Utah's Spectacular Missiles Industry: Its History and Import

UTAH'S SPECTACULAR MISSILES INDUSTRY: ITS HISTORY AND IMPACT

By Leonard F. Arrington and Jon G. Perry

In 1866, on the occasion of the dedication of the newly-completed Deseret Telegraph line, Brigham Young indicated his belief in the ultimate possibility of space travel by forecasting the day when we could "waft ourselves by the power of the Almighty from world to world to our fullest satisfaction." That wily and enterprising leader would have been pleased to know that less than a hundred years later Utah is contributing substantially to America's efforts to master the problems of space. With no less than five missiles complexes of major magnitude, Utah is a leading producer of space vehicles.

The story of Utah's recent industrial advancement is little short of amazing. In 1940 Utah had just over 16,000 persons employed in all phases of manufacturing. Twenty-one years later, manufacturing employment totaled almost 54,000, and the amount paid out in wages and salaries exceeded $250 million. Manufacturing now makes the largest single contribution to personal income in Utah. Employment in the missiles industry — an industry that did not even exist in the state in 1956 —is 13,000. This is just short of the number (16,000) in all of Utah's agriculture. Nor does it count the 20,000 or more employed at Utah's defense installations and the thousands of others employed in the state in related and supporting industries. Total wages and salaries paid to Utah's missiles workers in 1961 is estimated to have been in excess of $70 million, while total expenditures of all kinds made by missiles manufacturers within the state amounted to well over $100 million — perhaps as much as $150 million. Utah missiles installations and their subcontractors at the end of 1961 had an estimated $500 million in defense contracts.

The remarkable growth of Utah's missiles complex can be demonstrated statistically by the following comparison of employment in 1957, 1959, and 1961. TABLE I*

The impetus which the missiles industry has given to Utah's economy is perhaps best indicated by the fact that in 1959, when Utah's 14,000-man basic metals industry underwent a long strike, Utah's total income did not decline but rose to a new high of $1.6 billion — up 4.9 per cent over 1958. It is estimated that approximately 10 per cent of all construction in Utah is directly related to missiles development and production. Present and prospective orders would indicate that more than $2 billion in missiles will be built on the dry hills and verdant valley lands of northern Utah.

The production of pilotless aircraft, the largest single industry in the state in number of employees and size of payroll, has attracted some of the nation's ablest scientific brains into' the state. It has also converted predominantly agricultural areas into industrial centers of major magnitude, provided lucrative employment opportunities for literally thousands of talented university and technical school graduates, and shifted Utah's condition from a net exporter of labor to a net importer.

THE BIRTH OF GUIDED MISSILES

During the years immediately following World War II, defense leaders became aware that supersonic flight and pilotless aircraft would revolutionize the then-held concepts of war and defense. Huge long-range bombers, whether powered by piston-driven engines or turboprop, jet, ramjet, or rocket engines, operated at high speeds and high altitudes, and defense against them was imperative. In answer to this need, defense activities came to be centered around the development of guided missiles systems. While the ancient Greeks, Chinese, and medieval Italians used crude rocket-propelled missiles, the first systematic use of pilotless aircraft with automatic controls was the awesome German V-2 rocket of World War II. The United States quickly improved upon this beginning and developed a striking force of electronically-guided missiles ranging from single-man-launched missiles to Atlas and Titan. Atlas, alone, is 85 feet tall, weighs 100 tons, and is capable of carrying nuclear payloads up to 9,000 miles at 15,000 miles per hour high above the earth's atmosphere. The arsenal of missiles now includes air-to-air missiles, ground-to-ground missiles, air-to-surface missiles, and surface-to-air missiles. At least 45 major named missiles are in use or development by the United States. Their production constitutes the greatest concentrated construction and engineering undertaking in world history.

Guidance systems now vary from the simple fixed aerodynamic fins for stabilizing ballistic missile flight to the complicated nozzle and fin adjustments of guided missiles which are directed by electronic "brains." The "brains" maintain their own equilibrium or orientation by means of gyroscopes, and navigate by fixing electronic eyes on stars or by "locking on" the exhaust heat of their targets. Propulsion for these missiles is based on the simple principle of reaction or recoil — a principle well-known to Utah's deer hunters. Engineers have investigated every conceivable type of "gun" as a possible engine for propulsion. There are ramjets, solid and liquid propellant rockets, and, in varying stages of research and development, plasma jet, ion propulsion, and nuclear and solar electric power plants. Sources of energy for the "guns" include gunpowder, of course, but also liquid fuels such as gasoline, kerosene, and liquid hydrogen, and also "exotic" fuels based on boron, fluorine, radioactive materials, and other still-classified substances. Most liquid-fueled rockets require an intricate and expensive system of feeding the combustible and liquid oxidizer in accurate proportion and rate. (To get a good blast oxygen must be added because there is little oxygen in space.) Solid propellants with fuel and oxidizer premixed to assure complete burning are far simpler and cheaper to construct and handle, and are more versatile in performance. That is, they can be stored and can be fired immediately with a high rate of reliability.

Development of these weapons, some of which have opened up transportation possibilities in outer space, has been expensive. It is estimated that the United States had spent or appropriated, by the end of 1961, over $30 billion on missiles research, development, and procurement. An additional $50 billion is scheduled to be spent during the next ten years on military and civilian space programs. Of a total national defense budget for the 1961 fiscal year of approximately $43 billion, missiles accounted for well over $5 billion, or 12 per cent. This is the equivalent of 500,000 new homes — or the cost of putting 5,000,- 000 students through college for a year. Missiles procurement for military purposes is now almost as great as aircraft procurement, while research and development contracts for space programs threaten to exceed those for strictly military use. Spendings on missiles, satellites, and space flight now approach the sum spent by all Americans each year for new cars. Almost a million persons are employed in jobs directly or indirectly related to America's space program.

While some of this expenditure is "wasteful," though necessary, there are undoubted side benefits to the United States economy. These include the development of new manufacturing techniques (numerical control of giant machine tools, chemical machining, explosive forming), new industrial products (telemetering devices, three-D television, missile mail carriers), many kinds of new materials, and much new manufacturing capacity. Consumers' products already developed from Missile Age breakthroughs include new ceramic materials, improved battery-powered flashlights and radios, devices for opening and closing garage doors "on command," miniscule heart stimulators, tiny electronic wristwatches, and various medical devices. With the exception of transistors and miracle drugs, nearly all the great technical advances of the past few years have been paid for out of defense budgets. "As the missiles take over from manned aircraft, they should become our most important source of future technology." One reason for this is that the industry employs a high proportion of scientific and technical personnel and devotes a large share of its budget to research.

Basically, missiles are pilotless torpedoes which can be relied on through various means of guidance to destroy a target. The missiles most talked about, and for which the Defense Department is spending the largest percentage of its allotted money, are Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). Atlas, Titan, Polaris, and Minuteman, which are classed in this group, are considered as ballistic missiles rather than guided missiles because, like the bullet in a rifle, their trajectory and guidance system is established at the launching, while guided missiles are subject to redirection during flight. From bases in the continental United States or from mobile launching bases on submarines, it is now possible, within an hour of launching time, to drop nuclear or thermonuclear warheads upon any spot on the globe. Alternatively, we may be able to send, in massive retaliation to an attack on our territory, hundreds of big missiles capable of wiping out every large military objective of any conceivable aggressor in a matter of minutes.

Missiles have truly revolutionized defensive and offensive military planning. No longer may long-range bombers rule the sky through height and speed of operation; a guided missile can easily knock one down from a land base hundreds of miles away. It is clear that the United States is relying heavily on guided missiles for offensive and defensive striking and deterrent power, as well as for numerous potential peacetime uses. By the end of 1962, guided missiles, particularly Minuteman, will be the "long suit" in Uncle Sam's defense "hand."

The recent shift in emphasis from liquid-fueled Atlas and Titan systems to the high-priority Minuteman, a solid-fueled rocket, stems from the latter's greater reliability, faster reaction time (it may be fired within a minute or so of an actual alert), easier handling in the field requiring fewer highly-trained personnel, greater mobility, less handling equipment (because it is smaller for its range and power), ease of storage at-the-ready for long periods of time, and the drastic reduction in cost. Exclusive of launch facilities, Minuteman missiles will cost about $500,000 each, compared with about $2 million each for Atlas. On its launcher, a single Minuteman will cost less than $2 million, compared with $35 million for the liquid-fueled ICBM.

Developed in 1957, the nuclear-tipped, 60-foot Minuteman can carry an explosive load of half a megaton (half a million tons of TNT) for a distance of 6,300 miles. Already, hundreds of steel and concrete silos are being built around the country to store this new member of the Air Force missiles family, and railroad trains are being prepared to carry it at-the-ready in random paths across the country. Properly regarded as the "compact car" of the missiles industry, Minuteman capitalizes upon the traditional American ability to produce a large supply of like items efficiently. Some 60 of the giant birds are scheduled to be produced each month beginning in mid-1962. And with its new inertial guidance system, the graceful Minuteman scored a direct bulls-eye in its first "go for broke" 4,000-mile test flight in February, 1961.

While Utah has participated in the production of other missiles, the vertiginous Minuteman is the defense system which has brought most of the missiles industry to Utah. At least 8,000 workers and an annual payroll of $42 million are directly attributable to Minuteman contracts in Utah. This is in addition to many other vital defense projects upon which work is being done in the Beehive State.

BEGINNINGS OF MISSILES PRODUCTION IN UTAH

The missiles industry in Utah is now in its sixth year, with two of the five principal companies, Sperry Rand Corporation, Salt Lake City, and Marquardt Corporation, Ogden, having commenced their Utah operations in July, 1956. The largest of the missiles firms, Thiokol Chemical Corporation, commenced construction of plant facilities northwest of Brigham City early in 1957. One other company, Hercules Powder Company, Magna, was already established in the state in related fields prior to its entrance into the missiles field in 1958. The most recent entrant, The Boeing Company, established a management office in Ogden consisting of a few persons in the fall of 1959, and construction of the Minuteman assembly and recycle plant at Hill Air Force Base began in September, 1960, and is scheduled for completion early in 1962.

There are basically three missiles represented by these five companies. Thiokol, Hercules, and Boeing are engaged with the Minuteman— "the missile whose middle name is Ute." Thiokol has the contract for the large first-stage solid-propellant engine, Hercules has the third-stage engine, and Boeing is the final assembler and tester of the giant fire breather. Sperry Utah is the prime contractor for the complete system of the solid-fuel Army Sergeant tactical missile, and is performing the necessary research and development to make it fully operational. Marquardt's efforts are centered around production engines— "Ramjets" — for the Boeing Bomarc antiaircraft interceptor missiles. Hercules, in addition to the Minuteman contract, is working on an improved second-stage solid-fuel engine for Polaris — the first ballistic missile designed to be fired from a submerged submarine.

In addition, each of the above companies operates research and development facilities aimed at continually providing better equipment for the missiles-space industry. Several of the plants are working on commercial applications of rockets, and others have advanced programs in progress in weapons systems research, missiles subsystems and components, and space flight. Moreover, such firms as Eitel-McCullough and Litton Industries, of Salt Lake City, produce inertial guidance systems and electron transmitting tubes and klystrons used in missiles and space satellites and thus complement Utah's missiles industry. It is comforting to Utahns to know that each of these companies has diversification plans to lessen its dependence upon the vagaries of Defense Department contracts, thus insuring a reasonably stable rate of return on plant investment, and a reasonably continuous employment at a fairly stable rate.

Moreover, Hill Air Force Base, near Ogden, with 13,500 employees, has assumed logistical support for the major missiles projects in Utah, as well as logistical support, maintenance, and remodeling of a number of operational missiles systems not made or developed in the state, including the Skybolt air-to-ground missile and the Genie air-to-air rocket. Almost a thousand Hill Air Force Base workers are now classed as "missilemen," with the proportion expected to increase rapidly. Not only does Hill AFB have the prime responsibility for Minuteman from the standpoint of procurement, replacement parts, and related missions, but the Air Materiel Command has assigned the Utah General Depot, Ogden, the mission of converting military railroad equipment to transport the missiles by rail. Ogden will also be an operations center for the mobile squadrons — some 2,400 Air Force personnel — which will operate the Minuteman railroad cars. Finally, the Tooele Ordnance Depot will carry out support and maintenance missions for the Utah-produced missiles.

Many firms have also been attracted to the state in anticipation of subcontracting with the prime contractors, and many more subcontractors can be expected to establish branches in northern Utah as production begins to be more important than research and development in the plants of Utah's missiles-makers. Housing construction in some communities near missiles facilities has shown gains of thousands of per cent per year as professional and technical personnel from outof-state have been attracted to Utah by the industry. Thiokol Chemical Corporation, which produces missiles at government-owned plants in several other states, has established rocket headquarters of the company in Ogden. Literally dozens of new plants are scheduled for construction in Utah, and employment is expected to rise by at least 2,000 during the year 1962.

On the basis of these indications of solidarity and growth and the increasing reliance of the Defense Department on solid-fuel missiles in its defense concept, Utahns can expect, during the next decade, to see the Wasatch Front in the fore of America's defense and space travel activities. By 1963, when Minuteman will become fully operational, Utah will be the leading missiles center in the nation.

WHY UTAH?

Why have these important firms established plants in Utah ? Why should Utah have become one of the nation's leading producers of missiles ? Obviously, there were, in each case, particular reasons why each of the five principal contractors chose a Utah location. Thus, Sperry Rand wanted a location fairly close to its Sergeant co-contractor, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, Pasadena, California, and to White Sands Proving Grounds, New Mexico, where the flight testing would take place. Marquardt required a location where the roar of ramjet engines could be dissipated without disturbing farms and communities, and which was near the Ogden Air Materiel Area headquarters at Hill Air Force Base. Thiokol wanted a site with plenty of expansion room, and with suitable space for testing large solid-fuel rocket motors. Hercules needed considerable space and preferred one close to its Bacchus dynamite works. Boeing's location had to be adjacent to Hill Air Force Base.

In addition to these special factors, however, several general considerations have favored northern Utah as a center for the nation's missiles industry. National policy requires the dispersal of defense facilities at varied "nontarget" locations throughout the country, away from vulnerable coastal areas and removed from large concentrations of population. Utah has large stretches of desert wasteland where test facilities could be located at little expense, under ideal climatic conditions, and without danger or disturbance to heavily-populated communities and farms. Moreover, northern Utah, located astride the continent, is a transportation and communications crossroads — a central distributing point for the entire West. Almost equidistant from Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, it is within easy commuting distance of the important defense bastions and research centers on the west coast. Both Ogden and Salt Lake City have excellent highway, rail, and air connections, and Ogden has the largest rail-switching station west of the Mississippi.

Of equal importance with these physical advantages, northern Utah also has cultural and human assets. Perhaps the most powerful attraction is the presence of three great universities — University of Utah, Utah State University, and Brigham Young University — where scientists and technicians can keep informed on the latest developments in their fields and associate with creative and stimulating minds. There are also excellent training and educational facilities at Weber College, Westminster College, the Salt Lake City Trade and Technical Institute, and the Central Utah Vocational School at Provo—all of which have gone out of their way to co-operate in providing an adequate and welltrained force of technical support personnel. Utah has traditionally maintained high standards in all levels of education and thus is capable of producing the talents and skills required by the modern laboratories and factories of technologically-advanced industries. Utah has also had, historically, a proportionately large number of well-educated but underemployed persons. Company personnel officers were delighted to find that many Utah-educated people now employed outside the state were pleased to return to their homeland to work. This was partly for religious and family reasons, of course, but also because of favorable living conditions: healthful climate, pleasant surroundings, unsurpassed recreational opportunities, and die character and friendliness of the people. Company officials also found a favorable attitude on the part of local business, government, and church leaders. In general, the companies have been well pleased with their Utah employees. As one executive has written: "Our Utah employees work hard, learn fast, and adapt themselves to new situations very readily." The labor turnover has been relatively low.

SPERRY RAND CORPORATION

The first of the "outside" corporations to locate plants or divisions in Utah for purposes of missiles production was the Sperry Rand Corporation of New York City. This company originated in 1910 when Dr. Elmer A. Sperry formed the Sperry Gyroscope Company to produce a gyrocompass for ships and an automatic pilot or "stabilizing gyroscope" for airplanes. Following a policy of diversification and expansion, the company went on to produce, among other things, the first autopilot flight controls, from which have evolved our modern autopilot and guidance systems for pilotless flight and guided missiles; the first "aerial torpiedoes," which scored accurate hits at up to fifty miles during World War I; and a high intensity arc searchlight which was used through World War II. In the 1920's and 1930's Sperry perfected the first blind flight instruments, data transmission systems, antiaircraft gun directors for naval vessels, and the klystron tube which laid the groundwork for all subsequent microwave radar. World War II contributions, in addition to radar improvements, included gyroscopic bombsights, mine detectors, and remote control systems for ships, guns, and searchlights.

Since 1933 the company has operated as The Sperry Corporation, with principal divisions including the Sperry Gyroscope Company, Ford Instrument Company, and Vickers Incorporated. In 1955 a merger was effected with Remington Rand Incorporated, whose origin went back to 1873, thus creating the Sperry Rand Corporation, with 87 plant facilities, 40 of them in foreign countries. This sprawling organization, owned by more than 165,000 stockholders, now consists of five loosely-integrated divisions which manufacture hydraulic equipment, farm equipment, and machines with electrical-electronic components; business machines, equipment, and supplies; electronic dataprocessing and tabulating equipment; and instrumentation and controls. Among its products are New Holland farm equipment, Vickers hydraulic equipment, Remington typewriters and electric shavers, Remington Rand Univac computers, and Sperry electronic control equipment. Total sales amount to about $1.2 billion per year. The company has about 105,000 employees. Chairman of the board is General Douglas Mac Arthur.

In 1956 Sperry Rand became heavily involved in national defense and accepted contracts for missiles systems, inertial guidance, automatic flight control, automatic navigation, electronic countermeasures, highpower radars for missiles guidance, airborne hydraulics, and groundbased missile guidance computers. These defense contracts, which by 1959 had boosted the corporation to twelfth in the dollar volume of U.S. government defense work, now account for approximately half of the total sales of the corporation.

The establishment of the Sperry Utah Engineering Laboratories in Salt Lake City was in connection with a prime contract for development and production of the deadly Sergeant missile. This special Utah facility was constructed during the last half of 1956 on a 46-acre plot adjacent to the Salt Lake City Municipal Airport, which the company purchased in June, 1956. Availability of the acreage adjacent to the airport provided good facilities for operations whose primary transportation need was air travel of personnel. The Sergeant missile program, the development of which Sperry Utah shared with Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and for the production and management of which it has full responsibility, moved from the development stage into production late in 1960. Coincident with the shifting of emphasis to production was the changing of the facility's name to Sperry Utah Company, Division of Sperry Rand Corporation.

Development and production of the Sergeant artillery guided missile system is the primary concern of the group today, as it was when the facility first located in Salt Lake City. Sergeant is a supersonic, medium-range, solid-fueled ballistic-guided missile designed to replace the liquid-fueled Corporal in providing atomic troop support. This five-ton surface-to-surface battlefield missile is about 35 feet long and 2^2 feet in diameter, is capable of striking ground targets at ranges of 75 to 125 miles, far beyond that of conventional artillery weapons, and has a guidance system which is invulnerable to any known enemy countermeasures. It may be moved into position and fired in a short time under any conditions of weather and terrain. In a 1960 test the sleek, white Sergeant rated a "100 per cent successful" firing record. The weapons system has been classed by the Army as a "high density" item, meaning that a large number of the missiles would be required for training purposes, and a great number would be prepared for strategic missions. The first Sergeant, complete with ground equipment, was delivered to the Redstone Army Arsenal in Alabama in April, 1961, and it is expected to be placed in the hands of troops sometime in 1962.

Gaining in importance, however, are the company-sponsored research and development projects underway at Sperry Utah to widen the scope of its operations and assure a stable future. These projects include comprehensive studies of advanced weapons systems, the design and fabrication of specialized subsystems and components for the arming and fuzing of missiles, and studies in the use of digital computers. A staff of engineers and technical support personnel experienced in solving research and development problems has been selected for the purpose of integrating new projects into> the total work plan of the company. Prior to 1961, the Utah Division had undertaken contract research on infrared possibilities and applications (now transferred to Sperry Gyroscope Company in New York), the design and development of the Army Vigilante Weapons System, a radar tracking-plotting system for recording aircraft track information, and the manufacture of missile guidance systems for the Navy. The Utah laboratory also has worked on aircraft detection, antiaircraft fire control, antisubmarine warfare, satellite re-entry, reconnaissance, and investigation of unexplored regions of the spectrum.

The original 50,000 square-foot Sperry plant in Utah was sold in February, 1958, to Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Los Angeles, for a reported $1,650,000, and leased back to Sperry for a 40- year period. In this way the company raised the wherewithal to add another 107,000 square feet to the building in 1957-58. Another 108,000 square feet were added in 1960, making the total value of Sperry construction in Utah in excess of $5 million. Sperry Rand facilities in Utah now encompass 480,000 square feet of floor space and include rented space at the Salt Lake City Municipal Airport, buildings in downtown Salt Lake City, and a manufacturing area at the Naval Supply Depot in nearby Clearfield.

The original plant housed some 200 Sperry Utahns, while present employment is around 3,000. Nearly all of these are Utah natives. The resident manager stated, in 1958, that 95 per cent of those employed at that date had been recruited from the Salt Lake vicinity, and that "less than 70 persons were brought from Sperry plants in other parts of the country." Approximately one-seventh of the engineers and other technical personnel were former Utahns who had returned to the state after previously being required to leave the state to find suitable employment. Wages and salaries are estimated at $20 million for 1961, compared with $6 million in 1958. Procurement and subcontracting in Utah during 1961 totaled approximately $5 million.

The total of all Sergeant contracts allocated to Sperry Utah Company by October 1, 1961, was $198 million, of which $55 million was for research and development, $95 million for production, $15 million for improvement of product and production methods, and $32 million for spare parts. With a substantial backlog of defense contracts still to be finished and widening involvement in nonmilitary activities, it would appear that Sperry Utah has become a permanent part of the state's economy.

THE MARQUARDT CORPORATION

One of the few major contractors to begin as a missiles maker, the Marquardt Corporation, Van Nuys, California, was founded in 1944 by Roy E. Marquardt, a young engineer-professor at the California Institute of Technology and University of Southern California, who determined to build high-performance ramjet engines. From its initial $1,000 capital and a handful of workmen building ramjets in a converted farmers' market stall in Los Angeles, the Marquardt Aircraft Company (the "Aircraft" was recently deleted from the name) has grown into a $10 million corporation, not counting the two Air Force-owned test laboratories and much government-owned machinery at these and company-owned facilities. One of these laboratories — the $14 million Air Force-Marquardt Jet Laboratory — was completed in October, 1959, at Little Mountain, fifteen miles west of Ogden on the northeastern shores of Great Salt Lake. Marquardt's engines, which travel at three to four times the speed of sound, power a variety of missiles and, eventually, may be instrumental in propulsion of space vehicles. The company employs more than 4,000 — of whom more than one-third are scientists, engineers, and skilled technicians — in the fields of advanced space research, power systems, controls, nucleonics, simulator-training, rocketry research, and weapons system support and manufacturing.

Financially this "small business among giants" has made an impressive record. Sales increased from $33,000 in 1945 to $69 million in 1959. Employment, which maintained a plateau of near 1,000 from 1952 through 1955, has more than quadrupled in the past five years. From the initial ten in 1944, the ownership has grown to more than 5,000 stockholders, and its stock has been sold on the New York Stock Exchange since 1960. Principal stockholders have included General Tire & Rubber Company, Laurance S. Rockefeller, and Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation.

As with Sperry, Marquardt has been committed to the idea that diversification is the path to growth and financial stability, and in 1958 the company acquired Associated Missile Products Company and Cooper Development Corporation. A division of American Machine & Foundry Company, Associated Missile Products Company is now operated as Marquardt's Pomona, California, Division and produces weapon support equipment for missiles and target "drones"; radar systems, trainers, and target simulators; and data processing and display systems. Cooper Development Division, Monrovia, California, has specialized in instrumentation, electronics, and rocketry research, and has furnished motors, electronic devices, ground support systems, and field crews for their operation in a variety of space and missiles systems.

Marquardt's Air-Space Travel Research Organization (ASTRO) has worked on hyperjet and nuclear ramjet engines and pursued various studies related to propulsion systems for space vehicles. Marquardt is now developing a combination rocket-ramjet engine which, in combining the advantages of both systems, will be air-breathing when in the atmosphere and will carry oxidizers to use as a rocket when beyond the earth's atmosphere. A big advantage is the saving in weight over the fuel needed by a conventional rocket carrying its own oxidizer.

Marquardt officials began looking for an inland location consistent with the dispersal program for defense industries in 1956, after the ramjet principle had been perfected to a degree that production and testing facilities were needed. Surveys of several areas resulted in the selection of Ogden as the community appearing to> offer the best combination of factors in the West for the production and acceptancetesting of ramjet engines. The roar of the ramjets could be dissipated without disturbing nearby farms and communities, a large defenseoriented labor force was available, and the headquarters of the Ogden Air Materiel Area, which is the logistics support manager for the Bomarc system, was at nearby Hill Air Force Base.

Ground-breaking ceremonies for the $3 million self-contained manufacturing facility at the southwest corner of Ogden were held July 11, 1956, and the plant was dedicated June 3, 1957. The first engine was delivered within a month of dedication, a full month ahead of schedule, and the production of ramjet engines has been steady and according to schedule since that date. Enclosing 250,000 square feet, the advanced-type production plant was voted one of the "Top Ten" plants of 1958. Construction since the first increment was completed in 1957 has more than doubled the original plant facilities.

The Ogden plant produces 607 of the 670 component parts of the RJ43 engines, which provide the cruise power for the Bomarc pilotless ground-to-air guided missile. (The Bomarc is designed to intercept supersonic planes at an altitude of 100,000 feet and 450 miles away.) These 14-foot-long, air-breathing engines, sometimes referred to as "flying stovepipes," propel the interceptors at 2,600 miles per hour, using ordinary kerosene, at a compression ratio of 100 to 1. The potential is still relatively untapped, even considering that ordinary automobiles attain only 10 to 1 ratios on high-test gasoline. Ogden-built engines have achieved a remarkably high reliability rating.

Production of the engines requires large quantities of sheet metal, bar metal, tubing, and innumerable bolts, nuts, screws, and rivets. An estimated 60 per cent of the company's purchases are made in Utah. Employment at the plant, 100 per cent of which is governmentor defense-contracted, accelerated rapidly from the 1956 year-end level of 227 to 1,682 on December 31, 1959. Some 175 persons are employed at the Little Mountain test facility. The drop since 1959 is partially accounted for by changes in defense scheduling which called for planned reductions in procurement of the Bomarc "B." A congressional committee recommended the virtual suspension of the Bomarc program, paring the original appropriations for the antiaircraft missile by $294 million. When a series of successful tests were completed, however, the Senate voted to restore all but $50 million of the projected funds. Nevertheless, present scheduling calls for the "phase-out" of the Bomarc in 1962. In 1960 Bomarc accounted for about half of the total company sales of $66 million.

Marquardt's future is not entirely clouded by the projected Bomarc fade-out. The company owns its own plant facilities, and is now actively bidding on subcontract work with other missiles manufacturers to maintain its present employees after current contracts are terminated in the fall of 1962. It is also continuing an active program of research. In 1961, for example, the company obtained an Army contract for development of an engine for a target missile and an Air Force contract for further research and development of the Project Pluto Ramjet engine. The Ogden plant is the manufacturing facility of Marquardt and is virtually certain to be used in the production of many kinds of products, both civilian and military.

THIOKOL CHEMICAL CORPORATION

Largest expenditures of any missile contractor located in Utah are made by Thiokol Chemical Corporation, whose headquarters are in Bristol, Pennsylvania, with two rocket divisions and one specialty division located in Utah at present.

Thiokol Chemical Corporation, which operates under the largest defense contract ever granted a Utah concern, was founded in 1929 shortly after Dr. J. C. Patrick and Nathan Mnookin accidentally discovered synthetic rubber while trying to make a cheap antifreeze. The name of the corporation comes from the old Greek words for sulfur and "sticky stuff" or glue. After being forced to relocate from their original Kansas City plant because of the vile smell and complaints from neighbors, the firm, which was presided over by Bevis Longstreth, former Kansas City salt merchant, settled in New Jersey. Throughout the thirties, sales were scant. Resistance to ordinary solvents justified the synthetic's high price in only a few specialized products, such as gaskets and oil and gasoline hoses.

In 1943, however, the struggling little producer managed to develop one product of extraordinary portent: a liquid polysulfide polymer that turned into a solid at ordinary temperatures. Because it was resistant to low temperatures, gasoline, and bullets, it was used as a sealant for airplane fuel tanks, fuselages, air ducts, gun turrets, and navigation domes. Indeed, today, Thiokol claims an estimated 300-pound contribution to the production of nearly every passenger plane manufactured. But, more importantly, the polymer has been used as a rocket fuel for solidpropellant engines.

It was in 1946 that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology found that by mixing an oxidizer with some Thiokol liquid rubber polymers a material could be obtained that would burn with great intensity and produce enormous quantities of gas. Realizing that this new material was a possible propellant for rockets, Thiokol started experimenting for uses in 1948. Within a year the Defense Department was so impressed with this propellant that it invited Thiokol to move its rocket division to the Redstone Arsenal at Huntsville, Alabama. Here, among other things, it was found that bonding the fuel directly to the case eliminated the need for heavy mechanical supports and heavy cylinder walls. The modern solidfueled rocket made possible through this early research is a lightweight steel shell filled with gray rubbery propellant formed with a star-shaped hole through the center.

Carrying news of the new-found breakthrough to the Army, Thiokol bid to become a rocket contractor. Growth in solid-fuels contracts with the Army, from the first $250,000 contract in 1947, has been rapid and continuous. Corporate sales in the rocket area, which for the first time became important in 1951, had increased to $31 million by 1957 and jumped to almost $200 million in 1959. Thiokol, whose fuel powered most stages of the Explorer satellites, has become the thirdranking rocket fuel producer in the United States.

Acquisitions and mergers in 1957 broadened and diversified this "Cinderella" company. First was the National Electronics Laboratories, Washington, D.C., which was acquired for $280,000 in Thiokol stock, and which produced transmitter-receiver equipment, remote-control devices, and other electronic systems. A few months later, Hunter- Bristol Corporation, of Pennsylvania, was acquired for nearly $1.2 million in cash and stocks. The company makes rocket sleds, aircraft pilot ejector systems, and other specialty ordnance equipment. Thiokol's most important acquisition, however, was Reaction Motors, a pioneer liquid-fuel rocket company, which was acquired in 1958 for 199,000 shares of Thiokol stock. Thiokol officials reasoned that, while solidfueled rockets look good in the immediate future and for military application, liquids will continue to be important in launching man into space. "Manned rocket vehicles," they stated, "need engines whpse power can be turned on and off again. This can be done with liquids, but not with solids as yet."

Thiokol's liquid sulfide polymer, however, still principally used as rocket fuel and as a sealant, is the firm's leading product, accounting for about 25 per cent of its sales. Much of the company's success and growth is attributable to the policy of investing a large portion of sales revenue in research. Almost a thousand scientists were on the payroll in 1961, and all were encouraged to spend at least 10 per cent of their time on pet projects. Most of the heavy outlay for research, however, has gone into applied research. Approximately 92 per cent of the company's sales in 1960 were under research and development contracts for the Department of Defense.

Before the Minuteman series of contracts began, Thiokol had worked on several missiles systems. By 1957 they had produced power plants for the Falcon, Nike-Hercules, Nike-Cajun, Lacrosse, Terrapin, X-7 test vehicle, and the Matador B missiles. Work done under contracts during succeeding years has included, besides the former weapons systems mentioned, the following: Little Joe, Subroc, Sergeant, Corvus, Honest John, Bullpup, Matador booster, Sparrow III, Mace, Minuteman, Pershing, Nike-Zeus, and Bomarc booster. The firm also developed the power system of the X-15, which is the first manned vehicle to have flown essentially outside the earth's atmosphere, and at speeds of more than 4,000 miles per hour.

The high reliability of Thiokol products is seen from recent news releases. Reduction of an 18-shot test string to 8 in the "silo" launching experiments conducted on Minuteman in 1960 was done because no mishaps had occurred. Aviation Week reported a perfect firing record for 3,000 motors made at the Elkton, Maryland, plant during a 12-month period in 1958-59. By 1958 Thiokol had also fired the largest solid-propellant engine known then, containing over ten tons of propellant, and now claims to have the largest horizontal-thrust test stand in the United States, capable of testing engines up to 1.5 million pounds of thrust.

It was in response to suggestions by the Air Force that Thiokol announced on April 30, 1956, its plan to build a $15 million research and development center for large rocket motors, 27 miles west of Brigham City on an 11,000-acre tract of rangeland. The company opened its doors in Utah on October 17, 1957. By November, 1959, when the Minuteman production contract was awarded to Thiokol, the company had spent $77 million on the research and development work for the propulsion phase of Minuteman.

The site near Brigham City was chosen because it offered sufficient space to test large solid-fuel rocket motors and space for expansion when the occasion for it arose; it represented a sufficiently isolated position for safety and security; and it afforded excellent transportation to its facilities in Maryland, Texas, and Alabama, and to other aircraft and missiles contractors on the west coast. In addition the land was available for outright purchase at a comparatively favorable price, and it was in an area of surplus "educated" labor.

Thiokol apparently felt the necessity of owning a facility which would give them the freedom they needed to pursue such phases of rocket and missile development as they felt were of value. For this purpose the company raised most of the funds for the first Brigham City plant by stockholders' subscriptions. By 1959 the facility consisted of 83 multicolored buildings of various sizes, shapes, and descriptions, 31 of which were paid for by the Air Force and the remainder by Thiokol. By the end of 1961 the facility consisted of some 180 brightly-colored structures.

Employment at the Utah Division has grown from 115 in December, 1957, to 1,119 in December, 1958, to 3,149 in December, 1959, to 3,700 in December, 1960. By 1961 total company employment was 10,400, of which 44 per cent was in Utah. The payroll in Utah grew from $209,000 in 1957 to $22 million in 1960. Sales of the Utah Division grew from less than $1 million in 1957 to over $100 million each during 1959 and 1960. All of the work was government-contracted. While most of the early technical and professional personnel were recruited from out-of-state, many of the nonprofessional workers were part-time farmers or workers in Box Elder and Cache counties. By 1961 some 1,133 employees were commuting daily from Cache Valley. ThiokoPs payroll in Utah in 1961 exceeded $30 million.

The formal Air Force announcement, in November, 1959, that Thiokol would build in Utah the first-stage or booster engine for Minuteman resulted in the creation of a second division on 3,500 !acres adjacent to the original site. This production division, known at Thiokol as its "Wasatch Division," was officially designated Air Force Plant 78, and includes 108 structures being built 12 miles west of Tremonton. Ground-breaking ceremonies were held in November, 1960. This Blue Creek Valley facility — four miles south of Howell — is scheduled for completion in April, 1962, and will cost Thiokol about $2 million and the Air Force some $26 million. Employment at Plant 78 is expected to reach 1,500 persons in 1962. In the meantime, the facilities of the Wasatch Division contain 540,000 square feet of area and include 160,000 square feet of rented space at the Naval Supply Depot at Clearfield. To co-ordinate the firm's missiles activities, Thiokol built a new $200,000 Rocket Operations Center at Ogden. Begun in October, 1960, and occupied in May, 1961, this is the nerve center for several key divisions creating weapons for all three services. Several top company executives were moved to Ogden to carry on this activity.

Top: Thiokol Chemical Corporation's solid-propellant research and development facility in northern Utah. This plant has grown from a few buildings and 115 people in 1957 to 180 buildings and 5,000 people in 1961, and operates under the largest defense contract ever granted a Utah firm. Courtesy, Thiokol Chemical Corporation

Bottom: Thiokol Chemical Corporation's second division plant on 3$0Q acres adjacent to her original site, is being constructed to provide facilities to build the first-stage or booster engine for the Minuteman missile. This Blue Creek plant is scheduled for completion in April, 1962. Courtesy, Thiokol Chemical Corporation

The Utah and Wasatch divisions were combined into a single organizational structure known as Wasatch Division in March, 1961. The manager of contracts and customer service — one of the five top jobs in the new organization — is held by Lawrence C. Taylor, a young Utah State University graduate in economics.

Thiokol has made heavy use of local industries in the state for subcontracting. Universities, too, have taken subcontracts. The University of Utah received a $75,000 contract for research on composite propellants, $47,200 for solid-propellant studies, and $3,000 for rocket hardware studies. Utah State University received a basic research contract for $50,000 to be used in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering, and $126,000 for handling carriages for the first-stage engine of Minuteman. The Utah Scientific Research Foundation, at Utah State University, developed and built a number of giant 30-ton truck-trailer transports for Thiokol.

and Space Administration a preliminary design on super-rocket launchers which could put 100-ton manned satellites in orbit or on the moon during the 1960's. The giant three-stage NOVA vehicle would require four engines, each 20 feet in diameter and weighing 2.6 million pounds, and would develop 21 million pounds of thrust, which is the equivalent of the combined horsepower of a million American automobiles.

As producers of the first and largest stage of the Minuteman — a weapon with a warhead thirty times more powerful than that of the atomic bomb of World War II — Thiokol plays a strategic role in America's defense efforts. The nation is relying heavily on this missileand expects Thiokol to produce hundreds — perhaps thousands of engines; reductions or cutbacks in the near future seem unlikely. As Utah's largest employer in this new industry, Thiokol, well ahead of schedule, confidently prepares for mass production of the versatile Minuteman during 1962.

HERCULES POWDER COMPANY

An old-timer in point of time established in Utah, yet the newest of the missiles contractors in the state, is Hercules Powder Company, Wilmington, Delaware, with facilities at Bacchus and at Magna, about twenty miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

Hercules Powder Company was formed as a result of an antitrust suit against the E. I. du Pont de Nemours organization in 1912. Formed in October of that year, with $65 million each in stocks and bonds, Hercules began operations the next January as an explosives manufacturing firm. The new company owned fifteen plants and offices in various parts of the nation and employed about 1,000 people. The Du Pont family and related interests continued predominant ownership, but primarily on a nonvoting basis.

Shortly after its formation, in 1914, a plant to produce blasting powder for the copper and coal mines of Utah was begun at Coon Junction, 18 miles southwest of Salt Lake City and at the foot of the Oquirrh Mountains, just four miles south of Magna. The plant was named after T. W. Bacchus, vice-president of the company. A "company" town was built which only recently has been abandoned. Because of the high transportation rates on sensitive explosives, the company followed the practice of the blasting powder and dynamite industry and located the plant near the market. The production of black powder at Bacchus was discontinued in 1924.

Hercules underwent tremendous expansion during World War I, with a period of seven months seeing the work force multiplied ten times. More than 50,000 tons of smokeless powder were produced by the company during World War I. After the war, Hercules officials sought to utilize the large capacity for manufacturing chemical cotton and to provide employment for its accumulated work force by developing new uses for this nitrocellulose. Photographic film, plastics, and lacquers, particularly for the growing automobile industry, began to account for a high percentage of the company's output.

As with each of the other firms in the missiles industry, the company diversified and expanded beyond the explosives field into naval stores, synthetic resins, fertilizers, weed killers, and wallpapers and paints. The company now has overseas plants in many countries, particularly Australia, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Several hundred different industries depend at least partially upon the many industrial chemicals and related products made by Hercules from cellulose, rosin and terpenes, nitrogen, and petroleum. The second largest producer of dynamites and blasting caps for general industrial and agricultural purposes, Hercules now ranks eighth in size among more than 11,000 chemical-manufacturing establishments of the nation. The company now has about 17,000 stockholders.

During World War II Hercules produced, on various governmentowned facilities, all of the rocket propellant used by the United States Armed Services. The bazooka antitank rocket, for example, was propelled by a Hercules solid-propellant engine. In addition to its own plants, Hercules operated government-owned arsenals in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kansas. However, by 1960 only 9 per cent of the company's revenue came from sales to identifiable military uses, including fees for operation of government arsenals. At that time, the company employed approximately 14,000 persons, with about 5,000 others employed at three "GOCO" (Government-Owned, Company- Operated) plants. Hercules plants and property at the close of 1960 were worth about $285 million, at cost. Net sales in 1960 were $337 million. Among its development and production contracts are those for the Terrior, Talos, Minuteman, and advanced Polaris missiles.

Like other Utah missiles concerns, Hercules has also followed a consistent policy of investing heavily in research. In one recent year alone forty new products were in the laboratory stage, twelve were in pilot plant production, four in introductory sales stages, and eight were added to the regular sales list.

In 1955 Hercules invested $2.5 million in an important modernization and expansion of its Bacchus explosives plant. This provided an improved method of producing nitroglycerin, which has since been used to advantage in the company's missiles work. Hercules' participation in missiles activity began in March, 1958, at Bacchus when it initiated construction, on a large company-owned acreage contiguous to the dynamite works, of a $5 million research and development facility for solid propellants. As with Thiokol, Hercules wanted its own large facility to carry on independent and competitive research and development. With subsequent contracts, Hercules' initial investment in company-owned facilities was expanded many times over by the end of 1961.

When the Air Force awarded the Bacchus plant a research and development contract for the third stage of Minuteman, in August, 1958, construction of the new facility quickly accelerated. Since that time, Hercules has entered into contract after contract, and the Chemical Propulsion Division at Bacchus has been virtually on a "crash" expansion basis. The work force, which had remained fairly constantly near the 100 mark since 1915, jumped to over 600 within a year, and to over 3,000 in three years. It is expected to reach 5,000 by April, 1963. About 80 per cent of these new employees are from the Salt Lake region, and a large proportion are university graduates. As of the end of 1961, approximately two-thirds of Hercules' employees at Bacchus were native Utahns. Late in 1961 only 50 workers were engaged in making dynamite (at the rate of 1,500 tons per month), and the company announced its intention of discontinuing dynamite production at the end of 1961. Approximately 90 per cent of the activity at Bacchus since 1958 has been identified with defense contracts.

The most important activity of Hercules has been its development of the third-stage engine for Minuteman. When announcement was made in August, 1960, that Hercules had been awarded the $100 million contract for the mass production of this engine, plans were drawn for the construction at Bacchus of Air Force Plant 81. The construction of this $15 million plant got under way in July, 1961, and is scheduled for completion in March, 1962. Production is scheduled to begin in September, 1962, with 1,500 men employed at this plant alone and a total of 4,000 men on all of Hercules' Minuteman contracts. The Minuteman contract calls for expenditure of $40 million per year over a two-and-one-half year period.

On the basis of its splendid research in chemical engineering, Hercules also received, in October, 1961, a $50 million contract to produce an improved second-stage solid-fuel rocket motor for the Polaris A-2 Fleet Ballistic missile. The Navy was particularly attracted by Hercules' spun fiberglass-plastic engine casing — "Spiralloy" — which is far lighter and much tougher than steel. This same casing, together with solid propellant, both produced in Utah, were used in the "Altair" motors which boosted the Pioneer and Echo satellites into orbit. Some 500 of the Polaris missiles are expected to be produced in the next few years, and employment at Bacchus in this work is expected to reach 1,000 persons by the end of 1962. For the production of this speciality, Hercules also rents considerable space at the Naval Supply Depot at Clearfield.

Top: Hercules Powder Company, present facilities of the newest missiles contractor in the state. The work force of Hercules which had remained consistently near the 100 mark since 1915 jumped to over 600 in 1948 and to over 3,000 in three years. It is expected to reach 5,000 in 1963.

Bottom: Old-time method of handling explosives manufactured by Hercules. In 1961 only 50 employees were engaged in making dynamite, and the company announced its intention of discontinuing production at the end of 1961. Courtesy, Hercules Powder Company

Hercules also has other contracts. In August, 1960, the Bacchus works was awarded a contract by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to provide retro-rockets for the Ranger moon shot development program. Upon the capsule's approach to the moon this retro-rocket will cushion the landing of a sensitive instrument package which will radio back data from moon to earth. This is the first space exploration project to be undertaken in Utah. The Bacchus works were also assigned the design and production of propellant for the RP76 target missile "drone," which is launched from an aircraft as a training target for antiaircraft and ground-to-air missile practice firing.

Hercules' large plant expenditures, the advanced research programs being conducted at Bacchus, and the large contracts for Minuteman, Polaris, and other missiles and space vehicles including the Apollo man-on-the-moon project, offer convincing proof that Hercules Powder Company will continue for many years tt> contribute to the growth and health of the intermountain economy, as well as to the defense posture of the nation. The annual payroll at Bacchus was approximately $12 million in 1961, and procurement expenditures in Utah, primarily to small businesses, were in excess of $4 million.

THE BOEING COMPANY

The most recent missiles contractor to locate in Utah is The Boeing Company, formerly the Boeing Airplane Company, whose headquarters are in Seattle, Washington.

Boeing Airplane Company was founded in 1916, just prior to the entrance of the United States into World War I, when William E. Boeing, son of a wealthy timberman, had the idea he could build better airplanes than those he had previously been able to see and ride in. He formed a partnership with a naval officer, Conrad Westervelt, who had some knowledge of engineering, and together they began an operation to build "B & W" seaplanes. Before they had finished the first of these "stick and wire biplanes," Westervelt had been transferred to the East.

Incorporation at first was under the name "Pacific Aero Products Company," but was changed shortly after to Boeing Airplane Company. During World War I, orders were obtained for a number of trainers and flying patrol boats, but the Armistice was signed before the completion of the first contract. Desperately attempting to stay in business after the war, the plant shifted from aircraft to the production of bedroom furniture and Hickman sea sleds. Some improved types of observation and pursuit planes were developed, however, and the production of military aircraft dominated the company's activities in the early 1920's.

After the United States government got out of the business of flying the mail in 1926, Boeing got the contract to carry the mail across the continent. First planes assigned to the route had a top speed of 135 miles per hour and 550 mile range, with two passengers and 1,200 pounds of mail. The pilot flew from an open cockpit. In connection with this contract the company perfected the Boeing Monomail — the first successful low-wing, all-metal plane. Its basic design continued in importance for a number of years thereafter, the first modern bomber, the B-9, being developed from this type. It was faster and could fly higher than the pursuit planes of the time.

Separation of the huge corporation into air transport (United Air Lines), eastern manufacturing (United Aircraft Corporation), and western manufacturing (Boeing Airplane Company) was accomplished in 1934. During the same year the Kaydet, first completely standardized primary trainer, was brought into production at Wichita, Kansas. More than 10,000 of these planes were sold to both the Army and Navy — nearly twice as many as the total of primary trainers from all other United States manufacturers. No longer used by the military, the Kaydet may still be seen doing yeoman duty as a crop duster and in some other civilian functions.

The beginnings of the Flying Fortress, or B-17, also came in 1934, when the Army announced competition for a "multi-engined" bomber. The prototype was produced in 1935 and was so impressive that others were immediately ordered. With the war threat growing in Europe, the United States ordered many more of the long-range (3,010 miles), fast (236 miles-per-hour top speed) heavyweights (they carried a 4,800 pound load, 5 machine guns, and 8 men). The later addition of turbo-superchargers made the Fortress into a substratosphere bomber which cruised higher than most pursuit planes were effective. Before war's end, more than 12,000 Flying Fortresses had been built — about half of them by Boeing.

The Boeing Superfortress, or B-29, first completed in 1942, was the first large airplane for which sizeable production was planned before the prototype had flown. Refinements such as increased range and capacity, coupled with pressurized air system and remote-controlled gun-firing system made it far ahead of the other bombers of the day. Nearly 4,000 of the Superforts were built during World War II, two of which dropped nuclear devices on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in a dramatic climax to the war.

Since World War II, Boeing has developed the B-50 Superfortress (first plane to circle the globe nonstop), the B-47 Stratojet, the B-52 Stratofortress (three of which went round the world nonstop in 45 hours and 19 minutes), the C-97 tanker transport, and the KC-135 jet tanker. Boeing's deluxe entries in the commercial transport field include the Stratocruiser, and the more recent 707 jet airliners which are flown internationally by more than a score of airlines.

Acquisition of Vertol Aircraft Company in 1960 heralded entrance of the corporation into the vertical take-off and portal-to-portal airplane line. Boeing now develops and manufactures both tilt-wing and helicopter types. Another pioneering effort has been the development of a gas turbine engine, now finding use in helicopters, executive aircraft, and earth-moving equipment.

While it was a major manufacturer of large commercial planes and jet bombers, Boeing early interested itself in guided missiles, and carried out extensive tests and experiments during the period 1945 to 1949. Its first production program for pilotless aircraft was the Bomarc, ground-to-air pilotless interceptor, for which full-scale production was begun in 1958. The missile, used in Canada and the United States, has a "homing" device which "locks on" its target after it is electronically guided from the ground to height and the general target area. Newer versions of the Bomarc have almost doubled the more than 200-mile range of the "killer." As previously mentioned, the Bomarc uses ramjets from the Ogden Marquardt facility for sustaining drive after an initial rocket boost. Boeing was also assigned to produce Dyna-Soar, the Air Force's prized maneuverable space vehicle, designed to be boosted into orbit by the Titan missile, and capable of a controlled glide for atmosphere re-entry and landing. Also in 1958 Boeing was given responsibility for the assembly and test of Minuteman during its research and development phase.

The recent trend toward increasing reliance on guided missiles has profoundly affected the firm. Once with over 100,000 employees, the company, in 1959, was forced to lay off more than 20,000 persons as the trend toward larger requirements for highly-trained scientists and a smaller demand for semiskilled production personnel continued. Boeing employment now remains fairly constant at near 80,000 employees. Total sales are in excess of $1.5 billion per year, making the company the third largest defense contractor (after General Dynamics and Lockheed Aircraft) in the nation. Boeing's total investment in plant, property, and equipment is about $165 million, but Boeing leases or operates for the government more plants and equipment than those owned by the company. Boeing's military contracts account for about 75 per cent of its total sales.

Boeing's missiles operations in Utah began with the start of construction of the Minuteman assembly plant in the west section of Hill Air Force Base in September, 1960. Located on the old Ogden Army Arsenal area, Air Force Plant 77, as it is called, will cost approximately $11 million and includes the modification of 57 buildings, construction of 9 new buildings plus heating plant, electrical distribution and utility piping systems, and 6 miles of road. Here will occur the assembly and checking out of the first, second, and third stages of the Minuteman before deployment to launching sites. Deployment will be primarily at selected sites in the western states, and secondarily on mobile railroad trains capable of acting as launchers. Associated logistics operations will be under the immediate direction of the Ogden Air Materiel Area. A $3 million facility for repair and recycle of the stored missiles by the Air Force is being built near the assembly plant. Plant 77 was located at Ogden because of its nearness to the engine manufacturers and deployment sites, the availability and reliability of transportation facilities of all kinds, and the appropriateness of Hill Air Force Base as a logistical support headquarters. The assembly plant is entirely government-owned; Boeing is a lessee for the course of the Minuteman contract, which at present runs to 1965.

Although Boeing's Minuteman contracts amount to several hundred millions, it cannot be said that Boeing's present impact on the Utah economy equals that of the production facilities previously discussed. Employment at the end of 1961 was 300 persons. Build-up plans indicate an ultimate payroll (mid- 1963) of 1,000 persons, 75 per cent of them from Utah. The annual payroll will then approximate $5 million. Local procurement will be limited to supplies and services, since all major segments of the missiles will be shipped to the plant from other Utah and western contractors. The important consideration is that this segment of Boeing's extensive operations further augments Utah's role in the production of the strategic Minuteman.

PROGRESS WITH STABILITY

All together, defense contracts in force in Utah late in 1961 totaled more than $500 million, and the end is not yet in sight. Unquestionably Utah is destined to assume an accelerating role in the missile and space program of the nation. Therei have been, and will continue to be, undoubted repercussions on the socioeconomic structure of the state. Economists estimate that the 13,000 persons now employed in missiles manufacturing, by their spendings, provide employment for at least 20,000 other Utahns, possibly several thousand more. These 33,000 workers, in turn, support about 100,000 family members — approximately one ninth of the state's population. The Bureau of Economic and Business Research of the University of Utah has estimated that the five leading missiles companies pumped $115 million into the Utah economy in I960. At the same time, the prediction was made that the outlay for construction of plants and production of Minuteman alone would total $250 million in 1961.

Utah's phenomenal contributions to the Space Age, both actual and potential, place her among the leaders of a technological revolution which promises to expand her horizons and production potential far beyond anything she has dreamed. The peaceful and commercial uses of space sciences, which at the beginning of 1962 are just beginning to be realized, offer an alternative to the inevitable short-term usefulness of missiles plants in "beefing up" America's defenses. The exploration of space offers Utahns and their compatriots the most exciting opportunity for "high adventure" in the epoch of man.

When confronted with the fact of their primary role in missiles production, however, Utahns exhibit a sense of uneasiness and disquietude. Is missiles-making to be the ultimate destiny of the land which their pioneer forefathers struggled and sacrificed to reclaim from the desert? Is the desert to blossom only in rose-colored rocket engine plants?

Much of this disturbed feeling is a product of the misreading of pioneer history, for a large share of Utah's immigrants were skilled craftsmen and operatives from the shops and factories of the Midlands, Wales, and Copenhagen. As they arrived in their "Promised Valley," it was not from preference but from necessity that they abandoned the trades they had learned to clear the land, get water to it, and raise crops. Their leaders — Brigham Young, George A. Smith, John Taylor, and George Q. Cannon — sought by every means at hand, sometimes desperately and often heroically, to stimulate manufacturing and improve Utah's industrial posture. That their grandchildren are excelling in missiles and spacecraft production — the most sophisticated and technologically-advanced industry of our day — is a tribute to the excellence of their foundation, and signifies that Utah's long-desired manufacturing has finally come of age.

Moreover, Utahns have a long tradition of resiliency and intelligent planning which would serve them well if shifts and cutbacks in defense expenditures produce serious economic and social problems. And not of least importance, Utah's acceptance of a prime role in missiles production symbolizes the earnestness of her dedication to the task of defending the cause of freedom.

Despite its size, undeniable importance, and continued growth, however, even the spectacular missiles industry can never dominate the Beehive State. Side by side with this glamorous new industry, Mormon villagers and their neighbors continue to plant their crops, tend their flocks, and dig for copper and coal. School children mix their learning of Space Age mechanics with tease and play. Utah as always continues to represent a combination of the old and the new: agriculture and astronautics, mining and missilery, saddle-making and satellite-launching. In this way Utah seeks to temper the wind to the shorn lamb — to achieve progress with stability.

Only a man harrowing clods. . . Yet this will go onward the same

Though Dynasties pass.

Yonder a maid and her wight. . . War's annals will fade into night

Ere their story die.

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