Hermes Program

In September 1944, Germany first used its new high-tech weapon - the Vau-2 long-range ballistic missile. Created as a result of the 18-year development of the Aggregate missile program, the V-2 was a ballistic projectile carrying 830 kg of explosive at a distance of up to 250-320 km. Its high flight altitude and speed reaching 1.45 km / s did not allow to intercept the missile with any type of weapon that existed in 1944.

Although the effectiveness of Fau-2 missile bombardment of London was low due to the lack of accuracy and reliability of the missile, US military circles praised the prospects of ballistic missile weapons. Already in 1944, the California Technical Institute, in collaboration with the Bureau of Ammunition, began the development of the first American solid propellant ballistic missile Private, first launched in December 1944. This exclusively test shell was designed to study the aerodynamics of large missiles. Subsequently, the obtained developments formed the basis of the first American liquid rocket WAC Corporal .

In parallel with it, in November 1944, the US Army and General Electric Corporation launched a larger-scale program for the development of large liquid rockets under the code name Hermes. Since by this moment fragments of German Fau-2 rockets had already begun to arrive from Great Britain, the efforts of engineers were concentrated on their study and reproduction.

American V-2 launches

After the surrender of Germany, the U.S. Army had about 100 captured V-2s captured in the form of spare parts in transit. In 1946, the shells and missile systems were exported to the United States, where General Electric received a contract for their assembly and testing. With the participation of German experts, they managed to reproduce the missiles quickly enough - on March 16, 1946, the first launch attempt was made (unsuccessful), and on May 10, 1946, the Fau-2 first successfully took off from the White Sands training ground.

Until September 1952, when the use of Fau-2 in the United States was finally discontinued, more than 64 launches of this missile were made. Missiles were launched mainly for research purposes, to collect scientific and military information and study the upper atmosphere. In December 1946, one rocket set a new world altitude record - 187 km, which lasted until 1951.

Despite its effectiveness, the V-2 missile no longer met the requirements of either the military or scientists. For the military, its range, accuracy and payload were insufficient. For scientific purposes, the size and payload of the rocket were excessive, in addition, its inseparable warhead did not allow the soft return of scientific instruments and records. As a result, after the advent of more sophisticated suborbital rockets in the 1950s, the V-2 flights were discontinued.

General Electric RTV-G-4 Bumper

The Bumper program, developed as part of the Hermes program, was launched in February 1946 with the goal of developing a two-stage research rocket. Single-stage rockets, like the V-2, had insufficient altitude characteristics for suborbital flights into outer space.

As part of the development of the program, it was decided to use the captured German missile, studied under the Hermes program as the first stage, to achieve superhigh heights. As a second, an all-American WAC Corporal liquid rocket was mounted on top of the V-2. According to calculations, such a bundle could reach a much greater effective height.

The first successful launch of a two-stage rocket took place on February 24, 1949. The second stage, the WAC Corporal rocket, set a new world record for an altitude of 393 km and a speed of 1.8 km / s.

Hermes

In addition to the V-2, the U.S. after the war also had the captured German Wasserfall anti-aircraft missile, developed in 1943-1945. After a series of tests, the Americans considered the missile to be of considerable interest as the most advanced type of guided weapon created in Germany. On the basis of Wasserfall, it was decided to develop a series of research and combat missiles of various designs under the general designation “Hermes”.

Hermes A-1

In 1946, having gained access to German developments under the Wasserfall program, General Electric engineers proposed the development of a ground-to-air missile for the US Army on its basis. But by that time, the army was already running its own, more promising Nike program, and was not interested in a parallel program based on an unfinished German missile. As a result, the Hermes A-1 program was redirected exclusively to research purposes.

In 1947-1948, a number of launches of specially modified V-2 captured trophies were carried out to test the features of the control system. The revealed difficulties and the need to correct them led to the fact that only in 1950 Hermes A-1 was ready for testing. For the first time, a rocket took off in February 1951.

According to the results of tests conducted in May and April 1951, the rocket was considered satisfactory. Her control system and engine worked quite efficiently. It was proposed to develop on its basis a tactical projectile that even received the designation SSM-G-15, but as early as 1950 this idea was rejected, and the rocket was returned to the category of exclusively test ones. The Hermes A-1 program was officially canceled in 1951.

Hermes A-2

Initially, under the designation Hermes A-2 , a wingless ground-to-ground tactical missile was developed, which was the development of Hermes A-1 . But even at the development stage, in 1947, the program was canceled and restarted again in 1948 with a new goal: to create a short-range solid-fuel tactical missile (120 km).

Since powerful solid-fuel engines at that time were not well understood, the main goal of the Hermes A-2 program was to study the characteristics of solid-fuel rockets. Although the planned combat missile was even assigned the designation SSM-G-13, and the idea was put forward to equip it with a W-7 nuclear warhead, with a capacity of forty kilotons, protracted tests did not allow the project to be developed.

Only in 1950, the company Thiokol created a fairly powerful solid propellant rocket engines. Tests of the Hermes A-2 rocket did not begin until 1953, when the program itself was already canceled. After several launches, it was completely closed in favor of the planned solid-fuel tactical missile MGM-29 Sergeant .

Hermes A-3

In 1947, the U.S. Army formulated official requirements for a tactical missile capable of delivering a 450-pound warhead at a distance of up to 240 km with a probable circular deviation of no more than 60 meters. It was supposed to develop this missile as part of the Hermes program. The official army designation SSM-G-8 was assigned to the rocket in 1948, and the Hermes A-3 program was initiated.

High technical requirements led to the fact that work on the projectile was very slow. The case moved only in 1951, when the Hermes A-3 program was divided into two: Hermes A-3A - exclusively a test shell - and Hermes A-3B , a war missile with a 47-kiloton nuclear warhead.

The first attempt to launch the Hermes A-3A took place in March 1953, but without much success: it was only in June 1953 that the rocket was launched normally. Until January 1954, 7 experimental missiles were launched, but only two launches were successful. However, the relatively high performance of the rocket led to the fact that the program was not closed despite the low reliability. Although by 1953 the military, which had already received the Corporal missile, had lost interest in the Hermes A-3 as a missile, several Hermes A-3B combat missiles were manufactured and launched (but only one of them was successful).

In 1954, the US military completely lost all interest in the program. The reliability of captured German developments was extremely low. At the same time, the US Army was already armed with a fully American MGM-5 Corporal missile , capable of carrying a nuclear charge. Soon, the Hermes A-3 program was closed.

Hermes B (Hermes II)

The Hermes B project was launched in 1946 as an ambitious program for creating a direct-flow cruise missile capable of delivering 450-kg combat charge over a distance of 1,600 km with a supersonic speed of about 4 Machs . Subsequently, the requirements for the rocket increased to 2,260 kg warhead and 2,400 km range.

Since once-through engines providing Mach 4 speed for 1946 did not even exist in development, the program was primarily considered as a research one. Like Hermes A-3 , the program was divided into two: Hermes B-1 - a research vehicle, and Hermes B-2 - a combat missile.

Due to the many technical difficulties revealed, the army was forced to revise the program and restart the project under the code Hermes II . As part of this program, it was planned to create a direct-flow second stage for the Hermes rocket.

In May 1947, a system was put up for testing, consisting of a V-2 rocket (which was used due to the unavailability of other versions), on which a Ram ram stage was installed on top. It was assumed that after launch and acceleration to a speed of the order of 1 km / s, the upper stage will separate and continue to fly on its own ramjet engines. The rocket launch took place in May 1947, without ramjet engines (equipment was installed instead). The missile lost its course, and eventually fell in Mexico.

In 1951, the program was closed, despite some prospects. The main reason was the unsatisfactory situation with the development of ram engines of a high Mach number, and the identified problems associated with streamlining at high speeds. Several concepts were proposed for development, in particular, a direct-flow rocket with a radius of up to 2400 km, with a speed of about 4.5 Machs at an altitude of up to 24000 m, but the tests were limited to bench blowdowns of direct-flow engines.

Hermes C

The last missile of the Hermes series was developed since July 1946. The project considered the theoretical possibility of creating a long-range three-stage ballistic missile with a radius of more than 1000 km. The missile was supposed to consist of two missile stages, and a supersonic glider as a third, carrying a combat charge. It was estimated that the range would exceed 4500 km. In view of the obvious excess of the technical capabilities of that time, the program was redesigned for the development of the Hermes S-1 ballistic missile with a range of 800 km and closed.

In addition to General Electric, the following were involved in the program:

• Missile Engine (A-1, A-2, A-6) - North American Aviation, Inc. , Rocket Division , McGregor , Texas ; ^[2]
• High-strength thin-walled body and nozzles of solid propellant rocket engines of prototypes (RV-A-10) - Excelco Developments, Inc., Silver Creek , New York ; ^[3]
• Gyro with gas dynamic rotor mounts - Sperry Rand Corp. , Ford Instrument Div., Long Island City , New York → Sperry Rand Corp., Sperry-Farragut Div., Bristol , Tennessee ; ^[four]
• Mechanical parts of the warhead - Beckman & Whitley Inc., San Carlos , California ; ^[5]

The Hermes program gave American designers valuable experience in developing missiles of various classes. Nevertheless, it also showed that the development of military developments of German designers does not make further sense, since by 1946 these captured missiles were definitely inferior to more modern missiles developed as part of the US missile program also under the scientific supervision of German designers.

• Frederick I. Ordway III, Ronald C. Wakeford. International Missile and Spacecraft Guide. - McGraw-Hill, 1960.
• Army Ordnance Department Guided Missiles Program, US Army Ordnance Department, 1948
• John W. Bullard. History of the Redstone Missile System. - US Army Missile Command, 1965.
• Joel Carpenter: “Bliss Zero and the Radical Cruise Missile Experiments of Project Hermes II” Website