German V2 A5 Rocket Graphite Rudder

This fragment of the A5 rocket rudder was recovered from Peenemunde and bears serial number "00621". Initially developed in 1927 by members of the German Rocket Society, in 1932 these liquid fueled rockets attracted the attention of a team led by General Walter Dornberger of the the Reichswehr. Flown by Wernher von Braun, the rocket had limited capabilities, but Dornberger saw Von Braun's genius and pushed for him to join the military, which he did. In December 1934 Von Braun's team flew the A2 rocket, a small model powered by ethanol and liquid oxygen, By 1936 the team started work on both the A3 and A4, which had was a full sized design with a range of about 175 kilometers (109 miles), a top altitude of 80 kilometers (50 miles), and a payload of about a tonne. Dornberger moved the team from Kummersdorf (near Berlin) to Peenemünde, on the island of Usedom on Germany's Baltic coast. The A3 was problematic, and a redesign was started as the A5, the purpose of which was to test and flight qualify all the features of the long range A4. This version was completely reliable, and by 1941 the team had fired about seventy A5 rockets.