Assembly Building (San Francisco, California) | military, nikemissile

USA / California / Broadmoor / San Francisco, California
 military, nikemissile
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Now used by the hang gliding club, this building is where new missiles, arriving unassembled and unarmed, would have their fins, fairings, and ailerons attached. The missile's hydraulic and propulsion systems would also be checked here. Other tests checked its ability to be controlled via radio frequency, and that the missile guidance battery was properly pressurized. Ajax missiles would also have their arming devices and warheads installed here.

The concrete walkway leading out of the building's northern end and curving to the right once led to the acid fuelling station behind the earthen berm. Here, the Ajax missile would be fuelled with unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDHM, a starter), and a prollent mixture of inhibited red fuming nitric acid, JP-4, and UDMH. Nike-Hercules missiles used solid fuel.
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Coordinates:   37°42'53"N   122°30'1"W
This article was last modified 13 years ago