Mystery missile (photos)

[blackshire]

Hello All,

On pages 46 and 47 of the book "ROCKETS of the NAVY" by Erik Bergaust (published in 1959 by G.P. Putnam's Sons), there are three photographs (scans of which are included below) of a missile I have never seen anywhere else. The caption identified it as a U.S. Navy Polaris test vehicle, but it looked nothing like a Polaris A-1, A-2, or A-3--it was much too slender.

The missile's flared conical tail section had flush air intakes, which inspires the only guess I can make about the vehicle: It may have been a test vehicle for flying the Polaris A-1's second stage. The conical tail section with air intakes may have acted as a diffuser to "adapt" the Polaris A-1's second stage motor nozzles--which were designed to operate in the vacuum of space--to operation at sea level atmospheric pressure (liquid propellant upper stage engines are often static-fired into diffusers to simulate conditions at altitude).

Can anyone here identify this vehicle? If scale data for it could be found (although the photographs themselves suffice for Sport Scale documentation), it would make for a unique-looking scale model. Also, its air-augmented ducted-rocket feature would give the model a spectacular exhaust plume. Here is the caption text for the photograph series:

"A U.S. Navy Polaris test vehicle is fired at Cape Canaveral, Florida, during the flight test program for the solid-propelled fleet ballistic missile. Left photo shows the test missile a split-second before launching; middle, the missile begins its flight; and right, test missile well on its way in a limited-objective test. Polaris will have a range of approximately 1,500 nautical miles and is now in final stages of development."

I hope this material will be useful.

[jharding58]

Given the timing of the publication compared to the Polaris program perhaps the keyword here is "development". The airframe looks very thin and the external conduits/tunnels are a little out of the norm also. Most of the Polaris A1 and A1X launches that I am familiar with were from LC25A/B at the Cape, but the background in the image looks a little off too. I have pinged a friend at LockMart to see if there are any notions.

My first through was that the shroud enabled a cold launch simulation by popping of the pad with compressed air prior to ignition, but the picture pre-dates the test.

[blackshire]

Given the timing of the publication compared to the Polaris program perhaps the keyword here is "development". The airframe looks very thin and the external conduits/tunnels are a little out of the norm also. Most of the Polaris A1 and A1X launches that I am familiar with were from LC25A/B at the Cape, but the background in the image looks a little off too. I have pinged a friend at LockMart to see if there are any notions.Thank you for asking your friend! The book also has a photo of an A1X lifting off from the launch pad in your attached picture (LC25A). The "mystery missile" may have been a Polaris FTV or one of the "12 other Polaris type missiles (using an X-17 booster)" listed below (the information is from the Air Force Space Museum web site). These vehicles (as well as the X-17 re-entry research rockets, which were also built by Lockheed) were launched from Launch Complex 3. According to the Air Force Space Museum web site (see: http://www.afspacemuseum.org/CCAFS/CX3-4/index.htm ), these launches were:

First X-17 was launched, 23 May 1955
Total of 51 X-17 were launched, 23 May 1955 - 11 December 1957
First POLARIS FTV launch, 13 April 1957 from Pad 3.
Total 12 other Polaris type missiles (using an X-17 booster) were launched from Complex 3 before moving operations to Complex 25 in April 1958. Last of this series launched 17 January 1958.My first through was that the shroud enabled a cold launch simulation by popping of the pad with compressed air prior to ignition, but the picture pre-dates the test.It may have been one of the "12 other Polaris type missiles (using an X-17 booster)" listed above, for this reason: A possible clue is the exhaust plume in the middle photograph. It is transparent rather than incandescent, which indicates that the motor used double-base propellant (nitroglycerin/nitrocellulose with plasticizers) rather than composite propellant (synthetic rubber/aluminum powder/ammonium perchlorate). The X-17 booster used the double-base propellant Sergeant rocket motor. The ducted cone might have been used to increase the motor's thrust (at the cost of a lower specific impulse) by drawing in air to burn with the motor's plume (double-base propellant rocket motors' exhaust plumes "re-ignite" in the open air a short distance behind the nozzle).

[jharding58]

Interesting thought. The Sergeant was used in the evolution of Polaris components (there is an image of the reentry vehicle atop a Sergeant) and to test Polaris AX systems.

http://www.skyrocket.de/space/doc_lau_det/polaris-tv.htm

[jharding58]

I found this reference to a Launch Stowage Adapter:

"You see, the early Polaris motor cases were made of steel, with forward and aft end caps bolted in place. Somehow, one of the ''launch stowage adapters'' that fitted the missile into the launch tube had gotten cocked out of position. When the ship's launcher system delivered the launch pulse, the adapter apparently squeezed the joint so hard that it popped all the bolt heads. The aft closure came off, and the entire rear of the motor propellant grain began burning"

[blackshire]

I just came across two collections of postings (with photos) on the NASASpaceFlight.com Forum; this one (see: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28489.0 ) has photos, a dimensioned drawing, and information on the various Polaris Flight Test Vehicles (FTVs). The one with the conical rear section and air intake ducts was the FTV-1, which was used to test the Polaris four-nozzle jetavator steering system. It was 30.5 feet long and was powered by a Sergeant rocket motor; nine FTV-1s were launched from Launch Complex 3 and Launch Complex 25A at Cape Canaveral, in 1957 - 1958. These postings (see: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=19242.15 ) include photographs of an FTV-1 being erected at and launched from LC3. Gunter's Space Page also has some of this material on the FTV-1 (see: http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau_det/polaris-ftv-1.htm ).

[dlazarus6660]

Nice, good catch! I've been to the Georgia museum. Not worth the asking price.

[blackshire]

Nice, good catch!Thank you--I'd been puzzled by that Polaris FTV-1 (which looked nothing like a Polaris missile) ever since I got a copy of Erik Bergaust's 1959 book "Rockets of the Navy" in the late 1970s--it also gave me my first look at the ASP sounding rocket. Also:I've been to the Georgia museum. Not worth the asking price.Are you referring to the Titan I on display in Cordele, Georgia? If so, that must have been added later--when I looked at it several times in the 1970s and 1980s when we were going from Young Harris, GA to Miami (or vice-versa), there was no admission fee; we could just walk right up to the missile in its little fenced-in enclosure.

[JumpJet]

Looks more like the upper section of a Minute Man Missile to me.


John Boren

[blackshire]

Looks more like the upper section of a Minute Man Missile to me.


John BorenAt first glance, yes--but the Minuteman I and II had "one transition too many" (the one between stages 2 and 3), which was absent on the Polaris FTV-1 vehicles. Also, the FTV-1's exhaust plume was transparent and re-ignited in the air some distance below the nozzle (a hallmark of double-base propellant, such as that used in its Sergeant rocket motor), while the Minuteman second stages (and first stages, and possibly their third stages as well) burned composite propellant, which produced brightly-luminous exhaust plumes.