Science: Triumphant Titan II

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Many other advances flow from the abolition of lox. Missile designers learned by many years of painful effort how to make ultra-cold liquid oxygen flow fairly dependably through tubes, pumps and valves; but this was accomplished by elaborate and costly tricks that are not necessary on the Titan II. The new missile's first stage has one-third as many controls as Titan I; its second stage has one-sixth as many. After Titan II has climbed for about 2 min., its second-stage engine ignites spontaneously when the fuels are turned on and come in contact with each other. At first, the combustion gases go out through ports in the missile's sides; then explosive bolts detach the burned-out booster, and the second stage soars upward alone, a wide "rooster tail" of vapor streaming out of its engine. Says an Air Force official: "There's no delay between second stage separation and ignition. You don't coast."

Because of its greater thrust and the lack of heavy valves and thick walls, Titan II will have a payload estimated at three tons, which will enable it to carry a warhead of at least ten megatons energy—the biggest that can yet be carried by any U.S. missile. As a tool in the space race, it is already superior to the often undependable Atlas; with the addition of strap-on boosters, it will probably be a main missile to boost the U.S. farther into space with such sophisticated efforts as Project Gemini. But experienced bird watchers—on the scene or via TV—will miss one spectacular sight when the Titan II begins to do its work: almost no flame will come out of its tail. When the hypergolic fuels combine, they burn with great heat, but they do not release the white-hot carbon particles that give lox-kerosene flame its dazzling brilliance.