Fledgling Flight of the New Bird

The Administration cannot make up its mind about how to base the MX missile, but the Air Force has successfully staged the first test launching of a dummy MX at a site near Las Vegas. The projectile had no propellants, electronics or warhead, but was the same size, shape and weight as an actual MX. At left, the missile is ejected from a canister by steam and gas pressure, a system adapted from submarine missile-launching devices. As the mock-up rises into the air, some of the rectangular plastic pads, designed to steady the missile until it leaves the canister, begin to fall off, as all are supposed to do. In the third picture, the missile, which reached an altitude of 325 ft., tilts back toward earth; it finally falls into a crater 140 ft. downrange. Exulted one Air Force officer: "The test did everything it was designed to do. Everything went as planned along the route." First scheduled test flight of a real missile: early 1983.

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