Bumper-WAC

Scale 1:96 Published: October 25, 2006

History 
Bumber-WAC was the first large two-stage liquid-propellant rocket. The first stage was a captured german V-2 rocket. The warhead was removed and the nose rebuilt to a launching compartment with blast ports.

The second stage was a modified WAC Corporal sounding rocket. The WAC was equipped with four fins with 50% more total area, than the original WAC.

After some test launches the fifth Bumber-WAC 5 was launched On February 24, 1949 from White Sands proving ground. It reached a record altitude of 393 km/244 miles. This record held for 8 years until 1957. 

Bumper-Wac number 7 and 8 were flown for speed not for altitude. There was a risk that parts of the rocket would land outside the White Sands area. Instead the Bumper-Wac tests were moved to a sparsely populated costal area, called Cape Canaveral. Bumper-WAC 7 was the first rocket to be launched for the cape. 

The program was officially concluded in July 1950.

Sources:

Books and articles:
Germany's Secret Weapons by Roger Ford

V-2 Ballistic Missile 1942-1952 by Steven J. Zagola

Dawn of the Rocket Age by Joachim Engelmann

The Rocket - The History and Development of Rocket and Missile Technology  by David Baker.

Rockets of the world by Peter Alway,

Sources on the web (some of them).

Begg's Aerospace

NASA Sounding Rockets, 1958-1968: A Historical Summary

Vangaurd - a history

Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles

www.v2rocket.com

http://www.raketenspezialisten.de/