

Development on a remote controlled airplane began in 1936 by Fritz Gosslau who was an aeronautical engineer in Germany. By 1941 his airplane was developed into the V1 flying bomb. In total, 9,521 V1s were launched from the first launch on June 13 1944 until October 1944 when the last launch site capable of hitting London was captured.

Like the Later V2 and V3, the V1 was a technical marvel but ultimately it didn't make enough difference for Germany to win the war.

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