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Requested move

[edit]
The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was moved. I find a weak consensus to move since the article is more about a military project than the missile it produced. This could change with rewriting, however. --BDD (talk) 23:39, 14 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thumper missileProject Thumper – Revert to the original title which is accutate, succinct and in better keeping with similar articles Relisted. walk victor falk talk 11:01, 6 April 2014 (UTC)Petebutt (talk) 17:32, 24 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.


Thumper was NOT Wizard. They were two entirely different systems created by competing organizations. In February 1944 the Army Ground Forces requested that Army Service Forces to develop an antiaircraft missile (Nike). In July 1944 the AGF added an antiballistic missile requirement.[1] Two separate contracts were let in March 1946 two essentially the same specification. They were Wizard (MX-796), contracted for by the Army Air Force and Thumper (MX-795) contracted for by the Army Service Forces for the Army Ground Forces.[2][3] This duality of programs was typical of a struggle between the AAF and the AGF & ASF over control of the emerging guided missile field.[4]

A further example of this dispute was Nike (ASF/AGF) and GAPA (MX-606) (AAF).[5]

In the Summer of 1947 both Wizard and Thumper were degraded to "prolonged studies."[6]

Following the separation of the AAF to form the USAF in September 1947 all three programs GAPA, Wizard AND Thumper went to the USAF. Thumper was cancelled in 1948 and it's funds were transfered to GAPA.[7]

Thumper's major contribution to technology was the investigation of collision course interception.

Wizard was NOT Thumper. Merging them was a mistake. Perhaps driven by the similarity of their original specification and their ultimate assignment to the USAF.

Mark Lincoln (talk) 10:37, 15 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

  1. ^ Rosenberg, Max 1964, The Air Force and the National Guided Missile Program 1944-1950, USAF Historical Division Liaison Office, 1964 p. 17
  2. ^ Baucom, Donald R. 1992, The Origins of SDI, 1944-1983, Lawrence, Kansas, University Press of Kansas, 1992, ISBN 0-7006-0531-2
  3. ^ Schaffel, Kenneth, 1991, The Emerging Shield, The Air Force and the Evolution of Continental Air Defense 1945-1960, Washington D.C., Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force, 1990, ISBN 0-912799-60-9 p. 256
  4. ^ Rosenberg, Max 1964, The Air Force and the National Guided Missile Program 1944-1950, USAF Historical Division Liaison Office, 1964 p. 19
  5. ^ Rosenberg, Max 1964, The Air Force and the National Guided Missile Program 1944-1950, USAF Historical Division Liaison Office, 1964 p. 76
  6. ^ Rosenberg, Max 1964, The Air Force and the National Guided Missile Program 1944-1950, USAF Historical Division Liaison Office, 1964 p. 83
  7. ^ Rosenberg, Max 1964, The Air Force and the National Guided Missile Program 1944-1950, USAF Historical Division Liaison Office, 1964 p. 106-107, 117