BALLISTIC MISSILES

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28262, 27 April 1957, Page 11

BALLISTIC MISSILES

U.S. To Test Devices

(Rec. » p.m.) WASHINGTON, April ». The United States Air Force said today that it was moving into the flight test phsse of its ballistic missile programme, and expected to begin launching virtually complete versions of weapons In the months just ahead. The missiles are tih-ned out on mass production facilities instead of being hand-built, and lack only some of the detailed equipment which will go into eventual fully operational use by ballistic missile squadrons. Missile experts in Washington said today that this was part of the plan to create simultaneously a complete weapons system—the weapon, the production equipment, storage and handling facilities and the crews to fire the weapons—rather than to create a weapon and then devise ways to use it. Officials said that the first of the full-scale test firings, at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, probably would be of the -•Thorintermediate range ballistic missile. It was to be followed by tests of the “Atlas” inter-conti-nental ballistic missile, and then of its second design, the ''Titan." Parts Tested Preliminary testing of parts already has been done, including rocket engines, gyro controls, nose cones and guidance equipment. Officials said that the first test firings of the Atlas would not necessarily involve attempts to reach the full 5000-mile range south-eastward into the Atlantic. To attain that range, it was estimated that the speed must be between 15,000 and 10,000 miles an hour.

The United Press said that Air Force research rockets had reached speeds well above 8000 miles an hour, faster than any other "instrumented” rocket yet fired. Their instruments return information to ground stations. The rockets were X-17’s, previously described as three-stage vehicles weighing more than six tons, and standing as high as four-storey buildings. The flights were made to provide information on the problems atomic weapon-carrying missiles will face when they re-enter the earth's atmosphere.