THE TIME OF THE TITAN

the ground stood barren the valley was empty the hills were bare but overhead the sky was filled with promise and with challenge to meet the challenge and fulfill the promise in the empty Valley they built a giant and they gave it the name of a giant in Greek mythology Titan a child of Earth and heaven [Music] this is a Titan silo at one of our operational sites we have the ballistic system division of the Air Force Systems Command have had the responsibility for developing Titan for building the sites and turning over the complete weapons system to the Air Force's Strategic Air Command the work and effort involved have been great the results are gratifying thanks not only to the military but also to the men and women working in large companies and in small companies from one coast to the other it truly is an all-american team when you stop to think that hardly four years ago we had no long-range missiles the things that have been accomplished are even more remarkable and the Titan story is closely woven into the story of our times back in 1954 our military planners knew that conventional strength as we understood it then would not in itself be sufficient by 1955 our first ICBM Atlas was already in production it looked good but would it be enough for the planners and managers of our national security faced with the cold facts of reality there was only one decision they could make develop a second intercontinental ballistic missile as a national security insurance policy by farsighted action with this proposed new missile they would be gaining added sources of production and technical skills as well as taking advantage of recent advances made in the ballistic missile art inside the new airframe they wanted a more rugged construction for easier more reliable handling they also wanted it to have growth potential in terms of range of payload and for future use as a space booster to meet those requirements the Department of Defense through the Air Force requested specific proposals from major defense plants one of them was the Martin company now the aerospace divisions of the Martin Marietta Corporation but how do you show men thinking how can you tell by a look or a facial expression the years of hard work and experience that date back almost to the very beginning of aircraft and of missiles there's only one way by results the way they saw it the stronger airframe could be built but there was another factor growth potential they knew that it is relatively simple to start all the engines of a multi engine missile on the ground at the same time then in flight the booster engines are dropped but the dead weight at the total airframe which holds the fuel must be carried until final burn out of the sustainer engine but the dead weight of both engine and airframe could be dropped with the second stage continuing in flight that is if a second stage engine could be ignited in the almost total vacuum of high altitude if it could the engineers at Martin figured that it could be done so did the Air Force evaluation board and so starting on February 6 1956 that valley 20 miles south of Denver Colorado would never again be empty here Titan already born in the minds of men would grow with its production line fed and nourished by the joint efforts of the Air Force and its scientific industry and labor team from Aerojet General in California would come the power to give Titan its intercontinental range with large payloads power from California and from Massachusetts Ave Co would deliver the reentry vehicle to carry the payload through space and return it into the Earth's atmosphere Titans accuracy would come from the guidance system designed in New Jersey by the Bell Telephone laboratories and built North Carolina by Western Electric the guidance systems electronic computer would come from the state of Minnesota where it would be designed and assembled by Remington ran and space technology laboratories would provide systems engineering and technical direction altogether the men and women of more than 15,000 companies would transform their strength into the strength of giants those giant Titans would stand on guard in underground silos hardened against nuclear attack then for launching they would be raised to the surface by an elevator lift built by American machine and foundry of New York because our nation will never strike a first blow we must deter aggression with a counter force which in a showdown can withstand an initial onslaught and then strike back with the power to prevail and to win in the time of the Titan the year was 1957 and the time of preparation was now a time of action the word action for the airframe designer and system integrator means many things but most of all it means meeting schedules and maintaining Air Force standards of reliability to keep that production line moving you devise special techniques for welding and aluminum alloy that experts said could not be welded but you do it and you gain strength and save time to save weight you build an industrial version of a reducing parlor chemical baths to etch away unnecessary metal for every pound of weight removed another pound of payload can be carried in the anatomy of a missile every part is tested many times because true reliability is based on the critical examination and decisive trial of testing captive firing of a missile is the last of the series of tests before the most decisive test of all flight tests at Cape Canaveral [Music] [Music] [Applause] in the time of the Titan it was 6 February 1959 and Titans first flight test was completely successful exactly three years to the day after ground was broken for that factory near Denver that national security insurance was paying off the first dividends on the investment of planning of effort and public funds Titans second flight test went perfectly - so did the third and the fourth this was a record never achieved before since flight tests are designed to test details of performance that can't be tested in any other way you expect things to go wrong you expect failures but nobody likes them [Music] there are questions which must be answered and they are and the integrity and reliability of the system such as separation and ignition of the second stage is verified and confirmed again and again and in late summer of 61 Titan missiles were being delivered to the operational site at Lowery Air Force Base and were being readied for delivery to the Strategic Air Command at this point in time our overall national deterrent power was shaping up like this hidden beneath the sea part of our strength traveled in the Navy's atomic submarines much of our string flew over the sea with the big nuclear punch cradled in the bomb racks of the Strategic Air commands intercontinental bombers and even their long range is extended 500 miles and more and deployed in the United Kingdom intermediate-range Thor had been turned over to the royal air force on our soil our first ICBM Atlas was operational in the hands of the Strategic Air Command our solid fuel ICBM Minuteman had been successfully launched and there was tightened all this was good but most important of all the basic planning of the Air Force Systems Command and its ballistic systems division was proving itself out by moving steadily forward Atlas at first unprotected from attack following Titan steps had been advanced to a hardened silo from which it will be razed to the surface for firing but now if it were possible to take the light ICBM minute man's fire from the whole capability of reacting almost instantaneously and combine it with our mightiest missiles extreme long-range and it's strike back power capable of destroying any hardened target then Zack would have a new weapon even more effective and versatile to do it meant long range planning and taking calculated risks there were many decisions to be made and perhaps the most unusual one of all was that instead of making changes gradually but traditional procedure for everything from vacuum cleaners to airplanes all changes would be made all at once and give Titan a new brother tighten to tighten twos home will be underground compact and completely hardened in flight it will have an all inertial guidance system designed for the Air Force by MIT and built and tested by the AC sparkplug division of General Motors the guidance systems computer an ultra-high speed miniaturized marvel is designed and built by IBM in illegal New York and the re-entry vehicle built by General Electric will carry the largest payload of any of our missiles the longest distance and we can thank the combined efforts of many men in many laboratories for the development of the new liquid oxidizer and fuel that are storable and ignite spontaneously on contact for the airframe designer and system integrator building bigger and better actually means building more simply with fewer moving parts case in point for an electrical subsystem 49 relays were cut down to only seven and the overall complexity of the titan ii system has been decreased more than 30% while the power of its new aero jet engines has been greatly increased but the power that can hurl the largest payload the farthest distance or inject large satellites into orbit that very power could have been its undoing confine the roar of those mighty engines inside a silo and maybe sonic vibrations would shake the missile into bits scale-model tests indicated that launching titan 2 from inside the silo would work but there was only one way to make sure so Matt's airlifted a modified Titan 1 to Vandenberg Air Force Base as a stand-in for its brother giant it would make the test if it flew from out that silo we could be sure that Titan 2 would also fly [Music] Titan became our first ballistic missile to be fired from a silo into free-flight feet planted firmly on the ground and reaching for the stars it is destined to be the most powerful ballistic system of our vigilant counter force and help provide a giant step to give us a new line of sight from the watchtower heights of space the challenge is being met the promise is being fulfilled in the time of the Titan [Music]