Texas tower
Texas Towers were triangular man-made islands that were part of the US Air Alert System . They were erected in the shelf area of the east coast in the late 1950s . The construction on three pillars based on oil - drilling rigs , as well as off the coast of Texas were used, the name of which is derived. Originally five Texas Towers were planned, but only the three towers numbered 2, 3 and 4 were built. After the sinking of Texas Tower No. 4 in January 1961, in which 28 people were killed, the operation of the other two Texas Towers also ceased in 1963.
Motivation and structure
In the early 1950s, at the time of the Cold War , there were concerns in the USA that the existing radar surveillance on the east coast of the USA, which was exclusively land-based, was inadequate due to insufficient warning times. A study from 1952 at the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) came to the conclusion that an extension of the advance warning time before enemy attacks by about half an hour could be achieved through platforms offshore with radar systems mounted on them.
Each of the three Texas towers that were built consisted of an approximately triangular platform mounted on three pillars. In addition to anchoring, the pillars also served as fuel stores for the power generating sets . In addition to a helicopter landing pad for supplying the platform and transporting the crew, each platform had an AN / FPS-20 radar system as search radar and two AN / FPS-6 altitude radar systems . The radar antennas were housed in three antenna domes (radomes) with a diameter of approx. 20 m to protect them from the weather . The data connection with the mainland was realized by means of Troposcattern as a radio link .
Investments
| designation | Location | Operation until | image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas Tower 1 | New Hampshire coast 42 ° 53 ′ 0 ″ N , 68 ° 57 ′ 0 ″ W |
Not built | |
| Texas Tower 2 | Cape Cod coast 41 ° 45 ′ 0 ″ N , 67 ° 46 ′ 0 ″ W |
Demolished in 1963 |
|
| Texas Tower 3 |
Nantucket Shoals 40 ° 45 ′ 0 ″ N , 69 ° 19 ′ 0 ″ W. |
Demolished in 1963 |
|
| Texas Tower 4 | Long Island coast 39 ° 48 ′ 0 ″ N , 72 ° 40 ′ 0 ″ W |
Collapsed in 1961 |
|
| Texas Tower 5 | Nova Scotia coast 42 ° 47 ′ 0 ″ N , 65 ° 37 ′ 0 ″ W |
Not built |
Web links
- The Texas Tower Wreck - New York and New Jersey's (Wreck Valley). (aquaexplorers.com)
Individual evidence
- ^ Thomas W. Ray: A History of Texas Towers in Air Defense 1952-1964. Archived from the original on July 15, 2010 ; accessed on February 15, 2016 .