#wac corporal

The Bumper program was developed in 1947, for the US to investigate techniques of launching and separating two-stage rockets and gain knowledge missile behavior at high-altitude and high-speed flight. The Bumper rockets were a modified WAC Corporal sounding rocket and German V2, brought over at the end of WWII with Wernher von Braun and his team. Eight Bumper rockets would be launched in total, the first six at White Sands Proving Grounds.

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Watch Harvey-Mudd Physics Professor Dr. Greg Lyzenga launch a full-scale WAC Corporal replica in honor of Frank Malina and his historic launch in 1946. More on the WAC Corporal here.

Photo taken circa 1945. The first "all-up" WAC (i.e, full-scale operational WAC Corporal plus booster) was launched at the White Sands Proving Ground on October 11, 1945, and reached an altitude of about 70 km. Improved versions of the rocket climbed to 100 km. Mated to the V-2, the WAC Corporal served as the upper stage of the Bumper-WAC, the world's first two-stage rocket.

And WHAT happened at White Sands, NM in October 1945?