Titan II Missile Engine
Dr.
Bruce P. Dunn
Original commentary posted in sci.space newsgroups 1997
Revised and photographs added 2001
About half an hour south of Tucson Arizona is a complete
underground Titan missile complex from the cold war, preserved as a museum
piece. It is fascinating to see
this ancestor of the current Titan launch vehicle in its original habitat. A tour takes you through the
underground launch complex and missile silo. The door to the silo is
permanently blocked open with concrete, and the warhead area of the Titan in
the silo has a hole in it to demonstrate that the missile is truly
deactivated. More information
about the museum is at http://www.pimaair.org/titan_01.htm
At the surface, they have the handling equipment for the two toxic
propellants, nitrogen tetroxide (oxidizer) and a hydrazine blend (fuel). There is a refrigerated nitrogen
tetroxide tank on a trailer, designed to contain the oxidizer whenever it was
necessary to remove propellant from the missile. Coupled with the handling
equipment is a large array of equipment designed to cope with spills.
An added bonus is a pair of completely accessible first and second
stage Titan engines, positioned horizontally on ground level stands for
viewing. I was not hassled when I
walked right up to the engines and looked at them - my friend John Fee did the
same, and took high resolution stereo-pair photos of the engines. Obviously, these engines, which once
must have represented secret military technology, are no longer considered so.
Titan II First
Stage Engine Photos
Photographer: John Fee,
Vancouver
this page is best viewed at a screen resolution of 1024x768
for more about LR-87-7engine,
see http://www.astronautix.com/engines/lr877.htm
Right Hand Image from Stereo Pair (75 dpi)
Stereo Pair of Engine
(taken by moving camera between exposures, 30 dpi)
Right and Left Stereo Pairs Images at 300 dpi
(right click and select
Save to download, or open in browser and view by scrolling)
view/download high resolution image, Right View (445 K)
view/download high resolution image, Left View (445 K)
Images sized for use as Windows Backgrounds (right click and select Save to download)
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