NK006 1/72 Hermes II

Construction kit of US ramjet testbed based on V-2.

General Electric's Project Hermes studied all aspects of missile design, including research into ramjets. One scheme was to boost a ramjet-powered missile called "Organ" atop a V-2. This project was known as "Hermes II". The Hermes II missile would lift off under the power of V-2, which would accelerate the combined stages to a speed of 3600 mph. For the next nearly 7 minutes, the upper stage would then speed along at nearly a mile a second under the power of ramjets in its wings. The Hermes II tests did not include fully functioning Organ stages. They tested ramjet diffusers (components at the front end of a ramjet) in the form of large, squarish wing panels near the nose of the rocket. They also tested the control of the missile with Organ components. Engineers fitted the V-2 stage with oversized fins and aerodynamic control surfaces to compensate for the forward area of the Organ wings. First missile took off from White Sands on May 29, 1947. Rockets were supposed to fly north over missile range, but Missile 0 turned south, toward Mexico. It crashed into a hillside cemetery on the far side of Juarez. Mexicans were selling fragments of the missile as sounvenirs of the first missile fired from the US on another country. Four more Hermes II flights followed in 1949 and 1950. In 1953 the Army quit works on ramjets.

The set is including Condor's 1/72 German Missile A4/V2 kit (No. 72001).