Mercury-Atlas Rocket — Handmade Metal Display Model
Mercury-Atlas Rocket — Handmade Metal Display Model
Model details
- Construction
- Handcrafted
- Display
- Display base included
- Collection
- Aviation Models - Airplanes Models
- Item no.
- AJ127
The launch vehicle that put the first Americans into orbit, in hand-formed metal.
Handcrafted as a full stack with the Mercury capsule and escape tower atop the Atlas booster, with engine, skirt and panel detail.
Details
- Handcrafted metal construction
- Full stack with Mercury capsule and escape tower
- Engine and booster skirt detail
- Hand-finished surfaces
- Ready to display
The rocket
Atlas was a genuinely strange machine. To save weight its fuel tanks had no internal structure at all — the skin was stainless steel thinner than a coin, and the rocket held its shape only because it was pressurised. An unpressurised Atlas standing on the pad would crumple under its own weight, so they were kept inflated with nitrogen at all times.
Engineers called it a steel balloon. It carried Glenn, Carpenter, Schirra and Cooper into orbit, and descendants of the design are still flying.