Smithsonian Air and Space Museum / The German V-1 cruise missile was often called 'The Buzz Bomb' because the jet engine pulsed 50 times a second, giving the aircraft a Richard Erwin                                           characteristic buzzing sound as it flew at a speed of about 390 mph. Carrying 1870 pounds of explosive in its warhead, the V-1 was launched 8/10/2009                                                  from a catapult or dropped from a plane. Of nearly 30,000 V-1's manufactured, about 10,000 were fired at London between June, 1944 and March,                                                                    1945, killing about 6,000 people and injuring 18,000 more.