Venice missile launch complex
 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for geographic features. (May 2024) |
The Venice missile launch complex was a Cold War Regulus missile firing installation[1] "adjacent to the Venice Municipal Airport"[2][better source needed] on the Venice, Florida, beach.[3] Beginning in 1959, KD2U-1 drone versions of the Regulus were JATO-launched from the strip of beach in front of the airport, flew across the Gulf of Mexico for simulating a penetrating enemy bomber for test interception, and then were "recovered on the runway at Eglin" AFB.[4] The launch complex was one of several Eglin missile range facilities[5] (e.g., the Anclote Missile Tracking Annex near Tampa)[6] and conducted the "Regulus 2, KD2U intercept missile test [on] September 3, 1959" in which the "first launch of the Air Force's new Bomarc IM-99A missile [successfully intercepted] the Regulus 2 missile at 35,000 feet altitude and at supersonic speed"[7] (the Bomarc launch complex was at tbd after "BOMARC missiles arrived Jul 1958" at Hurlburt Field.)[8]
References
[edit]- ^ "Sarasota Journal - Google News Archive Search". Retrieved 29 November 2016.
- ^ "Regulus II cruise missile". www.angelfire.com/realm3/roynagl/regulus.[self-published source]
- ^ "title tbd". Retrieved 2014-07-09.
defense contractor Ling-Temco-Vought which in the late 1950s and early 1960s built and launched Regulus II cruise missiles from the beach directly in front of the Venice Airport
- ^ "Military Missiles WebRing". Retrieved 29 November 2016.
- ^ "Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Google News Archive Search". Retrieved 29 November 2016.
- ^ "St. Petersburg Times - Google News Archive Search". Retrieved 29 November 2016.
- ^ "Space Cover 254: Flown on Regulus 2, Venice, Fla. - collectSPACE: Messages". Retrieved 29 November 2016.
- ^ Mueller, Robert (1989). "Eglin Air Force Base". Air Force Bases (PDF) (Report). Vol. I: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982. Office of Air Force History. p. 136. ISBN 0-912799-53-6. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
27°03′54″N 82°26′28″W / 27.0649°N 82.4412°W
 | This United States Air Force article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |