IV. FLIGHT SAFETY
A. GENERAL
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Flight Safety will be a function of JIF-7, exercised for the Task Force
Commander by a Flight Safety Officer appointed by him. Many of the details
of this function are as yet not decided, but the fundamentals can be clearly
stated, The Flight Safety Officer shail have exclusive responsibility for
exercising control aver the missile from the instant of launch until the
flight is terminated. This control will be exercised thru a radio link to
the Command Destruct Receiver in the missile. The information provided to
the Flight Safety Officer will include a number of meter indications of
missile condition and behavior (telemetered} and the BEAT~BEAT presentation,
an entirely independent information link which is described in detail below.
The Redstone flight safety problem is basically simplified in the
HARDTACK application. This is true because the area surrounding the launching area is uninhabited except for two locations, and because the only ships
in the nearby area will be subject to the absolute control of the Task
Force Commander. The normal flight safety function which is carried over
into HARDTACK is that of preventing impact on the launch bunker and the
control center (Station 70).
This function will be exercised in the same
fashion as at AFMTC, The unusual function is related to the nuclear capability which is discussed in Section III and in Section VII (Recommendations).
B, THE BEAT-BEAT SYSTEM
The Beat-Beat system will be used to determine whether the missile is
following the anticipated trajectory. This system is designed to present
in real time the azimuth angle of a missile in flight to an accuracy of
better than 1/100 of 1°, It also indicates whether the missile is following
the pre-computed trajectory or program, To measure the azimuth angle two
modified dovap receiver stations are placed symmetrically about the desired
zero ljine, As long as the missile in flight remains on the desired zero
line the doppler beat frequency at each station is exactly the same. When
the missile deviates to the left or right one beat frequency will increase
and the other decrease, the difference between these two Beats or the BeatBeat is an indication of the lateral velocity. The total number of cycles
of the difference is an indication of the lateral angular displacement. This
displacement is indicated visually to the flight safety official ona
Brown recorder. Two symmetrically placed receiver stations are used to indicate the program of the missile into its precomputed trajectory with
visual presentation in real time.
For each set of two Beat-Beat receivers one Brown recorder instrument
is provided at the safety control point, i.e., one instrument for program,
yne for azimuth presentation. For azimuth presentation the recorder will
read center scale when the missile is in the aero plane or following the
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ATOMIC ENERGY ACT 1954