A dormant, rusting rocket that could once have carried a nuclear warhead was found in the messy garage of a Washington homeowner who recently died.
The discovery of the military-grade rocket prompted an urgent visit last Thursday from a local police bomb squad, which quickly determined that the missile remains were inert and posed no danger to the surrounding area.
A neighbor of the late owner told police that the deceased man initially purchased the obsolete equipment at an estate sale, Bellevue police said in a news release.
Police were alerted to the rocket when the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Ohio contacted them last Wednesday after the neighbor offered to donate it, cops said.
Police officers determined that the chunk of metal was a Douglas AIR-2 Genie, an unguided air-to-air rocket intended to carry a 1.5-kiloton W25 warhead that dates back to the Cold War.
The discovery of the missile was reported by a local police bomb squad, which quickly determined that the remains of the missile were inert. AP
“Members of the blast squad confirmed that the object was inert and did not contain rocket fuel, which essentially means that the object was a non-explosive device,” Bellevue police said.
Because the missile was no longer usable and the military had no interest in taking possession of it, the historical piece was left in the hands of the neighbor, who plans to restore it for display in a museum, authorities said.
The Douglas AIR-2 Genie was first tested in 1956 and entered service early the following year, according to the Air Force museum.
Because the missile was no longer usable and the military had no interest in seizing it, it was left to the neighbor. AP
In July 1957, a Genie was fired from 18,000 feet from a fighter plane and detonated over Yucca Flats in Nevada, the first and only such test by the United States.
The rare relic so shocked the local police department in Bellevue, a West Coast city of about 150,000 people, that they decided to share a photo of the strange find on social media.
“And we think it will be a long, long time before we get another call like this again,” the department tweeted in a nod to Elton John’s hit single “Rocket Man.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn