Word: matador
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...Thuma) Keller, then president of Chrysler Corp., whom President Truman put in charge of the program in 1950. Production Man Keller had little patience with visionary plans; he wanted hardware, both in the factories and in the skies, and he got it. The missiles now in operational use-the Matador, Nike, Corporal, Terrier-are the result of Keller's drive. Since most of them are soon to be replaced, Keller has been criticized for loading the inventory with so-so weapons. But this was inevitable in the rapid metabolism of modern war; Keller's program created the knowledge...
...quarter of the boost would go to U.S. guided missile development, which has so far got into production the relatively short-range Nike, Terrier, Sparrow, Falcon, Corporal. Regulus, Matador and Honest John. The 1,000-to-1,500 mile range Intermediate Range Ballistics Missile with nuclear warhead, still on the drawing boards, would probably be the main new development. Research would also be heavily concentrated on the Intercontinental Ballistics Missile, which may have a thermonuclear warhead. Wilson cautioned that the I.C.B.M. is still at least five years away...
Most of the activities at Patrick are not for publication. Except for the Matador, an "aerodynamic" (wing-supported) missile that is operational and obsolete, the public gets only glimpses of the birds that it puts on the wing. Some of them rise out of the atmosphere, but not all. One of them, the Snark, has had so many mishaps that the sea near the start of the range has been ruefully called the "Snark-infested waters of Cape Canaveral...
Although results of the Nike-Matador match were officially classified as secret, the Army lost no time in leaking the news that Nike had blasted the jet-powered Matador from the sky. The Air Force was prompt with a reply. Four Nikes, said the airmen, had been fired at a Matador, and every one of them had missed...
Wrhat actually happened at White Sands confirmed both the Army and the Air Force versions-in part. The Nike-Matador test was held in two phases, about a week apart. The first time, the Matador flew a prearranged course at less than 40,000 ft. altitude and at less than its top speed of about 700 m.p.h. In four attempts to bring Matador down, Nike failed. The Army checked its weapon and found that some of Nike's guidance instruments were out of kilter, a fact that the Army attributed to "personnel error...