Atlas ICBM Launch Complex Locations, Spokane—Convair—annotated 6 Sept 1961 map
£230
SKU: P-7-028487
'Launch Complex Locations'
A working map of one of America's first ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) fields, issued by Convair Astronautics, the San Diego division of General Dynamics that designed and built Atlas, the United States' first operational ICBM. The imprint dates it: Convair Astronautics became General Dynamics Astronautics in June 1961, so the sheet was printed between the first site's groundbreaking in May 1959 and mid-1961. It plots the nine Atlas E launch complexes ringing Fairchild Air Force Base and Spokane, from Wilbur and Lamona to Deer Park and a site over the state line in Idaho, where each liquid-fuelled missile lay flat in a hardened 'coffin' launcher, ready to be raised, fuelled and fired within fifteen minutes. Every site is linked to its microwave relay, with a table of distances and travel times from Fairchild. This copy was used in the field: a blue-ink note records a '1st Day' on 6 September 1961 with D. Harshman, and inked routes, mileages and ticks trace journeys to the sites just three weeks before Strategic Air Command declared the squadron operational. The accompanying 'D.P.L.' probably denotes dual-propellant loading, a ground test in which the missile was loaded with RP-1 kerosene fuel and liquid oxygen oxidiser for a countdown rehearsal without launch. A year later these missiles stood on alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when Strategic Air Command reached DEFCON 2, one level below its highest state of readiness.
Size 20 x 27 cm | 8.0 x 10.5 inches
Date Published: 1961
Type: Vintage nuclear "doomsday" map sheet printed in black, uncoloured, with contemporary blue-ink manuscript annotations
Author: Convair Astronautics
Publication: Convair Launch Complex Locations
Condition: Good |
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