Missile, Ship-to-Surface, Rigel

This is the Rigel ship-to-surface missile, one of the earliest purely American efforts to develop a large submarine-launched short-bombardment missile. It was designed to fly 400-500 miles at Mach 2 and up to an altitude of 50,000 feet with a warhead weight of 3,000 pounds. The missile was developed during 1946 to 1953 but did not become operational and was cancelled. However, much was learned from it that was useful towards the development of later submarine launched missiles. The Rigel was powered by Marquardt ramjets and a solid fuel rocket booster. The Rigel was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1968 from the U.S. Navy.