Shavetail

Shavetail was a small unguided rocket used as a research vehicle to test various aspects of rocket flight. In the 1950s, missile and rocket design was still in its early development, and many fuselage shapes, fin configurations, propulsion systems, and guidance systems were tried. Shavetail was tested at White Sands Missile Range in 1959, when eleven were fired. It was part of a 1950s period of extensive experimentation that included missiles such as Ajax, Dart, Falcon, Genie, Lacrosse, Lark, and SS-11. Shavetail was 9 feet long, 6 inches in diameter, weighed 200 pounds, used solid propellant, had a range of 6 miles, and was first fired in 1959.

White Sands, New Mexico · United States