GLENN L. MARTIN CO. "THE TIME OF THE TITAN" TITAN I & TITAN II MISSILE DEVELOPMENT ICBM 34434

Video from the channel PeriscopeFilm about Titan II, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 15:20. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.

An institutional film by the Glenn L. Martin Company about the development of the Titan intercontinental missiles. It opens with an empty valley that will later house the factory and shows an operational silo. It then reviews the program: the decision to build a second ICBM, the network of contractors, the production line, ground and flight testing, and the transition to the Titan II.

This is period footage from the early 1960s. It features the valley about 20 miles south of Denver, where construction began on February 6, 1956; Cape Canaveral, where the Titan made its first successful test flight on February 6, 1959; Lowry Air Force Base, which received missiles in late summer 1961; and Vandenberg, where a modified Titan I tested a silo launch.

In 1954 military planners concluded that a second intercontinental missile was needed as insurance against the Atlas, with a more robust structure and a second stage that ignited at high altitude. Participants included Aerojet General (engines), Avco (reentry vehicle), Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric (guidance), Remington Rand (computer), and Space Technology Laboratories. In total more than 15,000 companies were involved. The Titan II introduced inertial guidance, storable propellants that ignite on contact, and a simpler design: one electrical subsystem went from 49 relays to 7, cutting complexity by more than 30%. The Titan was the first ballistic missile launched from a silo in free flight.