posted 09-20-2014 09:49 AM               

Space Cover #283: Bumper-8: First launch at Cape Canaveral

On July 24, 1950, Bumper-8, a V-2/WAC Corporal 2-stage rocket combination, lifted off at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, thus achieving the first rocket launch at Cape Canaveral, FL. On July 24, 2000, a tribute ceremony took place at Launch Pad 3, where Bumper-8 took off 50 years earlier, and was attended by a number of people involved in that historic first launch.

The two covers shown here were created for that anniversary, with their cachets picturing the famous photograph of the Bumper-8 launch. The top cover has four relevant stamps affixed, with the von Karman stamp showing the Bumper-8 launch and the Fort Bliss stamp showing a V-2 launch. The covers were canceled with a special Bumper-8 pictorial cancel.

This cover's cachet was autographed by four Bumper-8 anniversary attendees who were involved in the Bumper-8 launch: Norris Gray, Dick Jones, Ed Belcher and Liz Bain.

Of interest concerning the Bumper Program, is that there were eight launches in the program, with the first six occurring at White Sands Proving Ground, NM, but with only one successful, and then the last two at Cape Canaveral. Bumper-8 was actually the seventh Bumper launch, with Bumper-7 suffering an engine shutdown (the first rocket firing at Cape Canaveral) and replaced on the pad by Bumper-8. Bumper-7 then launched successfully five days later, thus completing the Bumper Program.

And finally, to show the contrast between the powerful V-2 first stage and the much smaller second stage WAC Corporal sounding rocket, "WAC" are initials for "Without Any Control."

posted 09-22-2014 08:19 AM               

The cachet cover depicted was a special production-issue of my firm, however, there is another project associated with the big anniversary event that has yet to be completed, more than 14 years ago, involving "rocket mail."

The big ceremony, hosted by the Air Force Space & Museum Foundation and the Air Force 45th Space Wing, honored about a dozen members of the original Bumper 8 team that had attended the ocean-side ceremony on a hot summer Florida day. It was a week-long commemoration packed with events and special activities that included the model rocket launch as one of the highlight events on July 24, 2000.

On that day, exactly fifty years ago, fifty of my Bumper 8 stamped cachet covers were put inside the nose cone of a 7-foot-high Bumper 8 model rocket that had been positioned at the old, but now long abandoned, launch pad #3 of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Right after a quick launch and recovery of the flown V-2/WAC Corporal model rocket, which parachuted back on Cape soil not too far from the original launch pad site, the builder of the model rocket and I had retrieved from the payload section of the nose cone our souvenir flight package.

Besides the flown rocket mail covers (including a few others by rocket builder Michael Cyrick), I also had aboard the vehicle an autograph of rocket pioneer Dr. Wernher von Braun and a cut-segment of a real flown V-2 rocket tail section from White Sands Missile Range, NM, in 1946.

That afternoon, after all the ceremonial functions and other events planned for the special anniversary were over with, it was time for my 20-minute car drive south on the old Cape/lighthouse road to Port Canaveral. Here, at the old Cape Canaveral post office near Jetty Park, with 3-different hand cancel devices in hand, all the flown model rocket covers were cancelled and processed for the big event.

In addition, I also "posted" hundreds more that afternoon (probably altogether about 5,000+ by week's end).

Autographs of Bumper's old timers were later included on the flown covers and others (some non-philatelic items as well), but only from those original Bumper 8 team members still residing in the Cape area, and in small quantities. After contacting the Bumper pioneers myself, private visits were made to each of them in their homes for their individual signings during the following weeks after the anniversary week itself.

As a side-note though, the flown covers are still not complete as proper certification write-ups and flown rocket mail labels need to be added to each. In addition, the project is complex and has taken much more time than anticipated to complete.

I am still hoping to attach to each flown model rocket cover a small cut-fragment of the flown V-2 rocket test flight in 1946 and include a proper rubber stamp cachet write-up for its certification. But keep in mind that not only did the small metal artifacts fly as part of an actual flown V-2 rocket from WSMR, but they also flew aboard the nosecone of the Bumper 8 model rocket 50th anniversary flight from the Cape's first launch complex.

Locating an appropriate rubber stamp manufacturer these day has been extremely difficult. Brevard Rubber Stamp Company in Cocoa, FL, my primary rubber stamp cachet provider for most of my space cover production years, went out of business nearly 15 years ago. Hopefully by July 2015, fifteen years since the covers had been flown, I'll have them fully-cachet completed and will certainly have one of them illustrated here.

For this veteran space cover collector and avid rocket/space history enthusiast, working on the 50th anniversary of the first rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, was a big thrill and joy in being a small part of the anniversary team and in such a "space cover" way. Needless to say, it was lots of fun and one of the highlights of my space cover career!

posted 05-09-2017 09:22 AM               

Twenty-five of his covers were part of the payload that was flown on a Bumper 8 model rocket on July 24, 2000. As described and certified on the back of the cover shown below, they were flown on a scale model of the Bumper 8 rocket and have an actual recovered piece (from a tail fin) attached of a V-2 rocket that was launched in 1946 at White Sands Missile Range, NM.

The commemorative model rocket launch took place on historic Launch Pad 3 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station where the actual Bumper 8 launch took place exactly 50 years earlier.

A limited number of these flown covers, with a V-2 rocket relic attached, and signed on the front by four members of the 1950 Bumper 8 launch team, are now available from Ken.

posted 05-09-2017 05:54 PM               

A big thanks goes out to Bob McLeod for highlighting the cover project on cS along with Joel Katzowitz for providing the V-2/Bumper/WAC graphic design and to Alex Polimeni for his computer support cover work.

The flown covers, at $75 each, will also include a packet of related materials all pertaining to the special golden anniversary of the Cape's first rocket launch.

I am hoping, if at all possible, to include with each order a scrapbook-type binder that would contain photos of the model rocket, interviews of the Bumper signing pioneers, copies of prior Bumper 8 anniversary cover issues, along with some other news articles and related photos.

In addition, though, I would like to include a copy of a long text article that I had penned in late July 2000 detailing the flown cover project and what it was like here on the Florida Space Coast in 1950 when the "real" twin Bumpers flew, their flight histories, Project Bumper itself, the Cape-range selection, and the Bumper launch site area.