“ ON TARGET: THE ATLAS ICBM ” 1958 CONVAIR ASTRONAUTICS SM-65B MISSILE LAUNCH DOCUMENTARY XD46484
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This 1960 color documentary film from Convair Astronautics Division and General Dynamics Corporation uses montage and bold narration to dramatise the feats of collaborative engineering and technological advancement behind the SM-65 Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile, a success for the United States in the late 1950s, during the Cold War’s “Space Race” with the Soviet Union. This film features the launch of SM-65B, rocket 4B on August 2, 1958. It was the second model of the second prototype version, which introduced a stage and a half system and was the first American rocket to achieve the distinction of being truly intercontinental in range (TRT: 27:28).
Opening titles: “On Target” over a monitor display resembling a flatlining EKG. A rotating beacon light (0:09). A man in silhouette smokes a cigarette. A hearse-like station wagon pulls away from a parking lot, followed by a “Leonard Bros.” truck hauling a covered ICBM (0:25). The two vehicles on the road, destined for Cape Canaveral, Florida. Driving through snow (1:17). Arriving at “Convair Astronautics” (1:59). The Florida headquarters of the “Air Force Missile Test Center.” Exterior “AFMTC Central Control Blvd.” Satellite dish antennas and a waving U.S. flag. (2:31). Antennas of the AZUSA ground-based radar tracking system at the Air Force Eastern Test Range. Telemetry antennas rotate into position (3:12). An Atlas ICBM erected in a Cape Canaveral launch service tower. Pan across clouds (3:37). A control tower on the island of San Salvador. A sign alongside a doorway: “Central Control.” Inside, engineers and flight controllers speak on radio headsets (4:03). Outdoors, various antennas rotate into position, taking readings (4:43). Spinning memory reels of magnetic tape record data. Engineers plot the course of the Atlas on instrument panels (5:17). Station 9A at Antigua in the Caribbean. A Kennedy high-gain antenna (HGA) and a receiver building (6:34). A meteorologist releases a weather balloon (7:48). A ship at sea acts as a mobile tracking station near Trinidad. An engineer uses a radar system (8:17). A jeep at Antigua’s station. Inside, engineers put on headsets and speak, flipping switches (9:05). Cargo is unloaded from a ship and into a truck (10:04). A U.S. Air Force jet airliner takes off. Aerial photography of a control tower (10:46). Pad 13 at Cape Canaveral. The rocket payload is hoisted into position. Closeups on engineers wearing sunglasses, hardhats (11:46). The nose cone data capsule (12:24). Mission control. Engineers speak on telephones. A telemetering trailer: “Authorized Personnel Only” (12:43). Blips pulse on a radar monitor (13:18). Magnetic memory reels (13:37). Launch day. Closeup on the rocket “4B” at Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 13 (13:50). The service tower retracts, exposing the gleaming rocket (14:23). A digital clock counts down. Men wait with anticipation in control rooms (15:39). Storm clouds gather and thunder is heard (16:17). A delay is encountered (17:15). Cameras rotate into position. The test area is evacuated (17:45). A montage of instrument panels, employees, and support aircraft at the ready. Clear skies prevail (19:01). All systems are “go” with 4 minutes until launch (20:04). A General Electric console. Switches are flipped. A periscope viewer is checked (21:03). The rocket is all clear, as the final supports are released (21:36). The final countdown (22:15). The Atlas rocket’s engine ignites. Blastoff. The rocket takes off. An observatory dome tracks its flight (22:38). A tracking map charts the flight of the Atlas ICBM (23:55). Quiet at mission control. Radar antennas maneuver. Data printouts continue. The rocket continues “off the charts” (24:53). The launch crew celebrates the news that the nose cone has separated successfully (25:56). The narrator boasts of a direct hit on a target in the Atlantic Ocean and the possibility of “instant retaliation” (26:45). End titles (27:14).
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William Conrad is the narrator on this production. He did many narrations for US military projects.
He also was the commentator for Rocky and BullWinklel show up 😂😂
That is the first thing I noticed
Sounds more like Broderick Crawford.....
Cannon! A Quinn Martin production.
Was the voice of Matt Dillon on the radio version of Gunsmoke.
There is no mistaking William Conrad's voice, or else that is the most incredible impersonation I have ever
heard. It is ironic that, when I just looked him up online, I found we are coming up on the 30th anniversary of his passing on Feb 11. Unbelievable how fast time flies by. Cool video! Thank you!!
No imitator; that's absolutely William (radio's Matt Dillon) Conrad.
You commented exactly what I was thinking! It's funny how those announcer's voices still jog our memories after all these years. 📻🎤
@@lilblackduc7312 . . . . true, but William Conrad was more than that, he was also 'Cannon' the private investigator series on tv in the 70's . . . . he bounced around on other tv series as a guest too.
He was also the narrator on "The Bullwinkle Show"
@@grandwazoo870 Lookup Paul Frees. He was the voice you want to hear.
I worked at GD Convair in San Diego as a tech. Part of my job was maintaining the welding machines used to weld the Atlas. Old buggers with Nixie tube displays for the timers. 😂 We used to call the Atlas a tin balloon because the walls were quite thin and it wasn't until it was pressurized that it would even stand on end scurely. I was reminded of that when I saw all the snow that had formed outside the liquid O2 tank falling off at launch.
Awesome! You answered two questions I had: what the stuff falling off the missile at launch was, and whether the Atlas was thin-skinned and reliant on pressurization to maintain structural integrity. I recalled reading about that some time ago in regards to (I believe) Titan, but couldn't remember if it was also true of Atlas (suspected it was.) Thanks!
Ah.. fantastic. The stuff of nightmares. This narrator has a perfect voice for this. Cold and frightening.
That would be Willian Conrad. He played Cannon on TV in the mid '70's. He was the radio voice of Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke. You're right, he has a voice that demands your attention.
@@marstondavis Ah, thanks. Sounded familiar but I couldn’t place it. Thanks.
William Conrad also narrated in the Bullwinkle series of cartoons!
@@uncleal6095 Bullwinkle is a really good guy!
I would like that guy to narrate my wedding video.
Wow, excellent preservation of historically important documentation.
I thank my lucky stars that the Greatest Generation were the ones that had to contend and counter the threat from communist aggression. We are all alive today because of it.
We should all work together....think where we'd be if instead of spending on war, we were spending on space....
@@kennethanway7979: Think where we'd be if the Great Library at Alexandria hadn't been destroyed...but perhaps more pertinent to contemporary humanity: It is useless for sheep to pass laws of pacifism when wolves remain of a different opinion.
@@richardunruh4035 I would love to read it!
Nice I'm going to have to remember that one, and I couldn't agree more. Personally I am a wolf that just happens to be a vegetarian..I. not really a vegetarian.buti just have a strong moral conscience that I use very much as a compass.what I find strange is these days the sheep have more to worry about from their bloodthirsty Cannibal relatives tha. They do the wolves
And to think that the Atlas' descendant, Atlas-Centaur, has only another 19 flights left before finally being retired after nearly 60 years venerable service as a space launcher (starting with Project Mercury and Atlas-Agena). Truly one of the most successful rocket programmes in U.S. history.
I know...why not perfect what works, but then what do I know?
@@kennethanway7979 The new rocket, Vulcan-Centaur, looks to have greater capability than both Atlas and Delta. It certainly proved it with its maiden launch a few days ago.
@@LordZontar thanks! I didn't know...I was born in 1960, so I was young, and all launches were awesome!
The current Atlas is very different from the original. The name was carried over.
@@treborg777 Of course. There have been design changes over the years, the mounting of the RD-180 engines, a steady evolution in the rocket, which is to be expected in a long-standing programme.
You had me in the first 30 seconds with the screaming JIMMY 🍻🇺🇸
Thank you Periscope films.
It was an amazing time in history. We got it right. No one got blown up. I was recently visiting the Everglades in Florida. Drove up on the old Atlas missile site. It's a visitor spot now with tours available. Growing up in FL in the early 60's was an experiance. As a family, we had mapped out which fallout shelter we would live in after the Russians attacked from Cuba. 😮☢️
Lotta atlas's blowed up during testing and thankfully only in testing and no one got blowed up with them :)❤
Aside some military sites why Florida? Everglades?
@@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe Probably because the sight in the Everglades is 167 miles from Havana, Cuba. Short distance for an Atlas but the optics of having it there and pointing at Havana was probably the reason they put it there.
@@kingofscrews I would have thought optics were something to be avoided. Park some F 105s down there in the Everglades..
@@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe Deterance was the strategy. The bigger we looked the less likely Russia would have pulled the trigger. It worked then and it works nowadays. 💪
So cool. So very much thank you for the upload ❤❤❤❤
Thank you for uploading this really good show! Judging from the comments, everyone is well-pleased to hear the narration from our old favorite, William Conrad...🇺🇸 👍☕
Love the sound of the Detroit, converts diesel into noise.
Hey that's William Conrad!! What a great voice!!
Your videos are very good, and well done! 😀👍
It's interesting that one of the controllers said that everything was AOK, and this film was made in 1958. To the best of my knowledge, the time when the public first heard the phrase AOK, and the time when AOK first entered the English language was in 1961 when Alan Shepard first went up.
Actually aok was first used in 836 ad when a Chinese warrior for the Han Dynasty was preparing for combat with an Imperial Japanese Sudokai when told all plans were ready for implementation , to which he replied aok.
What role Did the Great Tom Hanks in play in the deployment of this Miss ile?😊
Have a friend that bought and converted a silo here in Abilene, see something new everytime I visit, thanks for sharing 🇺🇸👍
3:48
Contractor: How much concrete do you want in your blockhouse ?
USAF: All of it
The windows must be pretty strong too.
I marvel at the technology. That they got this stuff to work with analogue kit, valves and braided wire is amazing to me. When you look at the cars they're driving you can't imagine they're also working up to a moon rocket and incredible nuclear weapons.
A kerolox blast from the past.
Thanks ❤
Sounds like William Conrad narrating, who was Matt Dillon on radio and Cannon on TV. Companies made some high quality PR films in those days.
I remember Conrad doing those battery commercials where he challenges the viewer to knock it off his shoulder . . .
!
You are thinking of Robert Conrad..
Agree....sounds a lot like William Conrad......Cannon talking about missiles....cool!
"On-Target: The Atlas ICBM. A Quinn-Martin production."
That is William Conrad, he did voice work and narration for quite a few of the military and weapon systems back in the day.
Forget the ICBM, the real defender of freedom is the narrator's voice.
Was that von Braun sitting with the Air Force brass?
The Mercury-era control instrumentation is fascinating - they didn't have a single TV screen in that entire room, it was all pen-and-ink plotter machines.
I keep expecting William Conrad to go "off piste" with the narration and say; "And you figured you could put a slug in Wilkinson and shut 'im up permamanently, and then another in my back, well, you're taking the fall. Officers! take him in."
They didn't show booster separation, which is where a bunch of these birds did an RUD (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly), which I saw in the summer of 1961 at the Cape. I was working for the Navy as a summer hire on the Polaris Project. We had a few of those RUD's ourselves. But that was the rocket business back then. Ultimately, Atlas missiles sent Mercury astronauts into orbit, safely!
Test conductor: Thomas Joseph 'T.J.' O'Malley 1915-2009
Pin up calendar on the left side of the shot at 9:40. Could be Norma Jean
I need an AI William Conrad narrator app. Okay, I don't need it but I want it.
at 05:59 what computer are we looking at? that tape drive how much data can it hold?
17:40 - That sounds like the WWV atomic clock!
I pray God, for those missles will never fly for there targets. Never.
Because this vicious weapons is the end of human civilization, and all life at our small fragile planet.
You do know that these missiles were decommissioned in 1965.
You know they never really got rid of any missiles, don't you....us or them...@@Cartoonman154
@@Cartoonman154 they been replaced with the other nukes
amazing how old the tech was in the 1958. now computers are much faster and much smaller. and your data can be stored on a hd with all the data from all tracking stations.
Why the timestamp block and website URL plastered over the image? Obscures the view.
Here's the issue: Tens of thousands of films similar to this one have been lost forever -- destroyed -- and many others are at risk. Our company preserves these precious bits of history one film at a time. How do we afford to do that? By selling them as stock footage to documentary filmmakers and broadcasters. If we did not have a counter, we could not afford to post films like these online, and no films would be preserved. It's that simple. So we ask you to bear with the watermark and timecodes.
In the past we tried many different systems including placing our timer at the bottom corner of our videos. What happened? Unscrupulous TH-cam users downloaded our vids, blew them up so the timer was not visible, and re-posted them as their own content! We had to use content control to have the videos removed and shut down these channels. It's hard enough work preserving these films and posting them, without having to spend precious time dealing with policing thievery -- and not what we devoted ourselves to do.
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10 years later they're putting people on top of those things and blasting them around the world 🌎
Back when we got shit done!
I think they tested Emag guns there, too.
That's Marshall Dillon voicing this film.
Accuracy was 1,400m. Yield. 1.44 Mt to compensate for poor accuracy. Later, 3.75 Mt
Yes as they say, you don't have to be that accurate with a nuke = close is near enough.
Then upgraded to 9Mt and then sanity set in. Also live in Arkansas a few miles from a missile launch silo where a horrible accident occurred that turned it into a giant mortar that lobbed the 9Mt warhead over 300 meters in the air and a little outside the perimeter gate. Though the warhead was unusable afterwards, it survived intact with no explosion or contamination. The maintenance crew wasn't so lucky though.😢
Sounds like Gannon the detective show star from the '70s .
So much fer a guy with binoculars lightin' the fuse and runnin' like hell...
"I said 'LUNCH', not 'LAUNCH'!!"
But its round, it needs to be pointy, that will bounce and come back.
Did any one else have the Marx playset "Atomic Cape Canaveral Missile Base"?
Cannon!
So, a video like this I always imagine being pretty secret when first made, they presumably wouldn’t have wanted any Soviet eyes on it?
I could swear that the narrator was William Conrad
It is William Conrad.
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The war would have been over by the time they ever got off the ground.
war, what is it good for...
Armies for the preservation of peace do not exist; they exist only for the triumphant exertion of war.
Thinning out the population so the peasants are easier to control.
Buisness.
Survival.
funding scientific research.
I bet kim jung un still cant hit the target up to now 😂
👁🗨 👃🏼 👁🗨
💄 👄 💄
Greek Mythology Atlas holds up the Heavens or sky for all eternity and somehow... It becomes a Globe in the propaganda reels on the tell lie vision... Go figure!
He's holding up the heavens with his feet.
People who made America great! They wouldn't vote for Biden...
I think that is William Conrad doing the narration! holds the record for radio shows that he was on..... wow. he did a lot. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Conrad