So I'm bored turning a part on my lathe & looking at a box on my wall that holds various cutting tools.

[elaterite@mastoart.social]

So I'm bored turning a part on my lathe & looking at a box on my wall that holds various cutting tools. Many hundreds of times I've seen the writing that starts out "Bendix" & I'm like yawn, brake parts. For the first time I read the whole thing: "Bendix Telemetering Equip. To W.S.P.G." OMG! In the late 1940s this box contained the world's first telemetry equipment used in captured German V2 rockets that were being tested at White Sands Proving Grounds, NM!
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#History #Rockets #Military #WWII

[elaterite@mastoart.social]

My Dad worked on the captured German V2 rockets at White Sands ~1947-1952. When they were first testing the rockets, radio telemetry hadn't been invented yet. They had long pits in the ground filled with several miles of wire that was attached to the rocket's instruments so they could collect flight data. Most of the time the wires broke shortly after launch. So when this box(s) arrived at WSPG back then, I'm sure it was a very big deal--like kids opening the best birthday present ever--lol!
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[drjlecter@beige.party]

@elaterite the V2 was built in an underground cave system in the region where I grew up. It was in the middle of nowhere in Germany and the only reason completely unimportant tiny villages and towns got bombed. Because the train tracks going through them were needed to get the materials to where they build the rockets.