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ReseaRch a n d developmenT In T h e aIR fo R c e 89
equipment. This work was carried out on a limited scale, however, typically in
collaboration with the industrial contractors that manufactured the aircraft. 63
Testing and evaluation of propulsion units for intercontinental and
intermediate-range ballistic missiles constituted the other major function at
Edwards Air Force Base. This work complemented the massive effort underway
within the Air Research and Development Command to develop, produce, and
put into operation a strategic ballistic missile force as quickly as possible. In
1954, the Air Force established the Western Development Division (WDD) in
Inglewood, California, as a separate ARDC field office to manage and coordinate
this accelerated program. Under the leadership of Brig. Gen. Bernard Schriever,
the new division institutionalized the weapon system concept and concurrency on
a grand scale to guide all phases of ballistic missile development and production.
A new breed of private-sector organization that specialized in system analysis
and integration handled technical direction. In this case, the Ramo-Wooldridge
Corporation appropriated many of the technical functions previously assigned
to the prime contractor and ARDC’s Wright Air Development Center. 64
Construction of the Rocket Test Facility at Edwards Air Force Base
commenced in 1950, and a rocket motor was first fired there in 1953. Three
years later, following the establishment of the Western Development Division,
Edwards initiated a major expansion program to handle the increased workload
prompted by the rapid growth of the ballistic missile program. Massive test
stands were added to fire engines capable of generating up to fifty thousand
pounds of thrust. Engineers from the Convair Division of General Dynamics,
Douglas Aircraft, and North American Aviation conducted tests of the power
plants still under development for the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile, the
Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile, and the Navajo cruise missile. In-house
missile assembly facilities, machine and metal-working shops, and engineering
and hydrodynamics laboratories provided technical support to the contractors
working on-site. 65 Meanwhile, ARDC conducted full-scale testing of these
and other short- and medium-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles at
the contractor-operated test ranges at Patrick Air Force Base, located at Cape
Canaveral on the eastern coast of Florida, and at Holloman Air Force Base,
63 Industrial contractors working on-site at Edwards (as part of the test team and also to assist in the
debugging of aircraft systems) included Northrop, Douglas Aircraft, and North American Aviation. W.
Coughlin, “Flight Test Center Probes Aviation’s Supersonic Frontiers,” Aviation Week 59 (17 August 1953):
119, 125, 141–42; “Edwards Evaluates Weapons Systems,” Aviation Week 66 (3 June 1957): 117.
64 “WDD Directs ICBM, IRBM Development,” Aviation Week 65 (6 August 1956): 101–05;
Benson, Acquisition Management in the United States Air Force and Its Predecessors, 24–26, 29; Johnson, The
United States Air Force and the Culture of Innovation, chap. 3. See also Jacob Neufeld, The Development of
Ballistic Missiles in the United States Air Force, 1945–1960 (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History,
1990); John Clayton Lonnquest, “The Face of Atlas: General Bernard Schriever and the Development of
the Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, 1953–1960” (Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1996); and Thomas
P. Hughes, Rescuing Prometheus (New York: Pantheon Books, 1998), chap. 3. In 1958, Ramo-Wooldridge
merged with Thompson Products, a diversified electronics and mechanical components manufacturer, to
form the Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation (TRW). On the history of TRW, see David Dyer,
TRW: Pioneering Technology and Innovation Since 1900 (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1998).
65 “Edwards Rocket Base to Test Captive Ballistic Missile Powerplants,” Aviation Week 65 (6 August
1956): 143–45.