From the Back Cover: In US Guided Missiles renowned aviation historian Bill Yenne has produced, for the first time, a comprehensive guide to the widely varied United States guided missile systems that have been designated with the "M" prefix. Beginning with the 1950s MGM-1 Matador-a jet-propelled cruise missile inspired by Germany's wartime V-1 "Flying Bomb" -and the MGM-5 Corporal, evolved from the German V2 ballistic missile, US Guided Missiles charts the evolution of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) such as the Atlas, Titan, Minuteman and Peacekeeper. The Atlas and Titan later became famous as the basis for the launch vehicles that carried the first American astronauts into space. Meanwhile the Rim-2 and MIM-3 Nike Ajax had their roots in anti-aircraft missiles of World War II. Having begun with the earliest Cold War guided missiles, this book progresses through Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) such as the UGM-73 Poseidon and UGM-96 Trident, to the later cruise missiles such as the BGM-109 Tomahawk. The roster of systems includes the hugely successful air-to-air 'Sidewinder', as well as little-known and obscure missiles, and modern systems in use today including the AIM-120 AMRAAM and RIM-162 Standard Missiles. From the earliest post-war rockets, through the Cold War to modern weapons, US Guided Missiles shows how guided missile systems have changed the face of warfare, illustrated throughout with rare and previously unseen images, and with extensive appendices, this book is an essential reference for any aviation, aerospace or military historian and enthusiast.

In 1945, the United States Army established a testing center for rockets and guided missiles in south-central New Mexico. Named White Sands Proving Ground, this center was the locale for many of Americas first steps towards space. Rockets and Missiles of White Sands Proving Ground chronicles major activities at the base from 1945-1958. During this period, the Army, Navy, and Air Force all tested missiles at the desert installation. This book details the development and testing for such missiles as Hermes, Corporal, Nike Ajax, Sergeant, Honest John, and Viking. These missiles formed the backbone of much of Americas arsenal during the Cold War and represented major technological advancements. In 1958, the White Sands Proving Ground became the White Sands Missile Range, as it is known today.

A poignant, surreal, and fearlessly honest look at growing up on one of the most secretive weapons installations on earth, by a young woman who came of age with missiles The China Lake missile range is located in a huge stretch of the Mojave Desert, about the size of the state of Delaware. It was created during the Second World War, and has always been shrouded in secrecy. But people who make missiles and other weapons are regular working people, with domestic routines and everyday dilemmas, and four of them were Karen Piper's parents, her sister, and--when she needed summer jobs--herself. Her dad designed the Sidewinder, which was ultimately used catastrophically in Vietnam. When her mom got tired of being a stay-at-home mom, she went to work on the Tomahawk. Once, when a missile nose needed to be taken offsite for final testing, her mother loaded it into the trunk of the family car, and set off down a Los Angeles freeway. Traffic was heavy, and so she stopped off at the mall, leaving the missile in the parking lot. Piper sketches in the belief systems--from Amway's get-rich schemes to propaganda in The Rocketeer to evangelism, along with fears of a Lemurian takeover and Charles Manson--that governed their lives. Her memoir is also a search for the truth of the past and what really brought her parents to China Lake with two young daughters, a story that reaches back to her father's World War II flights with contraband across Europe. Finally, A Girl's Guide to Missiles recounts the crossroads moment in a young woman's life when she finally found a way out of a culture of secrets and fear, and out of the desert.

Beginning with World War II, missiles transformed the art of war. For the first time, cities of warring nations were vulnerable to sudden, unannounced, long-distance attacks. At the same time, rockets made possible one of the great triumphs of the modern age—the exploration of space. Beginning with the origins of rocketry in medieval and early modern Asia, Rockets and Missiles traces the history of the technology that led to both the great fear of global warfare and the great excitement of the Space Age. This volume focuses on rocketry in late-twentieth-century Western Europe, Russia, and the United States, as well as the spread of rocket technology to East Asia and the Middle East. It covers the full history of rocket technology—including how rockets improved in performance, reliability, and versatility and how they affected everyday life.

For both experts and novices, presents the principles of both tactical and strategic missile guidance in a common language, notation, and perspective, with numerous examples to illustrate the concepts. This revised edition (1st ed., 1990) adds three new chapters on the fundamentals of endoatmospheric ballistic targets; a new chapter showing how covariance analysis can be used to analyze missile guidance systems; two new appendices; and included Macintosh and IBM compatible formatted disks containing the FORTRAN code listings presented in the text. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR