The National Museum of the United States Air Force received a call from a Bellevue, Washington resident last weekend, asking to donate a rocket for display. The museum then called local police and asked them to inspect the rocket.

Bellevue police sent a bomb squad to the man's garage and discovered it was a Douglas AIR-2 Genie, an air-to-air rocket capable of carrying a 1.5-kiloton nuclear warhead developed by the United States during the Cold War.

However, the rocket was not equipped with a warhead or fuel, so it did not pose a danger to the public. "It's nothing more than an empty fuel tank," said Seth Tyler, a spokesman for the Bellevue Police Department.

Photos released by Bellevue police show the rocket was found rusted, but the markings on its body were still legible. The person who donated the rocket said it belonged to a deceased neighbor, adding that he bought it at an auction.

"Because the rocket was no longer operational and the military did not request its return, we decided to leave it in the garage for restoration before placing it on display at the museum," the Bellevue Police Department said in a statement.

The AIR-2 Genie was developed by Douglas Aircraft Corporation in 1954 and launched three years later, as the world's first nuclear-tipped air-to-air weapon.

During this period, the Soviet Union had just successfully developed the Tu-4 bomber, which could carry nuclear bombs to the continental United States. The US Air Force at that time only possessed World War II-era fighter planes equipped with cannons and machine guns, making it very difficult to shoot down enemy bombers. Launching a series of unguided rockets at Soviet aircraft was also not feasible, while guided anti-aircraft missiles were still in their infancy.

The AIR-2 Genie Rocket was built with the belief that a nuclear explosion in the sky would create a large kill radius, destroying enemy bombers without requiring extreme accuracy.

The rocket is equipped with a solid fuel engine, can reach a maximum speed of Mach 3.3 (more than 4,000 km/h), and has a range of nearly 10 km. The AIR-2 Genie was equipped for the US and Canadian armies during the Cold War and is considered the most powerful interceptor rocket the US Air Force has ever owned.

This rocket was only test fired once at sea in 1957 and production was discontinued in 1962. A total of 1,000 AIR-2 Genie rockets were built. The US Air Force retired the last AIR-2 Genie rockets in 1985.

Pham Giang (According to Business Insider, Seattle Times )