Atlas: The Ultimate Weapon by Those Who Built It (Apogee Books Space Series) (Paperback)

by Chuck Walker (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"If you want the inside story on 'the ultimate weapon,' look no further!" -- International Space Review, August 2005. "The 'complete story' of the first American ICBM...up to the usual Apogee Books standard..." -- Magazine of Astronautics & Outer Space, 2005. Story feature in March 2006 issue of Spaceflight.

Product Description

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and deactivation of the Atlas rocket as part of the Strategic Air Command squadrons, and a host of previously unpublished pictures.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 spaceflights 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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing, Inc. (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1894959183
• ISBN-13: 978-1894959186
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #486,581 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 51 in The Apogee Books Space Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great History, September 20, 2005

By	spaceman "Jim" (San Fernando Calley, CA) - See all my reviews

"Atlas- The Ultimate Weapon"

Chuck Walker and Joel Powell have written one of the best books to date about the history and uses of the first American Intercontinental Ballistic Missile- the Atlas.
It details how the Vultee Corporation started building the MX-774 rocket nearly 60 years ago and how it led to the Convair Atlas ICBM and became todays Lockeed Martin Atlas V commercial launcher.

For the first time the reader gets to see behind the classifed world that was Atlas. The test stands, the test firings and the Silos, and what went on in designing and building them.
The book tells of the innovations of the stage-and -a -half rocket, whose skin was so thin that it had to be inflated to keep its shape! Some of the stories include what happened during the Cuban missile crisis when avery Atlas that could be fueled was ready to be hurled at the Soviet Union.

The Atlas story was first told in the in the early 1960s' and I find that this book jumps around in the retelling of these stories. The major problem with this book is that it is based on interviews and does not ask specific questions, like -what happened during a failure like Figure 12-6 illistrates, or how and why did they replace the sustainer engine for John Glenn's Atlas 109-D while it stood vertically on the launch pad? I still want to hear the answer to that one! There is also very little about Atlas and its uses in Project Gemini- the second American manned space project There might be a photo of an unusual Atlas configuration on one page, but the simplist of discriptions making you want to know more about that specific launch!

But these little stories are also the books major strength.There are stories about the watering holes that the men hung out in during those days, and what life was like at such remote sites like Vandenberg Air Force base( hey- this was 1960's). The book also goes into the final costs of the weapon systems.

The second part of the book tells of the evolution of the Centaur and Agena upper stages that allowed Atlas to boost spacecraft to the farthest reaches of the Solar System, and launch Americas' intellegence assets into orbit.

The book concludes with stories and appendix about what happened to the various personel, and key events in history that for Atlas included: launching the first U.S. probes to land on the Moon, and spacecraft that traveled to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

ERRORS- Figure 18-6 and 18-13 do not show John Glenn's Atlas- Mercury 6 (109-D), but Atlas- Mercury 4.
and Appendix B- what happened to launch number 64?

and why does Canada have the only original Atlas A?


ALL IN ALL, A GOOD READ!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Start, but The Atlas Story Deserves Better, December 27, 2007

By	Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Chuck Walker tells the story of the development of the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from an insider's perspective. This book captures the importance of the Atlas rocket as both a ballistic missile and a space launch vehicle. It is one of three major launch systems developed by the Department of Defense in the 1950s that found both military and commercial uses. It began with the U.S. Army Air Corps' request for proposal in October 1945, which led to development of the Atlas. By January 10, 1946, Consolidated-Vultee's (Convair) engineers, under the leadership of Belgian-born Karel Bossart, submitted their proposal for a 6,000-nautical mile ballistic missile. New technologies proposed for the ballistic missile included extremely low structural weight through use of steel monocoque single-wall construction tanks, kept rigid by internal tank pressure; a state of the art rocket motor with unique gimbals to help control attitude; a detachable payload or warhead section; and nearly single-stage to orbit performance through the "stage-and-a-half" approach of jettisoning the booster engines but not a full stage during the ascent. On April 19, 1946, Convair received a contract for $1,893,000 to include fabrication and testing of 10 missiles to verify Bossart's innovative concepts. But the Atlas program was stillborn, Department of Defense cutbacks forced termination of the contract in July 1947.

With renewed international tensions in 1951, the Defense Department gave Convair a new contract to design a ballistic missile incorporating the basic features already validated. In 1953 Convair presented a plan to the Air Force for a full-fledged development program, and in January 1955 it received the go-ahead to develop what was called at the time MX-774. At Convair the project was known the Model 7 (in Russia, Korolev was then working on the competing R-7 ICBM--evidently both sides wanted to use the lucky number). In September 1955, faced with intelligence reports of Russian progress on their ICBM, the Atlas received the highest national development priority. The project became one of the largest and most complex production, testing, and construction programs ever undertaken. Benefiting from the hard-driving management of Brig. Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, who managed the project for the Air Force, Atlas became the first ICBM in the U.S. arsenal. It was first test fired on June 11, 1955, and a later generation rocket became operational in 1959.

Although the Atlas was replaced as a ballistic missile in 1965, it has enjoyed a significant career as a space launcher thereafter, with more than 440 launches to its credit. It served as the launch vehicle for the orbital Mercury flights, sending John Glenn, Wally Schirra, Scott Carpenter, and Gordon Cooper into orbit in 1962-1963. With the use of Agena and Centaur upper stages, the Atlas also became the medium-lift workhorse for American human, planetary, and geosynchronous-orbit space missions. After a reengineering effort in the last decade of the twentieth century, Atlas V continues to fly as one of the critical expendable launch vehicles flown by the United States.

As should be obvious, this is an important story worthy of serious historical attention. Unfortunately, the story of this first of all ballistic missiles is told only partially in "Atlas: The Ultimate Weapon." Essentially a memoir of an engineer who worked on the program, Chuck Walker tells certain aspects of the Atlas story in which he was involved quite well while giving short shrift to the larger context for the weapons system's development and employment. It is almost exclusively an account of the Convair experience, based on personal recollection and interviews with colleagues. This is especially disappointing because of the broadness of the Atlas history. It should entail not only the technical issues wrestled with in the bowels of the Convair Corporation, which it does relatively well, but also with many other aspects of the rocket's history. For instance, the political story of Atlas' origins and development is critical to this history, one that explores the interservice rivalries between the Air Force and the Army concerning ballistic missile development (such as the Army's Wernher von Braun's challenging of Atlas' inflatable structure concept) and the inter-organizational rivalries between the Atlas project and the competing Titan effort. It is also critical to discuss the management of the Atlas program. It was the first to use the systems management concept and configuration control, with Simon Ramo of what would eventually become the firm of TRW, Inc., overseeing systems integration.

There are a number of good books on the history of ballistic missile development and operations available, and David K. Stumpf's "Titan II: A History of a Cold War Missile Program" (University of Arkansas Press, 2000) represents the gold standard for what might be accomplished concerning one ICBM program's history. While this book provides some useful technical details about the missile's development, "Atlas: The Ultimate Weapon" does not measure up to Stumpf's outstanding work on the Titan ICBM. The Atlas program still waits its full history to be told.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but..., October 16, 2005

By	Fissile Missile Man (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

Pretty good book. Some of the stories are great - my favorites are from test failures. Some of the safety procuedures were very 'seat of the pants', as should be expected when the rules are being written as you go. Gave me a new appreciation of the bravery of the engineers and support staff involved.

I still think the book is missing something. Not sure if it is context or some of the technical depth. I found Titan II: A History of a Cold War Missile Program to be a better history of US cold war missile development than this book. Dry, but packed full of information.

What I really want is a history of Polaris which is not on its bureacratic success or a 1960s fan book.