 strength and survival. It is startling to remember that such a tremendous and revolutionary development is so recent, largely since World War II, but the beginnings were much earlier during World War I. That was when the bug was planned, partly under the supervision of Orville Wright and a young officer who later became General Hap Arnold, the bug, the conventional engine and a built in guidance system. It was intended to carry a TNT bomb and though it was never used in combat, it was in fact a guided missile. Development of the modern missile had to wait for the beginning of the right kind of propulsion and this again was the work of an American, Dr. Robert H. Goddard. In 1926 in Massachusetts, he achieved the first firing of a liquid fuel rocket. It reached an altitude of only 184 feet, but it was the first demonstration of the techniques that later gave us long-range missiles and the launchings of satellites and the sending of vehicles into space. Goddard was the father of modern rocketry, but it was a long time before the significance of his work was appreciated by his countrymen. During the 1930s, Goddard was in New Mexico, working largely by himself and without government support. In his research and experiments, he did not have military missiles in mind. His objective and his achievement was a propulsion system that could send rockets to high altitudes. It took years for the United States to get around to making military use of Goddard's ideas. So during World War II, the guided missiles used by our Army Air Forces were unpowered bomb carriers launched from aircraft and controlled by radio, a dispensable conventional aircraft loaded with TNT. Without a pilot, it was guided to its target by radio control. Such weapons were valuable as a phase of development, but they were far from being missiles in the modern sense. It was the deadly use by the Germans of the V-1 and the V-2. In 1936, they had started their Pinamunde project to develop missiles of an entirely new type. In other words, they had been hard added in a period when little official notice was given to modern military rocketry in the United States. Still, it was eight years before the Germans were ready to fire their new missiles. And their first one was not a rocket. It was the buzz bomb. Its propulsion was by pulse jet engine. The Germans fired more than 7,000 of them, of which more than 2,000 reached London, causing many thousands of casualties and vast damage. But the V-1 was slow, a good target for anti-aircraft artillery or fighter planes. Nearly 4,000 of them were brought down. In September of that same year, 1944, the Germans also began their firings of the vastly superior V-2, which was powered by a real liquid fuel engine. Military rockets in a rudimentary form had been used for centuries, but their propulsion was by the use of gunpowder. In this new era, it was the Germans who realized that the liquid fuel rocket could be put to military use, that it could be given impressive rain and great destructive power. Thus, the advent of the V-2 had great historical significance. More with it, modern military missiles entered a new phase. More than 1100 fell on England. They not only took a toll of more than 9,000 casualties, they also had a devastating psychological effect. For unlike the buzz bomb, the V-2 fell without warning at a speed of 3300 miles per hour. And it could not be intercepted by fighter aircraft or brought down by anti-aircraft artillery. The V-2 blasted open a new era. But the Germans have always admitted that they could not have brought off this achievement without the research and example of the American Goddard. At the end of World War II, captured V-2 missiles and components were brought to the United States. Good use was made of them at White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico. Reassembled and modified V-2s were tremendously valuable teaching tools in what was soon to become a vigorous American effort to enter the rocket missile age. Used several types of small rocket-driven weapons. And in Korea, the Air Force again used such weapons launched from aircraft against targets either on the ground or in the air. And before long, we had others including the Falcon, a vast accurate and powerful guided missile launched from our interceptor aircraft. An unguided weapon is the first air-to-air missile that carries a nuclear warhead who is launched from Air Force fighter aircraft. The Matador was the Air Force's first successful ground-to-ground guided missile. It is boosted off by a rocket and then a turbojet engine takes over. Electronically controlled by ground personnel, the Matador is a reliable tactical missile that can be armed with a nuclear warhead. Our first answer to the need for a long-range strategic missile was the snark. Again, a jet pilotless aircraft started on its flight by rocket boosters. The snark was the world's first intercontinental missile. It had a range of about 5,000 miles. It was interceptor, the Air Force bow mark. A guided missile launched from the ground and capable of destroying approaching hostile bombers hundreds of miles from our shores at very high altitudes. It gained much importance in plans for the defense of our borders. A rocket is powered at supersonic speed by twin ramjet engines in the 1950s. The concept of the mixed force was evolving. That is, we of course needed and for years would continue to need manned aircraft. Vastly improved bombers capable of delivering nuclear weapons became ready for use. The B-47 has a highly dependable modern medium bomber and the B-52 has a fine long-range bomber like the B-47, a source of the strategic air command's great deterrent strength. For a considerable period, each of the two systems, manned aircraft and ballistic missiles would have its own marked advantages. But while the successful use of bombers depends to some extent on tactics and countermeasures, a ballistic missile with its hypersonic speed can reach its target with small risk of interception by enemy aircraft. It was a most promising partner to the long-range bomber. In the 1950s, we embarked on one of the greatest crash programs in our history for the development of intermediate range and intercontinental ballistic missiles. With the Thor, the Air Force had its first intermediate range missile. It began a series of successful launchings in 1957 and was destined to win a place for itself in the arsenal of the free world. Besides being a good military missile, the Thor has been used with great success as a booster for satellites and space probes. The Air Force is rightly proud of the Thor for a immense value in the accelerated program for the development of an intercontinental missile. The X-10, though driven by turbojet engines, taught us much about aerodynamic design for missiles with supersonic speed and about automatic guidance. And the X-17, a three-stage test missile, revealed much needed information on nose-con design. It saved a lot of time and money in solving problems of reentry at high speed and consequent high temperatures. In 1955, the highest national priority was given by order of the president to the development of the Atlas. Late in 1957, the Air Force achieved the first successful launching of this giant. Some months later, when the Atlas was fully tested, our country took on new confidence in its missile capability. The Atlas became a vital part of our military strength, and other formidable missiles, such as Titan and Minuteman, were in the research and testing stage, full, uncertain, and certainly primitive, to powerful, long-range supersonic rocket-powered missiles, a tremendous technical achievement by many thousands of people in and out of uniform who labored in the interests of the United States Air Force.