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Author Topic:   Value of early rocket, satellite contractor models
HiFi
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posted 02-13-2013 12:08 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for HiFi   Click Here to Email HiFi     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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HiFi
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posted 02-13-2013 12:47 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for HiFi   Click Here to Email HiFi     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This is a model of a naval tactical missile, dating from between 1946 to 1953. [Note: updated info in reply following] The stand, which also has "confidential" engraved in it, has the Grumman logo and says:
U.S. NAVY
Bureau of Aeronautics
XSSM-N-6
TACTICAL MISSILE
The model has two pairs of boosters that are removable. One on each side of the model.

Any idea how I can get an idea of the value of this? Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Jerry Brouillette
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From: Louviers, CO
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posted 02-13-2013 06:40 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Jerry Brouillette   Click Here to Email Jerry Brouillette     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Nice models! I've never seen either one. They could be worth quite a bit to the right collector. Gotta love that Buck Rogers style of the Tact missile!

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posted 02-14-2013 11:28 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for HiFi   Click Here to Email HiFi     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Apparently this is the Grumman Rigel, which was planned as a large submarine launched nuclear missile.

From Encyclopedia Astronautica:

American Navy pioneering cruise missile project. Development started in 1943. Program cancelled in 1953.

Rigel was begun by the US Navy in 1946. The aim was to produce a solid-rocket boosted, twin-ramjet powered, ship-launched supersonic cruise missile to attack shore targets at a range of 930 km (500 nm). Work began with simple single-ramjet test vehicles. Flights of twin-ramjet test vehicles began in May 1950. After repeated test launch failures, and success of the less ambitious Regulus subsonic cruise missile, Rigel was cancelled in August 1953.

From designation-systems.net:
The operational SSM-N-6 Rigel was designed with two wingtip-mounted Marquardt 71 cm (28 in) ramjets and four rocket boosters. The missile had a range of 930 km (500 nm) and was guided by a modified LORAN system. Two guidance submarines along the flight path would have been used as beacons which were interrogated by the missile to obtain location information. When the predetermined target location was reached, the Rigel would have entered either a preprogrammed or a ballistic flight path towards the point of impact. It was hoped to achieve an accuracy of 550m (600 yd) CEP with this system. The intended warhead for Rigel was a W-5 nuclear fission warhead, but it's possible that the final operational missile would have used a W-27 thermonuclear device.
I have also read that the missile was originally designated SSM-6, then changed to the later designation. So that would date this model to sometime between the mid 1946 to early 1953!

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posted 02-15-2013 12:09 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for HiFi   Click Here to Email HiFi     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
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posted 02-15-2013 12:10 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for HiFi   Click Here to Email HiFi     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This second model, which is about 14 inches high and made of metal, is the Trailblazer 2 rocket designed for high-speed re-entry tests by NASA. Taking re-entry test payloads high into space, then ramming them back down into the atmosphere. This was a test method for re-entry materials such as used in the heat shields.

The first two stages of the rocket would take the upper stage package to an altitude of 300 km. Then the upper two stages would fire, driving the 18 kg payload into the atmosphere at 6.1 km/sec.

These launches were done from NASA Wallops Station, Virginia, beginning in late 1961.

NASA fired a four-stage solid-fuel Trailblazer rocket from Wallops Station, Virginia, in the first of a series of reentry tests. Two stages boosted the rocket to 167 miles; then the other two drove the nose cone down through the atmosphere at 14,000 miles per hour.

The engineer who owned this model was instrumental in Project Fire which tested materials for heat shields using this rocket.

Any thoughts on valuation appreciated.

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