Project Hermes Interim Report Number 1 1951 General Electric (Patreon)

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Originally a public domain film, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes_(missile_program)

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The Hermes project (November 15, 1944 – December 31, 1954) was started in response to Germany's rocket attacks in Europe. Project Hermes was to determine the missile needs of army field forces. "Accordingly the Ordnance Department entered into a research and development contract with the General Electric Company on 20 November 1944. "This contract authorized the General Electric Company to seek the development of long-range missiles that could be used against both ground targets and high-altitude aircraft. The contractor agreed to perform investigations, research, experiments, design, development, and engineering work in connection with the development of long-range missiles for use against ground targets and high-altitude aircraft." General Electric was also to investigate ramjets, solid rocket motors, liquid propellant rocket engines, and hybrid propellants. "The contract also required the General Electric Company to develop remote control equipment, ground equipment, fire control devices, and homing devices."...

Hermes was the Army's second missile program. In May 1944 the Army contracted with the California Institute of Technology's Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratories to start the ORDCIT Project to research, test and develop guided missiles...

When the U.S. Army captured the Peenemünde engineers, including Werner Von Braun, Dr. Richard W. Porter of Project Hermes was close behind. Following the capture by American forces of the Mittelwerk V-2 factory, Special Mission V-2 swept in and scooped up enough components to assemble 100 V-2s...

After the German V-2 parts and technology were imported into the United States, the U. S. Army formed the Upper Atmosphere Research Panel in early 1946 to oversee experiments both about their technology and their use for upper atmosphere research. One-third of the panel members were General Electric scientists. The Hermes project was expanded to include testing of the V-2 sounding rockets. General Electric employees, with the help of German specialists, assembled V-2s at White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico where the Army constructed a blockhouse and Launch Complex 33, now a National Historical Landmark. The first V-2 launch there was on April 16, 1946 but reached only 3.4 miles' altitude. The maximum altitude reached by a Project Hermes V-2 was 114 miles achieved by V-2 #17 on 17 December 1946. There were 58 standard V-2s, 6 Bumper" V-2s with a WAC Corporal second stage, and 4 drastically modified V-2s launched as Hermes IIs (Hermes B) by Project Hermes...

The initial goals of Project Hermes included Hermes B, a ramjet-powered cruise missile. Hermes B was soon split into a Hermes B-1 test vehicle and a Hermes B-2 operational missile. Hermes B-1 soon evolved into Hermes II. In June 1946 General Electric's contract was amended to include a two-stage missile which used a V-2 as its first stage, with a ramjet-powered supersonic cruise missile as the second stage. The ramjet was assigned to the Von Braun team of which less than 40 were employed in the V-2 launching program...

When the Von Braun team transferred to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, their primary mission was still a Mach 3.3 ramjet cruise missile. In May 1950 Hermes II was reduced to research only status. At that time Ordnance transferred the Mach 4 Hermes B from GE to Huntsville. September 1950 saw GE's Hermes C-1 study transferred to Huntsville where it evolved into the very successful PGM-11 Redstone short-range ballistic missile. The Hermes ramjet cruise missile faded into obscure history as it was terminated in 1953...