Bolt from the Sky

Even for the sophisticated rocket watchers of Cape Canaveral to whom the swiftest jet plane seems a little oldfashioned, the contrails of the B-52 bomber that soared high overhead last week held a special significance. Telescopes and electronic eyes on the Atlantic Missile Range traced every mile of the big ship's progress. The reason for the intense interest was obvious. Under the bomber's right wing hung a slim Skybolt missile, the newest and most promising weapon of the U.S. Air Force.

Precisely on schedule, the Skybolt dropped away from its mother plane. As it fell, the eight-finned after section kept it from tumbling. Then, just after the fins separated and went astern, the first of the two-stage missile's solid-fuel engines ignited, spouting a rooster tail of naming gas. Quickly Skybolt accelerated, spurted far ahead of the B-52, turned its nose upward and climbed sharply out of sight. By the time its dummy warhead splashed in the ocean far downrange, it was clear that Skybolt, which has been under forced-draft development by Douglas Aircraft Co. for nearly three years, was well along the difficult road toward deployment with the Strategic Air Command.*

Little Fuss. All qualified observers agreed: the Skybolt-B-52 combination makes a splendid weapon. (In Britain, even before last week's test, R.A.F. pilots were itching to strap the rockets under the wings of their Vulcan bombers.) A combat-ready B-52 will carry four Sky-bolts under its wings, each armed with a nuclear warhead that will make it as devastating as the submarine-borne Polaris missiles that are now in service. Both in eventual impact and versatility on the way to its target, Skybolt is an impressive testament to nuclear age technology.

The airborne missiles can be launched 1,000 nautical miles away from their targets; the two-stage missile's Aerojet engines burn solid fuel, and not much of it. When Skybolt is fired, it already has the respectable forward speed of 600 m.p.h., and most of the atmosphere is already far below. With little fuss, by land-launched rocket standards, it climbs into the vacuum of space and arches on its way.

Guiding Stars. Instruments both on the bomber and the missiles will watch the stars before launch (even in daylight) and jointly keep track of the plane's position above the surface of the earth. When a target has been selected, the bomber's crew will crank the proper instructions into the computers carried by the four Skybolts. At the press of a button, the birds will be on the wing, heading in salvo for a single target or spreading out on individual courses to clobber widely separated cities.

Since B-525 can take off from any of many fields and fly in a few hours to within easy reach of enemy centers, they are far more versatile than any fixed launching pad. Their Skybolts can approach targets from any direction, forcing an enemy to watch the whole sky rather than concentrate on already computed missile routes. And no effective defense is likely against the Skybolt's nuclear warhead, which will plunge out of space like an ICBM that has come from the far side of the earth.

* Skybolt partisans explain the missile's lack of early publicity by pointing out that when it was soaring through its research testing, Pentagon strategists were busy moving heaven and Congress to promote the $10 billion B70 project. Long before the first B70 flies, Skybolt will be competitive with the supersonic bomber.

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