![]() Atlas, alone, is 85 feet tall, weighs 100 tons, and is capable of carrying nuclear payloads up to 9,000 miles at 15,000 miles per hour high above the earth's atmosphere. The United States quickly improved upon this beginning and developed a striking force of electronically-guided missiles ranging from single-man-launched missiles to Atlas and Titan. While the ancient Greeks, Chinese, and medieval Italians used crude rocket-propelled missiles, the first systematic use of pilotless aircraft with automatic controls was the awesome German V-2 rocket of World War II. In answer to this need, defense activities came to be centered around the development of guided missiles systems. Huge long-range bombers, whether powered by piston-driven engines or turboprop, jet, ramjet, or rocket engines, operated at high speeds and high altitudes, and defense against them was imperative. Utah missiles installations and their subcontractors at the end of 1961 had an estimated $500 million in defense contracts.ĭuring the years immediately following World War II, defense leaders became aware that supersonic flight and pilotless aircraft would revolutionize the then-held concepts of war and defense. Total wages and salaries paid to Utah's missiles workers in 1961 is estimated to have been in excess of $70 million, while total expenditures of all kinds made by missiles manufacturers within the state amounted to well over $100 million - perhaps as much as $150 million. Nor does it count the 20,000 or more employed at Utah's defense installations and the thousands of others employed in the state in related and supporting industries. This is just short of the number (16,000) in all of Utah's agriculture. ![]() Employment in the missiles industry - an industry that did not even exist in the state in 1956 -is 13,000. Manufacturing now makes the largest single contribution to personal income in Utah. Twenty-one years later, manufacturing employment totaled almost 54,000, and the amount paid out in wages and salaries exceeded $250 million. ![]() In 1940 Utah had just over 16,000 persons employed in all phases of manufacturing. The story of Utah's recent industrial advancement is little short of amazing.
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