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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1664.PDF
768 "Flight" photograph FLIGHT, J6 November 1961 I, Dovap-ionosphere area; 2, camera tower and station; 3, transmitter and command destruct; 4, transmitter support building; 5, sea wall; 6, launch area No I; 7 blockhouse No I; 8, as- sembly shop No I; 9, propeliant magazine No I; 10, propellant magazine No 2; I I, igniter magazine; 12, launch area No 2; 13, blockhouse No 2; 14, propellant shop; 15, AN/FPS-16 radar; 16, AFMTC Mod 2 and SCR-584 radars; 17, control tower; 18, dehumidified storage space; 19, assembly shqp No 2; 20, GMD-IA station; 21, causeway to mainland; 22, island terminal building; 23, launch area No 3; 24, assembly shop No 4; 25, blockhouse No 3; 26, assembly shop No 5; 27, launch area No 4; 28, camera station; 29, launch area No S; 30, assembly shop No 6: 31, proposed assembly shop No 3; 32, liquid fuel storage area. ISLAND LAUNCH-SITE GOOD fishing, shooting and rocketry are among the attractionsof Wallops Island, Virginia. Brought into the rocket busi-ness by aerodynamicists of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics from Langley Field in 1945, and into the spacebusiness by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration following its formation in 1958, the island launch-site has grownup with NASA to hold an important place in a number of major space programmes. By contrast with the big boosters, the glamour and the publicity of Cape Canaveral, Wallops is a modest operation. Most of the Virginia station's launch pads are simple pieces of tubular or I-beam steel, and most of its launch vehicles are small, reliable solids. Complex service towers in which large and temperamental rockets are groomed for weeks before launch are not needed—the only largeservice tower there is for the 72ft tall, four-stage Scout. Located near Chincoteague, Virginia, on the Atlantic coast ofthe Delmarva Peninsula, Wallops Station has a five-fold mission. First, aeronautical research—a continuation of the early NACAtransonic and low-supersonic aerodynamic investigations by means of rocket-boosted free-flight models. The B-70 and supersonictransport designs have been included in more recent aerodynamic work. Secondly, the development of components and systems for satel- lite payloads. These can be flight-tested cheaply using rockets; recent examples have included the Little Joe series in Project Mercury and tests of Echo and S-48 ionospheric payloads. Thirdly, sound- Above, layout and location of Wallops Island. Below, looking north along the shore, with Launch Area No I in the foreground "'^^^^^^E«< • *^SS
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