Quotes and Jokes (6 Viewers)

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The mention by manta22 of the Corporal battlefield missile in the "All of Vlad's Forces . . ." thread, reminded me of something I read a few years ago.

Apparently, the term 'going south' or 'gone south' (may have) originated at JPL during the development of the Corporal missile. The Corporal rockets were fired toward the firing range, which was north of the launch pad. The rockets, however, were ~consistently heading south. Someone used the phrase 'its going south' in reference to the program and there you go . . . a new saying that became a catch phrase that in one form or another is still used today to describe a problem with something not working right. :)
 
The mention by manta22 of the Corporal battlefield missile in the "All of Vlad's Forces . . ." thread, reminded me of something I read a few years ago.

Apparently, the term 'going south' or 'gone south' (may have) originated at JPL during the development of the Corporal missile. The Corporal rockets were fired toward the firing range, which was north of the launch pad. The rockets, however, were ~consistently heading south. Someone used the phrase 'its going south' in reference to the program and there you go . . . a new saying that became a catch phrase that in one form or another is still used today to describe a problem with something not working right. :)
Since the Corporal missile was such an early development, there were a lot of new lessons learned from that program. For one, it gained a reputation for "tail walking"; that is, it would rise up off its launcher but not build up enough thrust to rise up more than a few feet before it would tilt over, starting to fall. The inertial guidance would then straighten it up vertically by moving graphite vanes in its exhaust which caused the tail of the missile to move laterally. This continued until the rocket motor built up enough thrust to start to rise-- several seconds, by which time it would be off on its own. That problem was solved by adding hold-down clamps to the launcher so the missile would not move until thrust had built up to what was necessary. In those days the US had little experience with big rockets.

I was enrolled in the Ordnance Guided Missile School at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL and kept on there as an instructor in the Corporal Ground Guidance System until the Berlin Wall went up. Von Braun was there with NASA at that time. The salvage yard there was incredible!!!

I was under the impression that "going south" referred to a Snark missile that went south instead of north on the range at White Sands, NM, landing in a Mexican graveyard. Hence, a poem was penned... "Hark, hark, the Snark..." I could be wrong, though. :)
 

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