Operation Bumblebee

Operation Bumblebee was the U.S. Navy’s secret guided missile testing program that operated on Topsail Island from 1946-1948. Exhibits include model and original missiles from the project, a full size Talos guided missile located outside at the front of the building, and in the Museum Kiosk, a film made in 1940 that chronicles the history of the program. Visitors will be fascinated to learn that Topsail Island served as a proving ground for some of the first U.S. missile efforts and that the principle of the controlled ramjet engine (the main concept for today’s supersonic flight) was tested and proven on Topsail Island as a result of Operation Bumblebee.