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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0955.PDF
FLIGHT, 8 July 1960 35 Missiles and Spaceflight These photographs are the first to be released showing o Martin Titan ICBM being raised from its underground silo (in this case at Vandenberg AFB). The launcher system is the responsibility of American Machine & Foundry Co, who last week were awarded a further $81.6m contract tor 36 new launcher systems, for Ellsworth, Mountain Home, Larson and Beale AFBs (nine operational silos per squadron) STILL HOPE Although the Government's announcementof the part which the British Commonwealth will play in space research has yet to be made,the Minister of Aviation, Duncan Sandys, had the following to say in a speech to thePress Gallery at the House of Commons last week. "We can see clearly variouspractical applications of space research, such as world-wide radio- telephone communication and television, both of which may becommercially most remunerative. They include also the improve- ment of weather forecasting, the better observation of the stars,military intelligence, cosmic studies of various kinds, and the acquisition of other basic knowledge. "But these must be regarded only as first thoughts. Thepotentialities of space research are still largely unknown. It is more than likely that some applications, which we have not yetthought of, will become indispensable for essential purposes, which we have also not yet thought of. The fact that we really have noidea where it might ultimately lead us, may perhaps be the best of all possible arguments for going ahead and finding out." TITAN II On June 20 the Denver division of The Martin Company wereawarded an $8m development contract for the SM-68B Titan II. This is the first step in an overall improvement programme whichis expected to cost no less than $400m. In view of the time-scale of the more attractive solid-propellant SM-80 Minuteman, it is sur-prising that the USAF should be prepared to spend so much on wringing more out of the earlier—and more expensive—concept. A drawing published by Aviation Week shows that the newTitan will be considerably larger than its predecessors. The first stage is being extended in length from 57ft to 67ft (includingmotors), and the second stage, although remaining 37ft in length, will in the new missile maintain the full 10ft diameter of the firststage. As a result a new transition piece will be employed beneath the re-entry vehicle. The twin-chamber Aerojet-General LR87engine of the first stage is being uprated from 300,000 to more than 400,0001b, and the LR91 of the second stage will also have a.slight increase in thrust over the 80,0001b (in vacuo) of the current unit. A change of considerable significance is that storable pro-pellants (nitrogen tetroxide?) will be employed in Titan II, in order to make the operational missile capable of being launched directlyfrom its silo, with a reaction time of possibly no more than one minute. Titan II is scheduled to be deployed with SAC squadrons latein 1963. It is not yet known whether any of the Titan I missiles currently in production will be able to take advantage of theentirely new inertial guidance system under development for Titan by AC Sparkplug (Titan's original inertial system was givento the Atlas ICBM in return for the earlier missile's radio-inertial guidance), but the AC system will certainly be employed in allTitan Us. In conclusion, it seems likely that the principal reason for the continuance of development effort on Titan stems from thefact that the basic missile carries an exceptional payload. Maxi- mum yield of the Minuteman warhead is unlikely to exceed2MT. whereas the Titan warhead is reputed to vary up to 7MT, which may he demanded for some targets. Even with this payload,Titan fl will certainly have a range of at least 9,000 miles. MORE SOVIET ICBM TESTS It was reported by the Soviet news agency, Tass, on June 29, thatin the new series of Russian test flights of strategic ballistic weapons, scheduled for this month, the target area in the Pacificworld be only half the size of that used in the first series of such firings in January. The agency quoted Prof Ari Sternfeld as saying that the new target area will be south-west of the previous one(Flight, January 29), farther from the centre of the Marshall Islands and from the shipping routes in that part of the Pacific.It was about 8,125 miles from the western frontier of the Soviet Union to the prescribed area. The reduced size of the announcedtarget was, said Prof Sternfeld, "a pointer to the increased aiming accuracy of Soviet ballistic missiles." ASROC In last week's issue we published a photograph of a launching of the Asroc ASW weapon of the US Navy. Further details of this system are now available. It is one of a series of new developments intended to maintain America's vital ability to defend herself against modern submarines. The basic vehicle is an ll,0001b-thrust solid-propellant boost rocket attached to the rear of a Mk 44 electrically propelled and acoustic homing torpedo (or a depth charge, although this is unusual). The complete assembly, some 15ft in length, is sus- pended from a rail launcher, the elevation and azimuth of which are automatically guided by the SQD-23 sonar system which determines the location of the target and automatically computes the correct launching angles and range. The latter parameter is controlled by automatically timing the point at which the payload is ejected from the motor. After launching, flight is purely ballistic (although both booster and payload have cruciforms of stabilizing fins), and after separation the payload is decelerated by a 6ft para- chute to prevent damage upon entry to the ocean. Launch weight of the Asroc is of the order of 1,0001b and maxi- mum range appears to be about 4,000yd. A particular advantage claimed for the new system is that the complete detection and launch systems are more closely integrated than in earlier ASW weapons, so that targets can be engaged only a few seconds after detection. _^_^_^_^_^^_____ In the tenth attempt to recover an instrumented capsule from orbit,the US Air Force launched Discoverer 12 from Vandenberg AFB on June 29. It was later announced that the satellite did not achieve thedesired polar orbit. It is expected that a Polaris will be launched from USS George Wash-ington during the next six weeks, probably along the Atlantic Missile Range. Admiral H. P. Smith, C-in-C US Naval Forces Europe, said lastweek that each Polaris submarine will have two crews and could remain in touch with shore bases even when submerged. On June 23 the USAF officially announced their findings into theenquiry into the destruction by fire of a Boeing IM-99A Bomarc and its emplacement at McGuire AFB, New Jersey. Root trouble was thebursting of the high-pressure helium bottle located in the missile fuse- lage between the two integral tanks and used to pressurize the tanks andforce the fuel into the Bomarc's engines. In the resulting fire the missile's nuclear warhead was "destroyed" but it was earlier claimed that radio-rc'ive contamination was due not to the warhead but to heating of thorium alloys in the airframc. The first Thor 1RBM flown back from Britain to the USA was success-fully lanuched by its RAF Bomber Command crew from Vandenberg AFB on the night of June 22. Originally it had been deployed by asquadron in Driffield, E. Yorks, in the charge of the same crew. It was the fourth RAF launch in the current combat training programme, andthe 13th RAF Thor firing. As was described in our March 18 and 25 issues. Thors currently emplaced in Britain will be progressively re-turned to Vandenberg for practice firings, and replaced by n:w missiles from Santa Monica.
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