Atlas; The Ultimate Weapon By Those Who Built It

308, [4] pages. Illustrations (some in color). Tabular Data. Appendices. Atlas Acronyms. Index. Illustrated front and back covers have flaps. There are some moisture signs and some rippling at page bottom corner and fore-edge. Endorsement by Gen. B. A. Schriever, Rtd. The book is written by Chuck Walker, a participant in the Atlas program starting in 1953 with the prime contractor, Convair-Astronautics. Mr. Walker began his career with Convair as a test engineer for Atlas, later moving to the Test Planning Group and then became manager of Program Control for Atlas. In his role of establishing the schedules of all work done at Convair-Astronautics, Mr Walker came to know personally many of the people who were responsible for running the Atlas program. It was these people that Mr. Walker approached to tell the story of the Atlas program in their own words. he book is divided into two parts. The first part covers the military career of Atlas from conception through to the costly development and deployment of the weapon system at bases scattered throughout the United States. The second part of the book relates to the role of Atlas in Americas space programs from the late 1950s to the present day. The Project Mercury manned space flights with Atlas are also covered in detail. Biographies of prominent Atlas managers and the contributors to this book are also included. The book is profusely illustrated with over 100 black-and-white photographs from the Convair archives, many of which have never been published before, and there is also a section of spectacular color photographs. The insider's story of the Atlas rocket, America's first intercontinental ballistic missile, is offered in this careful history of the rocket in its roles as both a civilian and a military vehicle. Written by the manager of program control for the Atlas project, this tell-all includes intimate details of the rocket, including its origins as the MX-774 prototype missile, the difficult development and deployment of its nuclear payload, the activation and deactivation of the Atlas rocket as part of the Strategic Air Command squadrons, and a host of previously unpublished pictures. The missile's development as a civilian rocket is also documented, including details on its role in the Project Mercury manned space flights and its use today as the high-performance Centaur and Agena rocket stages used for satellite and space probe launches. Appendixes of the Atlas flight history, a detailed key of program events and milestones, and biographies of prominent Atlas managers are also included. The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by the Convair Division of General Dynamics at an assembly plant located in Kearny Mesa, San Diego. The development of the Atlas was first begun in 1946, but over the next few years the project underwent several cancellations and re-starts. The deepening of the Cold War and intelligence showing the Soviet Union was working on an ICBM design led to it becoming a crash project in late 1952, along with the creation of several other missile projects to ensure one would enter service as soon as possible. The first test launch was carried out in June 1957, which failed. The first success of the Soviet R-7 Semyorka in August gave the program new urgency, leading to the first successful Atlas A launch in December. Of the eight flights of the A model, only three were successful, but the later models demonstrated increasing reliability and the D model was cleared for use. Atlas C was declared operational in September 1959. Even at that time it was considered less than ideal as it had to be fueled immediately before launch and thus had very slow reaction times. The Air Force still saw its strategic bombers as its primary force and considered Atlas as a last-ditch weapon that would ensure a counter.…