This is a flying Thor-Able rocket model built by G. Harry Stine, one of the American pioneers in the field of flying rocket and missile models, in the late 1950s. It is named after the U.S. launch vehicle from the same time period that used the Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile first stage and the Able second stage. It is not known whether the model was flown. The model has a pasteboard body, and plastic fins, nosecone, and parachute. 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.
G. Harry Stine also donated the model to the Smithsonian in 1973.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.