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Author
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Topic: V-2 rocket fragment from White Sands
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TimT64
New Member Posts: 9
From: Stamford
Registered: Aug 2020
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posted 11-04-2020 10:15 AM
   
I bought this V2 rocket fragment from White Sands at auction recently and I am trying to find out which flight it came from, as I would like to paint a model in the colour scheme from that flight. |
PeterO
Member Posts: 414
From: North Carolina
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 11-04-2020 05:21 PM
If the photograph shows the same V-2, it is likely TF-1, which was launched from White Sands Proving Grounds on August 22, 1951.There is a drawing of the paint scheme here. |
Joel Katzowitz
Member Posts: 821
From: Marietta GA USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 11-05-2020 07:08 AM
Full disclosure: I designed those V-2 fragment presentation certificates for Ken Havekotte. I'm not sure if Ken knows which flight the fragment came from but the launch image on the certificate was randomly chosen by me just as a V-2 reference. |
TimT64
New Member Posts: 9
From: Stamford
Registered: Aug 2020
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posted 11-05-2020 03:15 PM
quote:
Originally posted by PeterO:
...it is likely TF-1
The image is of TF-1, but the text describing the piece says it comes from a rocket that was test fired in 1946. |
TimT64
New Member Posts: 9
From: Stamford
Registered: Aug 2020
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posted 11-08-2020 12:56 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Joel Katzowitz:
...the launch image on the certificate was randomly chosen by me just as a V-2 reference.
Joel, many thanks for the reply as I was a bit confused by the information given on the presentation. Initially I thought that the piece came from the tail section shown on the photograph. I contacted White Sands Missile Range and asked them what was on the plaque near the display, they informed me that it was not their display and to get in touch with the New Mexico Space Museum at Alamogordo. The good folk there very kindly provided me with the information on the plaque, but unfortunately it does not include the flight number as they do not know which flight it was from. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3110
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 11-08-2020 01:26 PM
That information is correct that you were told. I did receive an email from a White Sands museum about the flown V-2 artifact presentation of mine.They had been informed that it was another museum in New Mexico that had gifted me a rusted-out relic of a flown V-2 rocket from the old WSMR in July 2000. It had been a gift because of my support and donation of space lots to a public aerospace museum in the Las Cruces area throughout the late 1990's. The V-2 photograph of its tail fin assembly on the COA is where the actual V-2 souvenir came from. Unfortunately, as the plaque reads, it was never determined what V-2 flight number the artifact had been a part of, but that it was "flown in 1946." |
Joel Katzowitz
Member Posts: 821
From: Marietta GA USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 11-08-2020 04:36 PM
Anyone who knows Ken knows he is an absolute stickler for honesty and accuracy. I probably should have put a notation on the certificate stating that the V-2 launch image was for reference only and that it was not intended to represent the actual V-2 that carried the fragment into space. |
TimT64
New Member Posts: 9
From: Stamford
Registered: Aug 2020
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posted 11-09-2020 11:55 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Ken Havekotte:
Unfortunately, as the plaque reads, it was never determined what V-2 flight number the artifact had been a part of, but that it was "flown in 1946."
Ken, thanks for the info. Armed with that knowledge I will choose the colour scheme from one of the 1946 test shots to paint my model with. I plan to display the presentation alongside the model and also with a postal cover that I acquired that is signed by a couple of members from the original launch teams. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3110
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 11-09-2020 01:45 PM
No problem Tim! Glad to help out and I would love to see that display presentation picture, when completed, of the flown relic, model, and signed postal cover.If you may have need of further V-2/White Sands era memorabilia for the display, I do have lots of original or vintage era papers that came from some of the von Braun team members when they were test firing all the V-2's in New Mexico. As for other rocket-space covers signed by V-2 rocket pioneers, I've got lots of them if any others might be needed. The cover you have for now, Tim, what signatures do you have on it, if I may ask? |
TimT64
New Member Posts: 9
From: Stamford
Registered: Aug 2020
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posted 11-10-2020 11:41 AM
Ken, the cover is signed by Norris Gray (Fire and Safety Chief), Dick Jones (JPL-Bumper Instrumentation), Ed Belcher (Bumper Comms), and Liz Blain (Bumper Tracking).I would be interested in obtaining some further items if they are available. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 3110
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 11-10-2020 12:01 PM
It's one of my own covers you have signed by Gray, Jones, Belcher, and the first woman to work on a Cape launch pad, Liz Bain.On this particular signed cover series, 50 were signed for the 50th anniversary of the first Cape rocket launch in July 2000. I've got a few more of them left and submitted one of them in a recent Lunar Legacies auction earlier this year. While the signers of your cover, Tim, did in fact work on the first V-2/Bumper program here at the Cape, I don't think any of them, except maybe Jones and Belcher, were at WSMR in their rocketry careers. Belcher and Jones were mainly involved in the GE's Bumper project that did launch the first six Bumper vehicles from White Sands in 1948-49. But as for Bain and Gray, they were stationed at Patrick AFB, a few miles away from the Cape, when the first two and only V-2/Bumpers flew down the Cape firing range. Both of them, though, were nearby the launch site at their assigned work stations when Bumper 8 and 7 flew in July 1950. |
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