CCO - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0) This media is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer CCO - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0) This media is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer CCO - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0) This media is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer CCO - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0) This media is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer CCO - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0) This media is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer CCO - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0) This media is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer CCO - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0) This media is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page. IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and image viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. More - https://iiif.si.edu View Manifest View in Mirador Viewer Usage conditions may apply

This is American Rocket Society (ARS) Test Stand Stand No. 2 used in ground tests of experimental rocket motors. Built in 1938, it had a thrust capacity of 200 pounds.

The stand notably proved the effectiveness of James H. Wyld's regeneratively-cooled motor in tests from 1938 to 1941. This led Wyld and three other ARS members to form Reaction Motors, Inc. (RMI) in 1941, America's first commercial liquid-fuel rocket company which later built the 6000-pound thrust rocket engine for the Bell X-1 research rocket aircraft that broke the sound barrier in October 1947.

The stand was last used in 1942 when loaned to RM. It then was loaned in 1953 to the ARS. It was donated to the Smithsonian in 1967 by the Reaction Motors Division, Thiokol Chemical Corp.

 Display Status

This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.
Object Details
Date 1938-1941 Country of Origin United States of America Type EQUIPMENT-Test Manufacturer American Rocket Society
 Dimensions 3-D: 109.2 × 61 × 135.9cm, 136.1kg (3 ft. 7 in. × 2 ft. × 4 ft. 5 1/2 in., 300lb.)
 Materials Steel frame and steel overall; two brass or copper fuel and oxidizer tanks and feed lines in back; aluminum dial pointers and other parts; glass faces on dials and two glass tubes on linear scale
 Inventory Number A19680021000 Credit Line Reaction Motors Division, Thiokol Chemical Corp. Data Source National Air and Space Museum Restrictions & Rights Open Access (CCO)
For more information, visit the Smithsonians Terms of Use. You may also like Reaction Motors: 75th Anniversary