Bumblebee once flew at Fort Miles

Operation Bumblebee was a Cold War project, but its story begins during World War II.

In 1943, the Nazi air force began attacking Allied ships with glide bombs. Warplanes could launch these bombs before getting in range of a ship’s guns, and the bombs could be guided using radio controls. In the Pacific, Allied ships faced suicide attacks by Imperial Japanese pilots called kamikazes. Glide bombs and kamikazes were difficult to defend against using the artillery guns on ships at the time.

Faced with these threats, the U.S. Navy asked its Applied Physics Lab to create a new weapon to defend American warships. APL researchers decided that for the project to succeed, they would need to use a ramjet. Ramjets suck in and compress air, using it to create more thrust. However, nobody had used one in a missile before.

Initial testing was done at Island Beach in New Jersey. It soon became clear that there were too many ships operating in the area for secret missile tests.

In December 1945, Bumblebee equipment began shifting to Fort Miles, where the area around Cape Henlopen offered more room for testing. New research buildings were raised near Battery Herring, while tracking equipment was attached to the battery and some of the World War II-era fire control towers.

Rockets were test fired from the beaches east and south of Herring Point. Eventually, the problems from Island Beach reappeared: there was too much activity in the area.

In March 1947, Bumblebee was relocated to Topsail Island, N.C. The project produced several successful missiles by the time it ended in the 1960s.

Research for Bumblebee also led to solid-fuel boosters used in vehicles like the Space Shuttle. Without Bumblebee and the tests conducted at Fort Miles, the U.S. might not have the modern space program.

One interesting footnote comes from civilian pilot Horace Wenyon. In September 1946, Wenyon was flying near Rehoboth Beach when he spotted an unidentified object streaking into the sky. A month later, the same thing happened. On June 2, 1947, he saw it again. Wenyon reported each sighting to the FBI.

Eventually his reports made their way to the Air Force, which was studying possible extraterrestrial sightings under the codename Bluebook. Wenyon never claimed he had spotted an extraterrestrial craft; he suggested a rocket, which is the same conclusion the Bluebook investigators reached. The objects Wenyon saw were officially declared to have been Bumblebee rockets from Fort Miles. However, Bumblebee testing at Fort Miles ended three months before the last sighting was reported. So did Wenyon get the date wrong, or did he see something unexplained? Perhaps further research can solve this mystery.

Bumblebee was an audacious project that successfully produced supersonic fleet defense missiles and advanced U.S. understanding of rocketry.

To discover more about Fort Miles’ contribution to defense, visit the museum in Cape Henlopen State Park.

For dates and times, email info@fortmilesmuseum.org and learn more at destateparks.com/FortMiles.