Historical Photo Of The Month - November 2004

Private and Corporal
Photograph Number 352-51

Major General Gladeon M. Barnes, then chief of the Army Ordnance Research and Development Service, visited the fledgling Jet Propulsion Laboratory in January 1945. Barnes, on the right, and JPL Acting Director Frank Malina stood near mockups of the two missiles then under development at JPL. The Laboratory was under contract to Army Ordnance to design and build the missiles.

Private was a small short-range unguided missile with a solid propellant engine. JPL's first successful rocket test flight came with the 1944 launch of Private A at Camp Irwin in the Mojave Desert.

The larger Corporal was a guided missile with a liquid propellant engine. The first step in its development was the design of a smaller version, the 16-foot WAC Corporal, which was successfully launched in October 1945. The mockup seen here is the full size version, the 39-foot Corporal E, which was launched in May 1947.

For more information about guided missiles, or about the history of JPL, contact the JPL Archives.

Past Photos of the Month
Thumbnail pages 1996-2002 | 2003+

Past Photos of the Month Subject Index