Word: cones
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Snub Nose. The easiest, fastest cone to develop was the "heat-sink"' type, made of thick copper. Since copper is an excellent conductor of heat, the cone's front surface could stay solid until the whole mass was near the melting point. To many, it seemed obvious that a nose cone should be made slim and sharp-pointed, capable of piercing the atmosphere with low resistance. But the contrary proved to be the case. Dr. H. Julian Allen of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics argued conclusively that a blunt nose was better for the heat-sink cone...
Along such relatively simple lines. General Electric built most of the early nose cones and, considering the state of the art, they were successful enough in the first Thor and Atlas missiles. But they were heavy-and in an ICBM, every ounce of nose cone takes away from the warhead which is the rocket's real reason for being. And the blunt-nosed cones began slowing down while still high in the atmosphere, making them more vulnerable to antimissile missiles as they descended toward earth...
Flaming Arc. Thus, even while the heat-sink cones were still being tested, both G.E. and Avco started work on a new kind of cone. It was deliberately designed so that some of its material would be "ablated"-vaporized and blown away into nothingness by the intensely hot air through which it raced. Ablating cones promised a weight advantage, but not even the shock tube was adequate to test them at the research level. Therefore a new testing device, the arc wind tunnel, was tailored...
...rushes in. On its way, it passes through a flaming arc using kilowatts enough to light a city. The air's temperature soars to 14,000° F., and it whams into samples of ablating material that behave as if they were part of a real nose cone...
...ablating nose cone is the design of the present. It is longer and more pointed than its heat-sink predecessor. It can slice more deeply through the atmosphere before it slows down, giving it greater protection against defensive missiles fired from the ground. Better still, it is comparatively light: the G.E. ablating nose cone used on the "longfellow'' Atlas fired May 20 from Florida to the Indian Ocean probably played an important part in the missile's being light enough to attain its 9,000-mile range...