The U.S. Air Force officially transferred this V-2 to the Smithsonian on May 1, 1949. It was moved to a storage facility in Maryland in 1954 and the National Air and Space Museum restored it in 1975-1976 for exhibition here.
A-4/V-2 Missile
The V-2 (Vengeance Weapon 2), or Aggregat 4, was the first ballistic missile used to strike distant targets. Germany launched almost 3,000 V-2s against England, France, and Belgium. After the war, the United States and the Soviet Union used captured V-2s as a basis of their own rocket programs.