WAC Corporal

The WAC Corporal was the first sounding rocket developed in the United States and the first vehicle to achieve hypersonic speeds. It was an offshoot of the Corporal program, that was started by a partnership between the United States Army Ordnance Corps and the California Institute of Technology (named “ORDCIT”) in June 1944 with the ultimate goal of developing a military ballistic missile.

On 11 October 1945 the first ‘all-up’ WAC Corporal was launched. The WAC Corporal was boosted up its launch tower by a Tiny Tim booster, which burned for 0.6 seconds. The main engine, powered by hypergolic aniline + furfuryl alcohol / RNNA propellants, burned for a total of 47 seconds. The rocket would burn out at 24 km altitude, then coast up to 70km. The rocket was equipped with a recovery parachute and could be refueled and reused.

In 1946 it became the first American rocket to exceed 80 km altitude. It was capable of taking 11 kg to 30 km altitude and was powered by a liquid propellant engine originally developed for JATO applications.

The first production run of WAC A’s was followed by the WAC B. This had lighter engines and structure and an improved telemetry unit. The WAC Corporal program was an extremely successful test program. The last 6 WAC Corporal Bs to fly were used in the Bumper program as the second stage atop captured V-2 missiles in early air-light and staging experiments.