Word: icbms
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...Less and less under wraps, in recent weeks, is slim Ben Schriever himself, and the Pacific Coast has gradually become aware that he runs something called the Western Development Division, a $3 billion Air Force project for developing, testing and possibly operating the H-bomb-carrying, 5,000-mile ICBM. Consequently, the experts took notice last week when Ben Schriever made a progress report to a hard-boiled symposium of astronautics scientists in San Diego (see SCIENCE). The report: since 1954, when the U.S. stepped up its ICBM program, it has come such a "long way in the development...
...problems afflicting space-travel specialists as well as U.S. missilemen, said Schriever, are how 1) to propel the vehicle "up to empty space with, velocity sufficient to continue inter-body space travel" and 2) then "bring it back through an atmosphere without disintegration. In each of these respects . . . the ICBM is attaining the necessary capability." The ICBM re-entry test vehicle, the Lockheed X17, has made a number of successful flights at critical speeds (which other sources place as high as 26 times the speed of sound). Moreover, "the same guidance system that enables the warhead of a ballistic missile...
...leading bird in Ben Schriever's ICBM arsenal, Convair's Atlas, is scheduled for test-firing for the first time at Florida's Patrick Air Force Base this spring. This does not mean that the ICBM is ready for the 5,000 mile trip that will carry it 500 miles up into space. The first test will be over an 1,800 mile course at a lower altitude, primarily to check aerodynamic characteristics...
...missiles come along as fast as expected-the U.S. aircraft industry will face some painful production cuts. But no planemaker expects missiles to outmode manned aircraft in this decade, nor do companies in the highly competitive industry expect to be caught napping when that day finally arrives. When the ICBM becomes strategic, the U.S. must have missile interceptors to stop it. But the ICBM is a long way from becoming strategic. And no one will predict that the planes coming off now will be the last of the line...
...Navy the development of all guided missiles that range farther than 200 miles (TIME, Dec. 10). In theory, this gave the Air Force control of the Army's "unproved" intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM)-the Jupiter-as well as final control over its own intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Just how furious the Army was, only relatively few could know-until last week...