273. Weight Engineering and the Operational ICBM

Paper

Abstract

This paper was presented at the Twentieth National Conference of the Society of Aeronautical Weight Engineers at Akron, Ohio, May 15 – 18, 1961. Development of the ICBM into an operational weapon system has introduced changes in military and contractor organizational concepts, including that of proper weight support. In this paper, the many facets of operational ICBM weight support are discussed briefly, to define the scope and nature of basic problems for those engineers not closely associated with ballistic missiles. Discussion of the new complexity of weight technology then leads to certain conclusions concerning the changing role of the Weight Engineer.
Subjects under discussion include weight data requirement, sources of data, information flow channels, and the usage of data in operational targeting. The discussion of actual field operations is limited to some degree by security requirements and also by the fact that certain aspects of the program are still under development. However, this does not affect the main body of the paper. Many of the topics to be mentioned warrant individual treatment in separate papers. It is not the intent here to go into detailed discussions of missile performance analysis, statistics in weights, R and D flight testing, etc. Rather, these subjects are brought together to present a general view of the role of weights in large ballistic missiles.
The conclusions drawn will help to stimulate interest in those areas of weight technology requiring increased analytical support. Hopefully, the individual Weight Engineer will also find a stimulus to enlarge his own capability in this increasingly complex technology.