Country of Origin: Germany
Dimensions:
Overall: 4ft 2in. x 8 3/4in. (127 x 22.23cm)
Materials:
Aluminum, sheet steel
The German X-4 was a small air-to-air missile of World War II that could be fired at heavily armed Allied bombers from a distance. To prevent jamming, guidance was by wires running between the missile and launch aircraft, rather than by radio. Slated for use on the Me 262 jet fighter, the X-4 could also have been fired from such piston-engine aircraft as the Ju 88, Ju 388, and Fw 190, all of which launched test missiles beginning in August 1944.
Ruhrstahl produced 1,000 X-4 airframes in late 1944, but an Allied air raid destroyed the BMW engines and production lines, a blow from which the program never recovered. The Smithsonian obtained this missile body from the U.S. Navy in 1948 as a part of transfer of World War II missile artifacts.
Transferred from the U.S. Navy Department
