What facility requires 2000 tons of rebar and 8000 yards of concrete?

[traquer]

This one!

So glad we get to see these pics! I imagine this was as top secret as it came back in the day

 

[Ziggy]

I was gonna guess a nuke power plant.

 

[buck35]

Very cool, thanks for posting.

 

[Blackmagic94]

My sister lives near 501-7

 

[Sandlord]

The silo near me still has an ICBM in it.

 

[81Sprint]

I did the tour of the one in Tucson couple years ago. It was impressive to say the least, and the tour guide was one of the actual guys that worked it he had some great stories. That missile is f#ckin huge!

 

[rivermobster]

I did the tour of the one in Tucson couple years ago. It was impressive to say the least, and the tour guide was one of the actual guys that worked it he had some great stories. That missile is f#ckin huge!

View attachment 1307347
View attachment 1307348
View attachment 1307349
View attachment 1307350
View attachment 1307351

Awesome pics.

 

[81Sprint]

Awesome pics.

Pretty crazy stuff. The rectangular hole cut in the top of the missile is there so when Russia flies their satellite over they know it is not in service, one of the blast doors on top is also clear so they can see it. Part of the nuclear treaty that I think is now no longer.

 

[GRADS]

I just realized a couple years ago that we have/had three of the silos about 10 miles from our house. Titan I 851-A. Here's a recent aerial shot. I would kill to explore them but I'd have to be a diver as they are all flooded.

 

[HALLETT BOY]

I thought you might be talking about wind turbines , they take a little concrete

 

[Sharky]

That missile is f#ckin huge!




View attachment 1307350
View attachment 1307351

Every one of those Titans was built in my backyard. Dad's second job out of the Air Force was Sr. Propulsion Engineer at the new Glenn L Martin Company. His project was the Titan.

Just up the road from me- Glenn L Martin Company actually used to have a silo. It was used for designing both the silo & missile. They used to test both the LR87 engine and the LR91 engines out there. You could hear them all the way to Denver. That's about 30 miles away.

Back in the old days (1980's), you could sneak onto the Martin property and sneak inside the Titan silo when it was no longer used.

 

[spectra3279]

Would love to own one of those old silos

 

[Sharky]

This is a cool video of the Martin plant building the Titan. Taken from the gantry crane.

If the video does not show up, here is the link - https://www.facebook.com/TitanMissi...-l-martin-plant-littleton-co/128043793875171/

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=128043793875171

 

[mjc]

My dad used to have to go to the sites and crawl around to test defense stuff by staying lower than a coyote or rabbit, the sensors did not go that lower. He also was out checking his hardened microwave antennas on all the sites.

 

[Taboma]

Beginning my electrical apprenticeship in 1966, many of the journeymen I trained under were part of the trailer caravan that worked on and followed these Minuteman Silo projects across the Midwest during the proceeding years.
Each site had entire villages of trailer camps as any area housing was in such short supply.
The whole concept for the worker bee craft trades was making the huge paychecks due to union scale overtime and double time all these projects required.
As one of these would start to slow down or wrap up, the scuttlebutt news would broadcast another "Hot One" and the procession of travel trailers would hit the road like a band of gypsies. These same groups spent several successive years on this overtime junket across the American north.
Many I met shared stories of their young wives traveling with them, others did it stag, but they all came home far wealthier than if they'd worked at home and bought nice homes as a reward for their efforts.

One of the secrets that was shared with me was being a member of both the Masons and Knights of Columbus, having the rings and know the secret handshakes of both organizations.
As the story was told to me, this electrician had one ring in each pocket, when he'd report into the electrical super's trailer day one, he'd spot which ring the super was wearing (Seems in those days, it was usually one or the other). Depending on which one he belong to, he'd put that ring on and great him with the secret handshake. Normally this brotherhood connection increased the odds of him being made a foreman, or at least getting on a crew performing a more desirable scope.

The downside of these projects for all trades was the weather. This was no cake walk, either working or in the trailer villages, it could be brutal in the winters and the stories of their hands freezing to conduits and the trailers rarely able to provide even marginal warmth.
Although life on these projects consisted of, work, eat, sleep, and repeat, seven days a week. A young man's game for sure.

This similar pattern not only prevailed for these missile silo projects but many of the large hydroelectric dam projects around the same era.

 

[rrrr]

Here's some information about the W-53 thermonuclear warhead carried on the Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, shown in the video above.

This fission/fusion weapon was the largest missile deliverable warhead produced by the US during the Cold War. Between 1965 and 1980, there were typically around 60 Titan IIs in silos, fueled, armed, and ready for launch.

These numbers regarding its power are sobering, and inform why it was said that unlimited nuclear war would destroy civilization. Its yield was nine megatons, or nine million tons, of TNT. That's 750 times larger than the fission bomb dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945.

The W53 nuclear warhead of the Titan II ICBM used the same physics package as the B53 (dropped by bomber aircraft) without the air drop-specific components like the parachute system and crushable structures in the nose and sides needed for lay-down delivery, reducing its mass to about 6,200 lb.

The 8,140-pound Mark-6 re-entry vehicle containing the W53 warhead was 10.4 feet long, 7.5 feet in diameter, and was mounted atop a spacer which was 8.3 feet in diameter at the missile interface (compared to the missile's core diameter of 10 feet). With a yield of 9 megatons, it was the highest yield warhead ever deployed on a US missile. About 65 W53 warheads were constructed between December 1962 and December 1963.

Assuming a detonation at optimum height, a 9-megaton blast would result in a fireball with an approximate 2.9 to 3.4 mi diameter. The radiated heat would be sufficient to cause lethal burns to any unprotected person within a 20-mile radius (1,250 sq mi). Blast effects would be sufficient to collapse most residential and industrial structures within a 9 mi radius (254 sq mi); within 3.65 miles (42 sq mi) virtually all above-ground structures would be destroyed and blast effects would inflict near 100% fatalities.

Within 22.25 mi a 500-rem (5-sievert) fatal dose of ionizing radiation would be received by the average person, sufficient to cause a 50% to 90% casualty rate independent of thermal or blast effects at this distance.

Photo of the Mk 6 reentry vehicle, which carried the W53 warhead atop the Titan II. One of these would essentially destroy Las Vegas and Henderson, and cause the failure of Hoover Dam.

 

[infield]

I had a titan 2 site a half mile straight south of my house. Had a horrible accident with a fueling procedure that killed some airmen and caused it to be inoperable for the duration of their useful life. http://www.themilitarystandard.com/missile/titan2/accident_533-7_1978-2.php

 

[infield]

This was a huge deal and we were evacuated for a number of days. My father was interviewed on national news many times giving the local resident view. He was very well spoken and the correspondents sought him out. I was on tv quite a bit about it as well. I was 22 at the time. Paul Harvey even mentioned my father on his show.

 

[rrrr]

I had a titan 2 site a half mile straight south of my house. Had a horrible accident with a fueling procedure that killed some airmen and caused it to be inoperable for the duration of their useful life. http://www.themilitarystandard.com/missile/titan2/accident_533-7_1978-2.php

It's crazy this happened close to your home.

Your link is actually Part Two of the incident detail, here's a link to Part One.

http://www.themilitarystandard.com/missile/titan2/accident_533-7_1978.php

The dinitrogen tetroxide oxidizer that was released in the accident is a nasty toxic substance.

When mixed with the missile's fuel, which is 50% hydrazine and 50% unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, a hypergolic reaction occurs, which is a violent spontaneous combustion without the need for a separate ignition source.

The missiles were stored in the silo fully fueled. When the need for launch occurred, it was a simple matter of opening some smaller lines which fed the turbopumps, and they pushed the fuel and oxidizer into the engine combustion chambers. Full thrust was immediate, and the missile launched within a few seconds.

If the fuel tank had been breached when the oxidizer was released, it would have caused an immediate and very large explosion. A 1980 Titan incident in which this occurred tossed the sliding 740 ton missile silo cover over 500 feet and destroyed the silo.

Encyclopedia of Arkansas

The Titan II Launch Complex 374-7 in Southside (Van Buren County), just north of Damascus (Van Buren and Faulkner counties), became the site of the most ...

encyclopediaofarkansas.net

 

[Not So Fast]

The sad part of this is, if we/the world keeps going as it is theres a distinct possibility of having to make use of such waepons of death and destruction Im old and probably wont see it but its not looking good

 

[Sandlord]

The sad part of this is, if we/the world keeps going as it is theres a distinct possibility of having to make use of such waepons of death and destruction Im old and probably wont see it but its not looking good

Even sadder is that a lot of the old congress members who were around when this was being built would like to see it finally used before they die. They intentionally provoke Russia, China, North Korea and others in order to trigger WW3.

 

[Sharky]

Some cool old Martin Company info-

 

[Sharky]

I'll have to dig out some ancient photo albums from M&D. There might be some old pictures from Dad at the Martin plant.

I do have a really cool picture of the missile that replaced the Titan that was also built by Martin. The MX

That one I know where it is.

 

[Tommy Gun Images]

I did the tour of the one in Tucson couple years ago. It was impressive to say the least, and the tour guide was one of the actual guys that worked it he had some great stories. That missile is f#ckin huge!

View attachment 1307347
View attachment 1307348
View attachment 1307349
View attachment 1307350
View attachment 1307351

Thats awesome. I lived in Tucson throughout my twenties and my girlfriend’s dad was a retired Colonel who had worked on the Titan II project. We toured the silo a couple of times but because of his standing we were able to tour the entire facility and stand under the missile. The place is crazy impressive. The Cold War era was wild!

 

[infield]

The accident near Little Rock was worse if that's possible. We had just sat down to noon meal when the Airman beat on the door, doorbell etc. and told us we had to leave. Everything had an orange filtered tint to it. We left with nothing but our Chevy Caprice and were gone for about 4 days. It put Rock, KS on the map for a while.

 

[infield]

The red pin is where I live. The other one is where the missile site was at the end of the double tree lane. This is 35 miles southeast of Wichita and McConnel Air Force Base. There were about 20 or so sites around Wichita.

 

[infield]

I do not own the quarter section the missile base was on. A close neighbor did. We owned the one directly north of it. You can still see some concrete pads and so on.

 

[infield]

This is a picture the Air Force took from a helicopter just north of our house and farmstead. You can see where the leaves were burned off of the hedge row and the activity at the site. This is after the leak had been neutralized

 

[infield]

The propellants were the same as was used in the lunar module when it left the moon.