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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0091.PDF
GHT International, 17 January 1963 SINCE its inception in October 1955 the Titan 1CBM has been the largest missile outside the Soviet Union. Today, although it is dwarfed by civilian space vehicles, it has nevertheless won for itself a major role as a space booster. It has done so partly as a result of its performance, which is appreciably greater than that of the well-tried Atlas; but the factor which has proved decisive is the ability of the latest Titan to be launched after an exceptionally brief countdown. As will presently be described, this will prove of immense value in future attempts at Earth orbital rendezvous. By the end of last year the US Air Force had completed the opera tional deployment of Titan 1, with six squadrons each of nine mis siles, all in fully hardened silos. These missiles have superimposed first and second stages each equipped with a rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and RP-1 wide-cut kerosine. The use of this cryogenic propellant combination prohibits keeping the missile at readiness with its tanks filled. Titan 2, development of which was authorized in June 1960, has modified engines designed to operate on a non-cryogenic pro pellant combination: a 50/50 blend of anhydrous hydrazine and unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine, employed as the fuel, in con junction with nitrogen tetroxide as the oxidant. The two fluids may be stored within both stages of Titan 2 for months at a time, with neither evaporative loss nor deterioration to either propellants or airframe. Compared with lox/RP-l the new fluids are said to have "a much lower explosive yield," making them safer and more attractive for the boosting of manned spacecraft; they achieve a specific impulse comparable with the earlier combination; and they have the great advantage of igniting hypergolically (upon contact), so that engine-starting is simplified and made virtually instantan eous and foolproof. The flame from the thrust chamber is almost transparent and of a pale blueish-violet hue. As reported in Flight International for January 3, Titan 2 is now Progenitor of the vehicles described in this feature is the military Titan 2 ICBM (right). Only relatively minor modifications have been necessary to adapt this existing vehicle to launch the Gemini spacecraft (below)
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