Nazi Germany's success with its V-1 and V-2 terror weapons encouraged their creators to think even more ambitiously about the possibilities of rocket-powered flight.  Although some of the "secret weapons" the wizards of Pennemünde were considering just prior to the end of World War II now seem problematic -- if not downright absurd -- there's little doubt that had hostilities continued beyond May 1945, the world would have born witness to even more sophisticated and deadly rocket-powered weapons of mass destruction. 

Some of these radical concepts are featured in this section.

Concept Spacecraft

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s