This is a flying Thor missile model built by G. Harry Stine, one of the American pioneers in the field of flying rocket and missile models, during the late 1950s or early 1960s. It is based on the U.S. intermediate-range ballistic missile of the same name that was deployed overseas in the same time period. The model has a plastic parachute and a balsa body, fins, and nosecone. A solid propellant rocket motor propels the model, and then at the end of the vertical flight it forces the release of a parachute. The model is then retrieved and can be used again. The model is launched from a launch pad, with a hand-held launch controller being used to ignite the motor.
It is not known whether the model was flown. It was donated by G. Harry Stine in 1973.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.