Object Details
- Manufacturer
- Ruhrstahl AG
- Summary
- The German X-4 was a small air-to-air missile of World War II that could be fired at heavily armed Allied bombers from a distance. To prevent jamming, guidance was by wires running between the missile and launch aircraft, rather than by radio. Slated for use on the Me 262 jet fighter, the X-4 could also have been fired from such piston-engine aircraft as the Ju 88, Ju 388, and Fw 190, all of which launched test missiles beginning in August 1944. Ruhrstahl produced 1,000 X-4 airframes in late 1944, but an Allied air raid destroyed the BMW engines and production lines, a blow from which the program never recovered.
- The Smithsonian obtained these skin panels from the X-4's rear fuselage as part of the the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics' transfer of World War II missile artifacts in 1948.
- Credit Line
- Transferred from the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics
- Inventory Number
- A19510069000
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- CRAFT-Missile & Rocket Parts
- Materials
- Galvanized steel
- Possibly Tinned copper
- Rubber (Silicone)
- Synthetic Fabric
- Dimensions
- Overall (Each Panel): 2ft 7/8in. x 4 7/8in. x 1in. (63.18 x 12.38 x 2.54cm)
- Country of Origin
- Germany
- See more items in
- National Air and Space Museum Collection
- National Air and Space Museum
- Record ID
- nasm_A19510069000
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv923555821-5dab-482b-99fe-1d8668a82c97
