Titan II : a history of a Cold War missile program / David K. Stumpf ; with a foreword by Jay W. Kelley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stumpf, David K., 1953-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Titan (Missile)--History.

Titan (Missile).

History.

Physical Description:

xxii, 320 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) ; 27 cm

Other Title:

Titan Two

Titan 2

Place of Publication:

Fayetteville : University of Arkansas Press, 2000.

Summary:

The Titan II ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) program was developed by the United States military to bolster the size, strength, and speed of the nation's strategic weapons arsenal in the 1950s and 1960s. Each missile carried a single warhead -- the largest in U.S. inventory -- used liquid fuel propellants, and was stored and launched from hardened underground silos. The missiles were deployed at basing facilities in Arkansas, Arizona, and Kansas and remained in active service for over twenty years. Since military deactivation in the early 1980s, the Titan II has served as a reliable satellite launch vehicle.

This is the richly detailed story of the Titan II missile and the men and women who developed and operated the system. David K. Stumpf uses a wide range of sources, drawing upon interviews with and memoirs by engineers and airmen as well as recently declassified government documents and other public materials. Over 170 drawings and photographs, most of which have never been published, enhance the narrative. The three major accidents of the program are described in detail for the first time using authoritative sources.

Titan Il will be welcomed by librarians for its prodigious reference detail, by technology history professionals and laymen, and by the many civilian and Air Force personnel who were involved in the program -- a deterrent weapons system that proved to be successful in defending America from nuclear attack.

Contents:

I The Air Force Strategic Missile Program 1

II The First Generation: Atlas and Titan I 7

III The Second Generation: Titan II 33

IV Titan II Research and Development Flight Test History 71

V Titan II Launch Complex Design and Construction 99

VI Titan II in Context 147

VII Manning the Titan II 153

VIII Titan II Operational Flight and Evaluation Programs History 177

IX Fatal Accidents in the Titan II Program 215

X The End of the Titan II Era 253

Appendix I Titan I Launch Record; Titan II Air Frame Serial Numbers, Fate; Launch Crew List 275

Appendix II Soviet Union Counterpart to Titan II 287.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-312) and index.

ISBN:

1557286019

OCLC:

43555328