Venice missile launch complex

The Venice missile launch complex was a Cold War Regulus missile firing installation[1] "adjacent to the Venice Municipal Airport"[2] on the Venice, Florida, beach.[3] Beginning in 1959, KD2U-1 drone versions of the Regulus were JATO-launched from the strip of beach in front of the airport, flew across the Gulf of Mexico for simulating a penetrating enemy bomber for test interception, and then were "recovered on the runway at Eglin" AFB.[4] The launch complex was one of several Eglin missile range facilities[5] (e.g., the Anclote Missile Tracking Annex near Tampa)[6] and conducted the "Regulus 2, KD2U intercept missile test [on] September 3, 1959" in which the "first launch of the Air Force's new Bomarc IM-99A missile [successfully intercepted] the Regulus 2 missile at 35,000 feet altitude and at supersonic speed"[7] (the Bomarc launch complex was at tbd after "BOMARC missiles arrived Jul 1958" at Hurlburt Field.)[8]

References
  1. "Sarasota Journal - Google News Archive Search". Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  2. "Regulus II cruise missile". www.angelfire.com/realm3/roynagl/regulus.
  3. "title tbd". Retrieved 2014-07-09. defense contractor Ling-Temco-Vought which in the late 1950s and early 1960s built and launched Regulus II cruise missiles from the beach directly in front of the Venice Airport
  4. "Military Missiles WebRing". Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  5. "Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Google News Archive Search". Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  6. "St. Petersburg Times - Google News Archive Search". Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  7. "Space Cover 254: Flown on Regulus 2, Venice, Fla. - collectSPACE: Messages". Retrieved 29 November 2016.
  8. Mueller, Robert (1989). "Eglin Air Force Base". Air Force Bases (PDF) (Report). Volume I: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982. Office of Air Force History. p. 136. ISBN 0-912799-53-6. Retrieved 2013-08-15.

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