Blue Streak or Thor?
I don't know if this is the right place for this question but here goes.
I work at a supposedly well known research lab. We have a cabin that we use to store junk which lab mythology holds was a Blue Streak control cabin. I'm sceptical of that as Blue Streak was never intended to be a mobile system. However I've seen pictures of Thor launchers which seem to have very similar cabins. I believe that the cabin was used for high altitude balloon tests before it came to it's current resting place. On the front of the cabin near the entrance hatch is a data plate which states that it's a Douglas Aircraft Co Inc Santa monica Calif USA. Missile Launching Countdown Group Trailer Mounted A/M24 A-1A. part No 5681711.505 serial No 000076 date 02.2.62 Contract No AF04.647.114 WT 14240 Any ex RAF or USAF steely eyed rocketeers ever spend time in one of these? |
Nopt a steely eyed rocketeer but a quick search of the Redstone Arsenal, Army MAterial Command and USAFM holdings do not show a M24 associated with the Thor (it is however the 20mm cannon system son a B-36). Maybe it is Blue Streak. One way to find out is the National Stock Number that looks like this 1234-12-1234 and may have some letters or numbers leading or trailing. That is like a catalog number for everything military and that ties names and inventory managers and systems and stuff.
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The Thor production line was in Santa Monica, the dates tie in with the production dates of the UK systems.
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Thanks Guy's I've put all of numbers from the data plate onto my original post. I didn't bother originally as I didn't think I'd get much response. I'll try a search on the national stock number see what pops up!:ok:
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With all the information you have shouldn't be too hard....not.
I've used a number of Part Number /NSN crossreferences and found zero. The contract number doesn't match anything. Now down to contacting the archive/history offices at a couple Air Force places. It appears that it is most likely Thor. There were 6 or 8 squadrons based in the UK from 1958 to 1963 or so, so a certain amount of material left behind is reasonable. The history types seem more into squadron/unit histories and aircraft/missiles. I guess nobody looks at the tow tractors/test equipment/yellow gear/etc...just the sexy flyingstuff. |
Wasn't Blue Streak entirely British anyway?
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