Re: FT: Missiles and Gas Tanks

     First, don't ICBM's use liquid fuels?  And presumably cruise
   missiles use some kind of jet fuel.	But second, I actually thought
   solid fuels were more efficient than liquid fuels, which would
   explain why they're used, for example, in the Shuttle SRBs.	You
   can't turn them off is (I thought) the biggest problem.

The Titan II ICBM, and most (all?) of its American predecessors (Titan
I, Atlas, etc.) were liquid fueled.  The Minuteman and Peacekeeper
(AKA MX) are solid fueled.  A silo in the middle of no-where is a much
more stable controlled environment than a ship pitching around on the
seas (or space) with a hundreds of crew (the sea/space is a harsh
mistress after all).  Having said that I believe the early American
Sub-Lunched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) (Polaris and Poseidon) were
liquid fueled, different time I guess.

The Harpoon and Tomahawk both use jet engines and jet fuel, but I
imagine jet fuel is not nearly a volatile as liquid rocket fuel (don't
need the oxidizer right there after all).

In terms of efficiency it is the other way around, liquid rocket fuels
are much more efficient/unit weight.  The Titan II has a much longer
range than it successors (and USSR ICBMs making it relatively safe
strategicly) but the maintenance difficulties with liquid fuels
prompted the US Air Force to switch to solds. 

For example I believe the Titan II was the first US ICBM where the
fuels could be stored inside the missiles indefinitely (liquid rocket
fuels tend to be corrosive), previous ICBMs need to be fueled
immediately before launch (for the Atlas this fueling had to be cared
out above ground and took 30 minutes!).  I believe part of the reason
for Minuteman's name was that because it was sold fuel the pre-lunch
prep-time was very short (0?).

A couple years ago their was a crisis at a Titan II silo when someone
working on the missile dropped a spanner down the side of the missile,
there was a major worry that the spanner might have pictured the
missile's tanks...very, very bad on a ready for flight liquid fueled
missile.

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