A-4/V-2
Rocket
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum,
Washington D.C.
Since 1976, the Smithsonian
Institution’s V-2 rocket has been on display
in the upright position in the NASM Space
Hall. Painted in a black and white scheme to
resemble Test Vehicle A-4/V4, which was the
first successful rocket launched from Test
Stand VII in Peenemünde on October 3, 1942,
the missile has been one of the most popular
exhibits in the museum since its opening.
Resting on an authentic German launching
table, which is one of only four remaining
in the world, the V-2 has been featured
throughout several exhibit themes over the
decades. The V-2 was the last large artifact
restored before the Air & Space Museum
opened in 1976—during the American
Bicentennial celebration—and is arguably one
of the most photographed rockets in the
world.
In April 2022, as part of
NASM’s Revitalization and Transformation
project, it was removed from the building
and transported to the Mary Baker Engen
Preservation and Restoration Hangar at the Steven
F. Udvar-Hazy Center situated near
Dulles Airport.
There, it was completely disassembled and
inspected by artifact specialists. Work
began soon afterwards. The refurbished
rocket will return when the hall reopens in
a few years as part of the “RTX Living the
Space Age” exhibit.
The origin of this rocket has
always been somewhat of a mystery. There was
very little in the way of documentation
about its history in museum archives. It was
known that the Smithsonian Institution’s V-2
was acquired in 1946 from the U.S. Army Air
Forces and officially transferred on May 1,
1949. Immediately after the war, the rocket
can be seen in a handful of images taken by
air base photographer Earl Ware, during an
Army air show at Freemen Army Airfield,
Seymour, Indiana. The air show at Freeman
took place on the weekend of September
29-30, 1945. Freeman Field was placed under
the direct command of the Air Technical
Service Command with the mission of
receiving, reconditioning, evaluating, and
storing at least one each of every item of
enemy aircraft or other materials. Freeman
Field was also charged with the mission to
receive and catalogue wartime U.S. equipment
for display at the future home of the AAF
museum. Around 160 enemy aircraft, including
German jets, V-1 buzz bombs and V-2 rockets,
were shipped to this location following the
war.
PHOTOS
BELOW FREEMAN FIELD AIR SHOW SEPTEMBER 29-30, 1945
CLICK TO ENLARGE
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FILM FOOTAGE FROM FREEMAN FIELD AIR
SHOW
EXPO IN INDIANA 1945
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NASM V-2 AFTER
ITS TRANSFER TO PARK
RIDGE
AIR FORCE TECHNICAL
DEPOT
By the middle of 1946, the Freeman
Field program was winding down and
efforts began to dispose of some of
the surplus equipment. General “Hap”
Arnold previously directed that
outstanding examples of enemy
aircraft and related material be
placed in storage at the former
Douglas DC-4 Aircraft Plant at Park
Ridge, Illinois. Some of the larger
bomber aircraft were sent to
Davis-Monthan Field in Arizona and
the fighter aircraft were sent to
the Air Force Technical Museum depot
in Park Ridge, which was under the
control of ATSC’s Office of
Intelligence at the time.
However once again, the build-up for
the Korean War in 1951 necessitated
that aircraft production be resumed
at the Park Ridge plant. Very soon
afterwards, around 1954, the V-2 and
materials were moved to the National
Air Museum’s storage facility in
Suitland, Maryland, known then as
Silver Hill. With the transfer of
the entire aircraft and aeronautical
collection to Suitland, the
Smithsonian storage operation at
Park Ridge was terminated in
September of 1955. The SI facility
in Maryland would later be renamed
as the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage
Facility.
It was here, twenty-five years later, where the NASM V-2 was
first
constructed in
1976 for
exhibition in
the new
National Air
and Space
Museum
building on
the National
Mall in
Washington,
D.C.
Over the last few years, because of
its appearance in earlier photos,
the museum staff had doubts about
the internal makeup of the rocket.
It seemed to be an empty shell when
photographed at Freeman, Park Ridge,
and Silver Hill. When the missile
was surveyed prior to restoration,
the warhead, the thrust ring and
servo motor assembly, graphite
vanes, all control compartment
components, rudders, and the antenna
sections of all four fins were
missing. One of the very few
documents from the 1970’s did reveal
a donation from the RAF in Britain,
which included controls for the
missile’s guidance system in the
tail. In addition, the Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Alabama sent various parts from a
damaged V-2 around the same time.
Even so, until the rocket could be
taken down and disassembled, it was
still to be determined if the NASM
V-2 contained any guidance controls,
internal fuel tanks, or complete
engine assembly.
However, there was some additonal
information provided by author Gregory P.
Kennedy. The initial restoration of the V-2
is described in his 1984 book, “Vengeance
Weapon 2: The V2 Guided Missile.” During his
research for the book, Kennedy consulted
with retired NASM Assistant Director for
Astronautics, Frederick C. Durant III. At
the NASM Preservation and Restoration
Facility, all the parts needed to assemble
the V-2 were on hand by late 1975. With only
a handful of months remaining to complete
the project prior to the opening of the new
museum, the restoration staff hurriedly
began their work. To begin with, the
components to be used in assembling the
missile were selected. The best two
half-shells for the fuselage section were
chosen. After sandblasting and rust removal,
they were chemically treated. Metalwork was
required to repair various deteriorated or
damaged portions on the tail and fins. The
propellant tanks were omitted in order to
reduce the weight supported by the fins,
which seems strange considering the tanks
are very lightweight. The rushed
presentation date for the missile may have
contributed to omitting more detailed work
that would otherwise have been completed.
After some 2,000 man-hours of work, the
finished rocket was delivered to the museum
in May of 1976.
Fast-forward to 2022, when the rocket
was disassembled and examined at the
Udvar-Hazy Center, workers indeed
discovered the fuel tanks missing and
the guidance control section empty.
However, they were happy to find an
almost complete engine assembly with
turbo pump in the tail section, which
was thought to have possibly come from
the damaged rocket sent from
Huntsville. It was initially thought
that the warhead would be a sheet
metal replica, but it turned out to be
genuine, except for the tip.
- SMITHSONIAN V-2 ON DISPLAY IN SPACE
RACE GALLERY IN 2006 (NASM 2006-2099)
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NASM V-2 AT FREEMAN FIELD
AIR SHOW 1945
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NASM V-2 SECTIONS AT SILVER HILL/GARBER
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MOVE TO
PARK RIDGE
NASM V-2
PARK RIDGE
1971
GARBER STORAGE
1971
GARBER STORAGE
1971
GARBER STORAGE
1971
GARBER STORAGE
1971
GARBER STORAGE
1971
GARBER STORAGE
1971
GARBER STORAGE
GARBER
STORAGE
V-2 MSFC
PARTS
V-2 MSFC
PARTS
GARBER
WORK BEGINS
GARBER
1976
1976
INSTALLATION
1976
INSTALLATION
1976
INSTALLATION
1976
INSTALLATION
1976 OPENING
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UDVAR-HAZY
CENTER 2022
TANKS
INSTALLED 2023
MACHINING
ATTACHMENT RING
TAIL
SECTION WORK
ENGINE
MATED TO
MID-SECTION
NEW
PAINT 2023
In 2022 the Udvar-Hazy team
stripped away the previous
black-and-white paint and found
evidence of a green paint that was
consistent with late-war German
production markings. Matt Voight,
museum specialist at the Udvar-Hazy
Center, found the two half-shells of
the fuselage were from rockets
manufactured at different times. One
half-shell was manufactured in
mid-1943 at Peenemünde, and the
other half in early 1945 at the
Mittelwerk underground facility.
Each interior has differing
construction. Blueprints from the DigiPEER
archives on the Deutsches Museum
Munich website confirmed the
different production periods.
Additionally, both half-shells have
air vents, meaning they are from the
same side of the missile, as
production missiles only have vents
on a single side. More than first
thought, it appears the rocket
construction is an amalgamation of
parts from at least 4 different
rockets.
Senior Curator in NASM's
Space History Department, Michael
Neufeld, knew two V-2 propellant tanks
were stored at their Garber Facility
and decided to have them
installed into the empty
fuselage section. Based on
German drawings, the
Preservation and Restoration
Unit fabricated a new ring to secure the
thrust frame to the center section fuselage.
By January of 2023, the Udvar-Hazy staff had
completed the removal of the black-and-white
paint and previous body filler. The
replacement ring was fitted it to the engine
thrust frame and the two fuel tanks were
installed in the V-2 center section. Matthew
Swasta, responsible for refurbishing the
tail and engine assemblies, was able to
reconstruct most of the full engine assembly
into the thrust frame attached to the
missile before starting the work on the tail
section.
PHOTOS BELOW: ED
STRATEN 2023
Udvar-Hazy’s Duane Decker
tackled the cleanup of the V-2 launch table.
The original German table, painted black,
was transferred from Huntsville in 1975.
When captured V-2s were first tested at
White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico
after World War II, some tables were
photographed painted black, but the German
operational deployment of the weapon shows
Wehrmacht support equipment painted in
“Dunkelgelb” (dark sand-yellow). It was
decided to repaint the launch table in
operational Dunkelgelb for its return to the
museum.
Michael J. Neufeld, a longtime
NASM curator, has overseen the V-2 and other
German missiles since 1999. He recently told
of plans to return the V-2 and launch table
to the renovated Space Hall. This time, the
launch table and rocket will be mounted on a
floor-level pedestal in the Missile Pit,
where other taller rockets can fit under the
roof. “Visitors will be able to see the
stand and the rocket much as they would have
looked during the V-2 campaign of 1944-45. I
very much look forward to the day when we
again assemble and mount this important and
deadly icon of the missile and space age,”
said Neufeld.
The NASM V-2 work is ongoing at
the Udvar-Hazy Center and will continue into
2024. As the work progresses, it will be
updated here whenever possible.—V2ROCKET.COM
2023
Sources:
Correspondence with Michael Neufeld,
Colleen Anderson, and Matt Voight of
the Smithsonian Air & Space
Museum, 2019-2023
Correspondence with Frank H. Winter,
curator emeritus, Space History
Department of the National Air and
Space Museum (retired), 2023
Correspondence with members
International V-2 Research Group,
IV2RG, 1999-2023
Michael Neufeld, Smithsonian
National Air and Space Museum, "Restoring the
Museum’s V-2 Missile, Sept. 19,
2023"
Gregory P. Kennedy, Vengeance Weapon
2: The V2 Guided Missile, Appendix
2: The V-2 in the National Air and
Space Museum, 1984
Michael J. Neufeld, “The Myth of the
German Wonder Weapons,” April 13,
2020
David H. DeVorkin and Michael J.
Neufeld, “Space Artifact
or Nazi Weapon? Displaying the
Smithsonian’s V-2 Missile,
1976–2011,” Endeavor
Vol. 35 No. 4, 2011
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V-2 NASM SPACE
HALL PHOTOS 1989-2021: ED STRATEN, MICHEL
VAN BEST, AND OTHERS AS NOTED
